I mentioned in an earlier blog that the children's joy reminded me of kids at Christmas. Well I also realize that these distributions truly makes me feel like Santa Claus.
 |
| From Honduras 2011 |
We go through our pre-distribution ritual. Irene, our team leader, sights the best location for the pictures, Jim and I find anything we can to stand on to hang and proudly display the Canadian flag. Valerie, Linda, and Janet ready the bedkit for the photo and map out the logistics of the children's staging area. Fortunately today, with the rain, there is a large covered courtyard where we stage the children and take the pics. Today's distribution is 652 bedkits and as if being impoverished is not enough of a hardship, some of the children are HIV positive.
It's also a day in which we conduct interviews with the caregivers of five randomly selected children.
 |
| From Honduras 2011 |
This is an exercise that takes the meaning of what Sleeping Children is doing to a whole new level. The first thing you recognize is how deeply grateful the recipients' families are. Then you realize just how dire their family circumstances are and how this token, small by North American standards, has such a profound impact on the quality of that family's life. Finally you see that even though SCAW's efforts have a wonderful impact, there is so much more that can be done.
Today's interviews reveal a heartbreaking story of a young recipient, whose father was murdered, whose mother abandoned her at the age of two months, who has become paralyzed from the waist down as the result of a bad surgical procedure and whose principle caregiver is her 72-year-old grandmother who wheels her two kilometres daily to and from school.
 |
| From Honduras 2011 |
Although the girl did not start school until the age of eight, the grandmother is very proud of her granddaughter as she is a very good student. She hopes that she will be able to complete the sixth grade and has dreams that she can continue to go on to senior school. It is obvious that the basic necessities of life are not met in this family. She wishes that the bedkit had come with food in it as well. In spite of all of the hardships she and her granddaughter face, she is extremely grateful and thanks God and the SCAW donors for thinking of her granddaughter.
It is truly amazing the impact $35 can have.
Ken and Valerie Teslia
for the Honduras 2011 Travelling Team
Slideshow below
