 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Revision of: Thu, December 6, 2007 |
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Carlos and Roberto Following one of our distributions for Sleeping Children Around the World [SCAW] at a United Nations School in Tegucigalpa, we returned to the village of Comayagua where we had distributed bedkits the previous day. After securing our van and driver within the gated, barbed wired school compound, we began our climb up the mountainside on rough, rocky mud paths.
Most huts clinging to the mountainside were constructed with wood and mud and had a small barred window and tin roof. Many were stacked on top of one another. Our path ended and we were faced with a climb of over 200 steps almost straight up the mountain, with open sewers on either side of the steps — no hand rails or protection of any kind to be seen. Young children and barefoot toddlers played on these steps and I could understand why we had been seeing so many young children with broken arms. When we finally arrived at Carlos' home, he and his family were there to greet us — his mother sitting on a double bed nursing her nine-month old baby. Five older children, including Carlos, all gathered to invite us in to their home. It was one neat and tidy room, approximately 10' x 10', shared by these six children and their single mother for all activities. School diplomas were hanging on the wall. Electricity was available in this barrio but water pipes were open only once a week to all who lived in this huge mountainside village. Carlos' mother had a 4' x 4' x 2' holding tank to provide the water needs for her family for one week. She made tortillas, rice, and beans in a small clay wood oven under a tin roof across the path from her home.
When asked, Carlos proudly rolled out his new mattress on the dirt floor and lay on it. The baby was using his new pillow. The mattress (58" x30" x3") and a previous bedkit received by his older sister 2 years ago, occupied the entire free space on the floor. The family had very few material goods, but they did have a small TV. The room was so hot you could almost see the steam rising. The mother expressed her happiness that Carlos now had his own mattress to sleep on. We thanked her and left quietly as many thoughts and emotions swirled through our minds: what a difficult road ahead for this mother and her family left alone by an irresponsible father. What would the future hold for Carlos and others like him? Elementary school for six years and noon meal programs would provide for him and his classmates while they went to school. But then what?
We climbed further up the mountain path — again no railing or fencing protected us from the sheer drops on either side — and reached seven year old Roberto who was home with his mother and two sisters. He came and shook hands with each of us as he said "Gracias," and smiled with delight for his gift. In this small home the mother had hung a curtain to act as a partition for a bed area where the new bedkit was. We left the crowded mountain village and walked down in silence — physically exhausted and emotionally drained. Life on the mountain sides of Tegucigalpa is quite a contrast to our Canadian opportunities. 
Bedkit Evaluation In September of last year, SCAW conducted the first distribution at Morocelli, a village located 110 kilometers southeast of Tegucigalpa. Bedkits were given to forty children from Liquidamos, a town twenty kilometers from the site. One year later I visited Liquidamos to evaluate the effectiveness of last year's bedkits. With Rotarian Carlos Magermans as my driver and translator, we met Arnolvo, one of the residents, who would act as our guide through the village. Liquidamos is located high in the hills around Tegucigalpa. It took an hour to cover the last ten kilometers. The road was deeply eroded and rutted. Without four wheel drive we would not have made it. We parked near the school and began to wander along the forested paths connecting the numerous homes of the village.
In the next two hours we visited homes chosen at random and examined eighteen bedkits. The anxiety caused by our presence in the village of Liquidamos was evident on the caregivers' faces until it was explained who we were. Then we saw only smiles and heard excited explanations about "their bedkits." All of the parents and children were very open to our detailed questions and seemed pleased at being asked their opinions. The items in the 2005 bedkits were the same as those being distributed this year. When asked what had been their favourite bedkit item the response was always "the mattress." When examining the mattresses we found all to be in good shape — faded, but intact. All had one end of the mattress cover opened. This was done so that the cover could be washed — not only to remove dirt but also, as they explained shyly, a number of the children "wet the bed." We will be working with the Tegucigalpa Rotary to try to improve upon this mattress cover. Possibly a zipper on one end will be the solution
The 2005 SCAW team had questioned the inclusion of a white T-shirt in last year's bedkit. Surely it would get dirty more easily and therefore should be a different colour. Over 90% of the parents wanted white! The school uniforms in Honduras are white tops and blue shorts/skirts. The white T-shirts were being used as either the uniform itself or as an undershirt under a regular white shirt — this village is about 5,000 feet above sea level and at times the temperatures are cool. When asked if there were any bedkit items that had not been useful and could be eliminated the response was consistent, "All the items are important and all have lasted well." There was a similar consistency when asked what they would like if they could have an item added to the bedkit to either help them get a good night's sleep or help them at school: the answer, "a backpack."
