Street children

The boy on the right has a badly ulcerated leg ... hospital treatment may well have to be paid for, and if he attended hospital he would undoubtedly be questioned about who he was, where he came from, who his parents were ... and many street children are very reluctant to volunteer this information to anyone.

People just don't want to know !

I went to a tea party today, and ate far too much of sandwiches, scones, cream, strawberries, cakes.   Someone there was saying how, when she was a student, she used to pinch food which was on the last sell by date out of the waste skips outside Tesco's, as if it was somehow daring - and perhaps not really necessary !   I remarked that many children in Africa would love to have access to such food, but had to make do with what they could scavenge from the rotting food on rubbish dumps, before the birds and hyaenas got to it.  Deathly silence ... and a rapid change of conversation. 

In this village where I live there are many, many very wealthy people.  Bringing up African poverty, shanty town living, street children in conversations with them ...and again, a rapid change of topic.   I rarely go to the pub, (too expensive on my pension !) but many local people eat there, for the food is very good.  A full meal for one, plus drinks can easily run up £40 or more... and couples think nothing of spending over £100 on a Saturday evening out.   Yet if I asked (and I have !) for donations for the street children projects ... they either look away, or offer a couple of pounds.  If everyone who went to the pub for an evening out, DIDN'T go on one Saturday in the month, and gave the money to a charity such as Hands Around the World ... WOW !!  

What is it that stops them ... what blocks their giving hearts ?   Are they embarrassed ?  Why don't they want to know ?   Are they ashamed to think children in other countries can live like that, when their own are well fed, go to good schools and have more than everything a child needs ?   Are they confusing, as so many people do, 'wants' with 'needs' ??   I wish I knew, and I wish I knew how to get through to them ... and their pockets !

Africa is a worm ...

I'm still reading all sorts of books about Africa ... and got one from the library this week.  It's about a couple who toured the continent ... but the quote on the back that got me, was:

"Africa is a worm, that makes its way stealthily into your being.  Sometimes it sleeps and sometimes it wriggles about, but it's there, just under your skin ... "

Oh, SO true !  

HATW newsletter

The latest newsletter is out, and there are three reports about our project, as well as my photos ...

Six months on ...

Since I returned to UK six months ago, I've spent a lot of time thinking what I should do next.  Going to work with HATW on the workshop project has changed me; changed my thinking, changed my life in fact !   Its not in me just to sit and say, "Well that was an interesting experience; I'll sit back now and enjoy retirement." 

So what have I been doing ?   Well, I want to go back to Kenya a.s.a.p. ... but ... there's lots of 'buts'.   I need much more knowledge, more skills, more reason to go back. 

Firstly, I've been doing lots of reading about Kenya in particular and Africa in general ... politics, education, people.   This is resulting in me wanting to research more about how African society breaks down, and how kids end up on the streets, and families live in slums like Kibera in Nairobi, or Pandipieri in Kisumu.

It soon occurred to me that street kids in African towns have a lot in common with the poor described by Dickens and other Victorian authors and reformers.  Fagins boys ... pick-pockets;  Tom the chimney sweep;  the Little Match Girl.   So I've been trying to find out how these social situations changed ... and to consider if that sort of change can be applied to Africa.  I've found it very hard to find books describing social reform dealing particularly with children but I'm still searching.   Maybe Mr Google is my next port of call !

Meanwhile, eastern Africa is suffering once again from drought and the resulting famine.  Huge numbers from Somalia have crossed the border into N E Kenya, itself in a drought situation, and ended up in Dadaab refugee camp,  which isn't a camp ... rather a small city in the desert with a population of up to a million people.   Children in the camp have been there for so long, they are now adults.   They can't return to Somalia; they can't be assimilated into Kenya which hasn't enough employment, food, housing for its own population. 

Googling for information about Kibera, I found this blog ... well worth reading.  It could equally well apply to parts of Kisumu. 
http://hannahinafrica.wordpress.com/2010/04/30/kibera/

Hannah has an up to date blog, for she has returned to Kenya ... here it is ...
http://comealivewithme.wordpress.com/

Tying up the loose ends ...

This was in last weeks local newspaper.   (I've deleted my name ... those who follow my blog know who I am !)