S-L-E-E-P-I-N-G C-H-I-L-D-R-E-N
Linda Straus — Stratford, Ontario
| S |
is for Swahili words that I used: Jambo (Hello), yako (It’s yours) zawadi
yako (A present for you), assante (Thank you), karibu (Welcome) lala
salama (Sleep well). |
| L |
is for the love shown by the donors, the travelling volunteers, the overseas
volunteers, and the people working at 28 Pinehurst Crescent. |
| E |
is for “Every minute of every day, a child in Tanzania dies from malaria,”
said Mama. |
| E |
is for the fact that every day I was reminded how fortunate we are in
Canada. |
| P |
is for the pride families have for their homes despite living conditions
one can hardly imagine. |
| I |
is for improvements that we hope will be evident in the childrens’ health
because of getting a better night’s sleep with their new bedkit. |
| N |
is for the treated mosquito nets each child received, a necessity in Tanzania.
It is our hope that 7,000 mosquito nets will save 7,000 lives. |
| G |
is for the grandparents who are raising grandchildren because the childrens’
parents have died from malaria or AIDS. |
| C |
is for the challenges the children and their families face each day, trying
to meet their basic needs; for the colourful cotton kangas [See sidebar];
for the coconut, a readily accessible food/juice |
| H |
is for the hope Sleeping Children strives to provide. |
| I |
is for: imagine living with no electricity, no running water, dust, mosquitoes,
no safe drinking water, no bed and if you do have one it must be shared with
at least two others. |
| L |
is for the LLIN (Long-lasting insecticide-treated
mosquito net) in the Tanzanian bedkit. |
| D |
is for the ten distributions in school yards. |
| R |
s for the resourcefulness and creativity shown by families in making
use of anything they can find to make a home. |
| E |
is for the extreme sun that is so harmful to the albino children of Tanzania
where one in 4,000 children are albino. Hats are very important to the albino
children for protection from the sun.These are the only children who wear
hats in the SCAW photos |
| N |
is for significant numbers on this trip: 700 bedkits per day given out
by six travelling volunteers, and 7,000 children having a better sleep on
their new foam mattresses under their treated mosquito nets. |
I have experienced so much and learned so much on this Sleeping Children trip. At each distribution, we interviewed some caregivers (mothers, fathers, aunts, and grandmothers) and the child who received the bedkit. I learned from the eight families that I interviewed was that none had mosquito nets and two to five children slept in one bed.
Visiting homes of some bedkit recipients and from personal interviews, it was reinforced in my mind that Sleeping Children is definitely making a difference in the lives of these children and their families.
