Team Reports |
Through the Eyes of a ChildJoAnn Moysey — Toronto, ON Deepa, an eight-year-old girl lives with her mother, father, four-year-old sister and paternal grandmother in a rural village about a two-hour drive from the city of Belgaum in South India. They live in a mud hut, 12' x 15' with a thatched roof and a floor of dried cow dung mixed with grass. They all sleep together on the floor. A small fireplace is used for cooking, keeping warm during the winter months, and smoking out the mosquitoes in the mosquito season. Wood and dried cow dung patties are kindling. An outdoor toilet is open to the air. They draw water from a nearby well. The government supplies them with free electricity. The primary school which Deepa attends is about a mile away. Sometimes she walks there with her friends and sometimes her father takes her by bicycle on his way to work in the cotton fields. Her mother has an old sewing machine and sews clothes for neighbors to earn a few rupees. The grandmother is unwell but helps a little with the cooking.
Last November, there was great excitement at the school when six Rotarians came to talk to the teacher and interview several of the children. Questions were asked, such as: "What does your father do?" "Are both your parents living at home?" "Do you own a TV, motorbike or car?" Deepa was able to assure them that she was from a very poor but stable home and so was selected to receive a bedkit from Sleeping Children. For three months the family waited in anticipation. Finally, on February 15th the big day arrived and Deepa and her mother got up at 5:30 am to prepare. Her mother wore her best sari and Deepa wore her only dress, but had beautiful looped braids with red ribbons and a bunch of her mother's coloured, plastic bangles on her arm. They were both in bare feet. A truck donated by a wealthy Belgaum man came to pick them up along with several of Deepa's classmates and parents. They arrived at the distribution site at a primary school at 8.30 am. Although Deepa was excited, she was also hungry because she had missed her normal dahl (lentils) breakfast. As she sat waiting in the shade the Rotarians gave her some rice and a banana donated by another wealthy businessman. While Deepa was waiting to change into her new outfit for the photograph, she was entertained by several Sleeping Children volunteers who sang songs, did magic tricks, and tried to say some Indian words to her. This was very funny to her and she laughed with the rest of the children at the antics of the volunteers.
Finally, it was time to change into a new dress and line up for the photograph. Again, she was warmly greeted by SCAW team members and enjoyed shaking their hands and enquiring, "How are you?" When she was asked to sit on a the stool with two other children, she saw the contents of the bedkit and could not take her eyes off it. There was another dress, a skipping rope, school books, and a sleeping mat for her family — too much for her to take in. The Sleeping Children team members were being funny. The photographer said "Hasa," and another person jumped up and down waving a pussy cat puppet. Deepa gave a wonderful smile for the photo and would like to have stayed to look at the bedkit some more but she was asked to see another SCAW member who counted her and put a happy face on her thumb to make sure she would get her bedkit. At last, she received her bedkit from another team member who asked her her name in Kannata and shook her hand. On this, the happiest day of her life, she raced out with her bedkit to find her mother anxiously waiting outside. It had been nine hours since she left home and she and her mother were exhausted. But they were also exuberant as they climbed onto the truck that would take them home. |
