Team Reports |
Sharing Our Good FortuneGreg Dryden — Murray & Margaret’s grandson It has been almost twenty-two years since I went on my first Sleeping Children distribution. Fresh out of university, I joined the team distributing in Ecuador and Peru. Sleeping Children has come a long way since then and continues to evolve. India has probably received the most number of bedkits. Given its population that’s not surprising. In India the vastness of its poverty hits you. I guess I expected that. We always hear about the north/south gap and the fact that the western world has much more than developing countries but there is also a huge disparity within India. Yes, Sleeping Children can try and address the social issue of the difference between Canada and the poverty in India but it can’t do much about the gap within India. Worldwide economic growth has touched the lives of a lot of people. How will this economic benefit be distributed among everyone? How will the current worldwide economic slowdown have the reverse impact? When we were in villages where kids were receiving bedkits we didn’t see any of this. We only saw kids that didn’t have much with a light in their eyes when they thought they were going to receive something special and that someone thought enough about them to give them things they could not afford. They were a little nervous with all of these strangers that didn’t speak their language. But that nervousness was overcome by the excitement of what was happening. Someone thought enough of them to give them this special bedkit. They were special.
This trip has been wonderful for me – and it was wonderful to experience it with my extended family. My two sons worked really hard to have the opportunity to go on this trip. I don’t think they knew the meaning of homework until they tried to do all their homework so they wouldn’t get behind while on this trip. They are still young. They may not fully understand all that they are seeing on this trip but I hope that it will sink in. I hope they will look back and realize they were a part of helping to make a difference. Sleeping Children may not be able to change the world but it can have a direct impact on the lives of individual children. My grandpa was not able to see the moment when the charity he started would reach one million children – but his kids, grandkids, and great grandkids were there. It would be nice to think that Sleeping Children would have an impact on as many kids as there are people in Canada. It would be nice to think that each Canadian was able to share their good fortune with someone less fortunate. We may not ever be able to see that but it would be nice if our kids could. |
