 Team Reports |
A pyramid in KolkataPeter Adams — Peterborough, ON
Even volunteers of longstanding with SCAW, in Canada or overseas, have a limited comprehension of the scale and complexity of the way Murray Dryden's wonderfully simple concept works today. It struck the Kolkata 2010 team, distributing 6,500 bedkits in northwestern India, that we were like actors in a successful play. The actors perform on the unseen shoulders of writers, directors, set designers and builders and the like. As they perform, similarly unseen people help from the wings. The audience just sees the actors and the show. In our fantasy, we saw our stage, Kolkata, at the flat top of a Sleeping Children pyramid. The foundation layer of the pyramid is made up of Murray Dryden's original thoughts and hard work, in Canada and overseas. These were the very origins of the idea of a bedkit presented directly to children around the world.
The next layer of the pyramid is the year round activity of presentations and fundraising, across Canada and nowadays in other countries. The next is the processing of donations by teams of volunteers at Sleeping Children's headquarters. This is no mean feat as donors and government need to know that SCAW is a responsible charity. The next layers in the pyramid are formed of the ongoing work with SCAW's friends overseas. These wonderful people identify and procure competitively the items that will make up the bedkit — in our case twenty-five items to be wrapped in a bed mat. They also select thousands of suitable children and locate suitable distribution sites that these children can reach. The next layer of the pyramid is one that requires special energy and organization. SCAW's host partner, in our case the Rotary Club of Dum Dum which has ten years of experience with us, prepares for the arrival of the team from Canada. Ten distribution sites, hours apart, to handle 6,500 bedkits. Four hundred bedkits and children might be required at a rural site, close to a thousand in the inner city. The bedkits, the children, food and snacks for the children (who often travel long distances), and security have to be delivered to each site, and matched. For this SCAW stage show, the people in the wings and in the light and sound box are the Dum Dum Rotarians who now marshal no less than forty other Rotary Clubs from throughout the region. These provide direct help in their localities, bringing children, providing local volunteers for distribution that are often massive affairs. Each distribution is supported by the whole Sleeping Children pyramid and has the support of scores of passionate and energetic local people.
We are now close to the performance on the flat top of the pyramid. The Canadian team arrives and spends two weeks travelling to the pre-selected, pre-prepared sites placing the bedkits in the hands of the pre-selected children and taking the treasured photos. Murray said that we should be sure that each child knows that the bedkit is for him or her. When those of us who are privileged to actually place a donor's bedkit in the hands of a child, it is important to take some time to remember the years of human energy and work and compassion that is behind this simple act that has so much meaning for the child. By the way, Sleeping Children's volunteers build a dozen or so of these pyramids each year. |