I spent the remaining seven days of the 2006 distribution visiting other homes — this time in the barrios of Tegucigalpa — and also interviewing parents as they waited for their children to get their bedkits. This is an important component in the SCAW distribution process. We must know from our recipients what they need and how effective we are being in satisfying their needs. Based on these evaluations the SCAW team and the Tegucigalpa Rotary will work together to fine-tune the selection of items for future bedkits.
Our OVO: Tegucigalpa Rotary
SCAW's distributions take a lot of coordination and a lot of work behind the scenes. They would be impossible without the help of an Overseas Volunteer Organization [OVO] in the recipient country. In Honduras our OVO is the Rotary Club of Tegucigalpa. SCAW's travelling volunteers go to hand out the bedkits and to ensure that every donor gets a picture of the child with their contribution. But long before we arrive, the Rotarians have collected the names of children who would be worthy bedkit recipients. With the assistance of the schools and teachers, they chose the children in accordance with criteria laid down by Sleeping Children Around the World. They also picked the distribution sites and enlisted volunteers to help us out. The SCAW office in Toronto sent them money to assemble the bedkits and Rotarians purchased them trying to get the most and the best deal with the money they received. There was correspondence between the team leader and one of the Rotary members in charge of the project long before we arrived. Hotel rooms had to be booked and travel arrangements had to be made. Throughout the distributions we were accompanied by a translator, tour guide, and sometimes a driver.
This year the Rotarians decided a minivan would be the best way to get us from one site to another so the whole team could travel together and discuss what we would do at the distribution sites. We were also able to review our day and look at what went well and what did not go so well after a distribution. At the end of the Honduras distributions we met with the Rotarians and went over the financial statement, which included the cost of each individual item in the bedkit and where they were purchased. A copy of the statement was brought back to the office for review. Upon our departure, the Rotarians saw us off to the airport and wished us well and welcomed us back any time we wanted to visit and especially to another distribution in their beautiful country. Thank you so much to the Rotary Club of Tegucigalpa for your outstanding collaboration that gave 5,000 children a peaceful night's sleep. Contrasts in Honduras Our airplane banked sharply at low altitude from 4,000-foot mountains to the single-strip runway in Tegucigalpa. I was back seat driving during the exciting descent. The experience took me back fifteen years to my first visit to Honduras for a Rotary project.
I found many changes. Instead of the garage-like atmosphere of the old two room terminal, there was a sparkly new terminal clad in beautiful tile with mahogany trim. There were cleaner streets, a new university, and modern brick buildings including the beautiful Honduras Mayan Hotel where we stayed. Progress was evident and may continue. Near our distribution sites, people lived crammed on the side of the mountain on streets that were more like goat trails — with water only once a week and without adequate sewage disposal. Single-parent families survived by the mothers doing housecleaning or, in one case, making tortillas using wood for fuel that had to be bought and lugged up the mountain. In fact, 53% of Honduran families live on less than a dollar a day and 33% of the children are malnourished. Why are Latin American countries so poor? Honduras has resources such as gold, silver, lumber, coffee, coca and banana crops but the majority are poor. Why?
In his book Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond writes that certain cultures such as Egypt or Babylonia were miles ahead of Amerindian hunting-gathering societies 4,000 years ago. By the time the Spanish discovered America the Europeans had inherited further advanced technology and they easily conquered the native inhabitants of Central America using Guns, Germs, and Steel. Because of unnavigable rivers, the lack of coal, and the mountainous terrain, Honduras did not attract the kind of European investment that spurred industry in North America. Instead capital was used to exploit natural resources and monopolize trade ensuring very low wages for the uneducated campesiono. Thus Hondura's natives have remained poor for hundreds of years. With the lack of the most meagre human comforts, mothers and children show great joy when receiving a bed kit. It's not like giving an employee a raise that they believe they deserve. It's not like giving someone an "entitlement." Rather, we lucky SCAW volunteers are cheered when we hand out the gift that seems small to us but wonderfully large to the children. Cooking in Honduras
It's always great fun to share food preparation and eating with people from other countries. What fun I had with two Honduran women as we peeled apples, made pastry, and rolled it with a bottle of wine. One of us spoke English, two spoke Spanish, but we all laughed together as we successfully prepared and served warm apple pie for twenty. I taught apple pie making, but Oscar taught me traditional paella making. His paella is cooked outside on a propane fired paella barbecue. Here is the recipe and the 2006 Honduran SCAW team can vouch for the taste. Paella Oscar Serves 20. Can be prepared in a large flat pan over a barbecue.
