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Challenges & Cherished MomentsIrene Harrison — Milton, ON
There is something unique and special about each distribution for Sleeping Children Around the World [SCAW]. Though the rewards and ultimate satisfaction are the same, the challenges that occur bring singular cherished moments and fond memories. Each day presents a new problem, a new challenge, or adventure, sometimes within our control to manage and sometimes without much alternative but to adjust and cope. Thank you to members of Team Kolkata 2009 who sometimes beset by illness or made anxious by the drivers and driving conditions of a densely populated country, nevertheless gave their best effort with unheralded enthusiasm. Dense fog enveloped Kolkata when we were set to land and we were directed 1,000 km south to Hyderabad where we were sequestered until Kolkata was ready to greet us. Thirty-six hours late in arriving, we immediately drove 40 km north of the city to do our first distribution. The children had been waiting patiently for some time and it was their eager yet wary faces that spurred us into immediate activity. There is no better reward than that of a smiling child, hardly believing that the entire contents of the displayed bedkit belong to them. Indeed, it became quite common to have to assure the recipient standing in line that he need not race to the kit to select one special item. It was equally surprising to some press who visited our sites to learn that all the contents of the bedkit were assigned to every child. Some had wondered how we chose what item to give each individual child. Please believe that, although you might consider your donation insignificant in your total budget, your gift is an overwhelming and treasured prize.
Emotions are overwhelming when we meet a wide spectrum of needy children throughout our distributions. How best to manage those who are severely challenged or physically disabled or blind without causing any further anxiety while they are shepherded through an unfamiliar process? How do we contain the exposure to the scorching sun of albino children waiting in line? Winter had inexplicably not yet come to West Bengal and with it no cooling temperatures. How best to deal with those young children, sometimes alarmed at their first sight of persons very unlike any they had seen before and frightened to be peering into a camera that may have brought images of something else entirely. To allay these apprehensions we greeted the children, played with them, and took several random shots with the camera to prepare them for the photo shoot. Each member of the team brought his or her special skills to interact with the children, but each of us struggled to reconcile our good fortune and position in life with the poverty of so many innocent and needy children
The distributions this year took us to very remote and impoverished areas, some requiring as much as a return day trip of 10 hours travelling time. The Rotary Club of Dum Dum had made extensive plans to bring the face of SCAW to many outlying regions with the cooperation of other Clubs. This attempt at such outreach programs was most successful and hopefully will be done again. The most memorable may indeed be our excursion to a small island in the Sundarban Delta area where we conducted the first ever distribution on a small barge. How to take a picture on a sloping boat, tilting according to the weight of people marching on either side and swaying gently on the water? A stubborn pole in the middle of the limited available space prevented any clear shot regardless of the camera angle. We deferred to its status and photos of that distribution capture its image and stubborn refusal to move. We went to Kolkata as strangers, left in friendship cemented by common goals and sharing a dream bequeathed to us by Murray Dryden. What a wonderful opportunity to participate in the first distribution of the Year of the Millionth Bedkit! It was memorable for us. It was memorable for the children of West Bengal. Let us all continue to further the dream and work toward the second million. |
