In the slums, as elsewhere around the world, abuse of children is rampant.
It is these two facts, rather than being confronted with the slums of Kampala, that makes me want to cry.
Compassion creates programs around the world with four focus areas: education, healthcare, spiritual development, and social/cultural. We visited one of these projects (Kalerwe Center) today – a fairly new project just started in May 2007 – that reaches a little over 200 children.
We got to serve the children lunch and then play games with them (after which I am fairly certain my legs will be scolding me come morning – note to self, jumping rope is not something my normal fitness routine has prepared me for, avoid at all cost). But really, when five children between the ages of six and eleven are begging you to jump the rope with them, who is going to refuse?
We also visited the home of one of the children. As our bus got closer to the neighborhood where Somayiya lives, her face couldn’t hold back a huge smile. She was so excited for us to see her home and meet her grandmother.
She lives with her grandmother and three other relatives in a small rented hut. Somayiya’s mom died last year from AIDS. Her father, who lives elsewhere, also has AIDS, as does the grandmother that cares for Somayiya right now. Somayiya is only four.
It is sobering to think the happy, clean, well-dressed children who sang us songs, played games, colored pictures, and enjoyed a healthy lunch at Kalerwe Center live in circumstances of HIV/AIDS, abuse, and physical poverty. You can almost forget about it while playing and laughing with these kids.
On the bright side, we’ve gotten to see how Compassion is such a blessing to over 60,000 children in Uganda and many thousands more around the world. It is amazing that for only $32/month from sponsors, and through partnerships with local churches, this organization is working hard to offer hope, healing, and education to truly bring about dramatic changes in this generation of children.
These children hang on us, grab us, follow us, and plead for us to play with them like we are all rock stars. Yes, we are all sponsors, but it is absolutely more than one person, even more than one fantastic organization, that makes it all work. As we closed the day, the children clapped for and thanked us, then they clapped for and celebrated God.
Most appropriate.
1 comment:
those children are *beautiful*!
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