Brown the pork in hot olive oil and remove to a plate. Brown the chicken in the hot olive oil. Remove to a plate and sprinkle with pepper. Brown chorizo and remove to a plate. Brown the chopped carrots, onions, tomatoes, green beans and garlic. Put the meat back in on top of the vegetables. Pour in the rice and add the broth to cover the rice. Add more broth as needed or beer may be used. Top with chopped pepper and snow peas. Sprinkle liberally with saffron and add salt and pepper to taste. Cover the pan with foil wrap and leave it to simmer. When the rice is nearly cooked add green olives and top with escargot. Serve hot when the rice is cooked. The Children of Honduras I often tell my own children — ages seven and ten — that they have won the "birth lottery" by being born in Canada. After seeing the living conditions of many of the children in Honduras, I know just how fortunate my children are. However, as I looked at these beautiful smiling faces over the last ten days I saw many similarities between children in Honduras and in Canada.
Many of the little ones smiling at me in anticipation were new to having their pictures taken and would giggle and laugh when I would show them a picture of themselves on my digital camera. And they would grow more and more excited as they came closer to receiving their bedkits. Handing out the bedkit was always my favorite job — seeing the look of excitement on these children's faces reminded me of the look on my children's faces when I would give them a new video game. However, there was a difference: these children in Honduras were receiving a gift that is one of life's basic necessities. Another similarity were the giggles and embarrassment I would see when a girl in the 10- to 12-year-old range would have to sit beside a boy. The girls would giggle and the boys would roll their eyes. I think that happens in any culture at that age. A third similarity is the love and pride the parents showed when discussing their children. At a visit to the house of one bedkit recipient, a little nine-year-old boy named Jeffery showed us how he used his bedkit. He then leaped up and gave me a hug and said "Thank you." I will not forget the pride and joy on his mother's face when looking at her son who had such great manners. At one point in the distribution I was responsible for lining up the children in order to get their picture taken. While we were waiting I had a ball that had the world on it. In my very limited Spanish — another source of entertainment for the kids — I would ask the children where various countries were. To my surprise a number of them knew most of the countries. They had the same look of determination on their faces to find the country first, that I have seen on my own children's faces. More wonderful memories:
Thank you, SCAW donors, for allowing me the opportunity to meet these 5,000 children. I really enjoyed being able to provide them with their special gift. I hope the photos you receive show you the anticipation and excitement in their faces. I am looking forward to sharing my experience with my own children. Schools in Honduras The distributions in Honduras happened in the public schools. These schools are completely fenced with a locked metal gate, most have barbed wire, and some resemble prisons. The security protects the children while they are at school but also prevents vandalism. However, once you are inside the school compound, there is a sense of security. The bedkits were distributed to children aged six to twelve who are attending school. The children are required to wear a uniform to school and they came to the distributions in their uniforms. For the rural distributions, a social worker contacted the sixteen schools in his territory and asked the teachers to provide a list of names of children who met the SCAW guideline requirements. At the distributions, the teachers from the schools came to help their students receive the bedkits — even at the distributions done on Saturday and Sunday. They were great. At the distribution in Manzaragua, a rural community near Zamorano, I handed out bedkits with the help of two dedicated young teachers, Ana Zuniga and Carolino Lagos. We were working in a brand new school that was scheduled to open in a few weeks. Until it opened, they continued teaching in the church across the street from the school.
From Monday to Friday we distributed bedkits to schools in the twin cities of Tegucigalpa and Comayagua. The children came from surrounding schools to one central school where the bed kits were stored. The children for these distributions were chosen by teachers and a couple of different service groups. One of the service groups is Programa Escuelas Saludables (Healthy Schools Program). This is a government program that provides breakfasts in the schools and health and dental care. It also teaches gardening. At the school Jose S. Azcona Hoyo, there was evidence of this as we saw a dentist's office and some lovely gardens. At the school Oswaldo Lopez Aurellano I saw some ladies dishing out the breakfast of beans, rice, and tortillas. The lady in charge of this program is Alba Leonor Mejia and she and her team were a great help during the distributions. In the rural areas it was sometimes hard for the children to get to school because the roads were in dire condition and the schools so far away. One of the parents would have to bring the child to school each day. A boy who was in grade one told me he dropped out because it was too far. There is no one to follow up when parents stop bringing the children to school. Some of the schools appeared to be very poorly supplied so the pencils and notebooks in the bed kits will be very much appreciated. We left the paper from the labels at the schools for the teachers to use. The schools have so many students that half the kids come in the morning and the other half come in the afternoon. My trip to Honduras was an education in social awareness and compassion. I would like to wish you all dulces suenos, sweet dreams.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
