 Team Reports |
February 1, 2008Dave Dryden — Oakville, ON
It is four years since Dad’s passing and here I am in India, the country where Sleeping Children began. We are distributing two hundred bedkits to children in a girls’ school in Neral, a village outside of Mumbai. Each SCAW team member has a specific role at each site; on this day I am the person directing the children to a classroom where they will wait until being given their bedkits. From my vantage point I have a good view of all six stations. As the children walk toward me I can see the importance of the distance that they have to walk to my station. When they have this distance to go they have time to look at me and I have the time to stare into their eyes. This is where the “magic” is! These are bright and enthusiastic youngsters; you can see it in their eyes. What potential there is that is still to be realized! I am thinking how fortunate I am to have this opportunity to really connect with the children.
I see Ted and Donna lining up the children for the photos. Ted has them all laughing, lots of eye contact there! Doug, taking the pictures, is looking at the kids and attempting with his impish smile and eyes to induce a smile from them. Most are looking at him. Cathy is the counter. She counts the children as they come from the photo site to ensure that the number of children matches the label. I can tell by the looks on the children’s faces that they are engaged. Then Cathy points to me, I beckon, and they head my way. I can see their twinkling eyes and hear the giggling. It is an all girls school! Every SCAW team and the overseas volunteers face the same challenge. There are large numbers of children waiting, often in hot temperatures although we always try to have them waiting in the shade, and that wait could potentially be a long one. We try to be as efficient as possible. We want to minimize the wait. However sometimes efficiency can result in a lack of personal contact and this is not what we want. I am proud of our team and our overseas volunteers for their efforts to be both efficient and caring to make sure that the total experience is a positive and memorable one for the children and their caregivers. On this day, due to the lack of space available within the walls of the school and the congestion at the departure gate, we decide to wait until all of the photos are taken before giving out the bedkits. The teachers have all two hundred students lined up into three groups of small, medium and large. Taking the smallest children first they come forward to receive their bedkits from Doug (small), Donna (medium), and Marsha (large). Again, the smiles, the eye contact and the connection, today has been both efficient and personal, a memorable day! |
