Togo: Two more distributions completed
 |
 |
| From Togo Photo Album 2009 |
It was made very obvious to us why SCAW has brought us to Togo. We saw homes that were single-room, mud-walled houses. These houses were stifling hot and dark. There was a simple entrance door and no windows for ventilation. The six Canadians found it difficult to believe that a family of as many as eight individuals could live in conditions such as these.
We were greeted by the parents and the children with smiles of gratitude and thanks. The mattress that is part of the bedkit will provide the children in these homes with the opportunity to sleep in a proper bed for the first time in their lives.
We were struck by the fact that these homes did not have safe drinking water. A large cistern collects rainwater which quickly becomes rancid.
It reminded us of our good fortune to live in Canada.
Kathy et l'équipe Togo
Post your comments here.
Uganda: Leave your comments here
To add your own comment, enter it in the box at the bottom of this page. Then click on the button to "Post Comment."
As a courtesy, please include your name at the end of your comment or click on "Select profile ,,," and fill in your name by selecting "Name/URL" there.
As a courtesy, please include your name at the end of your comment or click on "Select profile ,,," and fill in your name by selecting "Name/URL" there.
Togo: Garnice's Dream
 |
| The Ware Sisters From Togo Photo Album 2009 |
The welcome from the beautiful children, their families, teachers, and community leaders has been overwhelming.
The opporunity to share a day in their community has given us an invaluable insight into their life. However poor to our western eyes, they celebrate life with song and dance.
Our mother knew this unique travel experience would be both memorable and benefical.
Linda and the Togo Team
Post your comments here.
Togo: Day 3
 |
 |
| From Togo Photo Album 2009 |
It was our privilege to interview two student recipients, two mothers, one teacher, and one father. Kathy Ware expertly led the conversation with these people that gave us a better insight into those things in the bedkit that were valued most. We also gained a precious insight into those bedkit items that may even have greater meaning for them in the future.
This process was facilitated by Segnon, a young Togolese volunteer who made it possible for us to understand the interests of our recipients. This is a process that excites our team as we watch the empowerment of our recipients.
Our donors should share in this feeling of success in the knowledge that each one of their dollars is being spent in the most effective manner.
Cynthia Harris and the Togo Team
Post your comments here.
Togo: Distribution at Akodessewa
 |
 |
| From Togo Photo Album 2009 |
Today we distributed 602 bedkits at an inner city school.
Despite the heat, it was a very successful and satisfying experience for us and the many volunteers without whom we could never have got the job done.
We met Frank Gafan who is a native Togolese who works with the National YMCA of Togo. He runs a program for young offenders in detention, which has a major focus on the development of these teens and young adults.
He became a full participant in today’s distribution. He emphasized to us the tremendous importance of our work.
He reminded us that this is only possible by your on-going generosity.
Grant, Leslie and the Togo Team
Post your comments here.
Togo: First distribution complete
Hi Everybody,
We had a great day in Assome, just 45 minutes away from Lomé. Our drive through the city into the country side was entertaining. The last section tilted our van percariously at times. The real entertainment began as we arrived with volunteers, parents, teachers, and children to welcome us all. We were treated to native songs and dance performed by children dressed in native costume.
We left the site knowing that 420 children will sleep better and benefit from the safety of a mosquito net. The children looked beautiful in their new brightly coloured clothes.
Judy and the Togo team
Post your comments here.
We had a great day in Assome, just 45 minutes away from Lomé. Our drive through the city into the country side was entertaining. The last section tilted our van percariously at times. The real entertainment began as we arrived with volunteers, parents, teachers, and children to welcome us all. We were treated to native songs and dance performed by children dressed in native costume.
We left the site knowing that 420 children will sleep better and benefit from the safety of a mosquito net. The children looked beautiful in their new brightly coloured clothes.
Judy and the Togo team
Post your comments here.
Togo: The team has arrived
 |
| From Togo Photo Album 2009 |
Pictured (Left to Right) Cynthia Harris, Kathy Ware, Grant Clark & Leslie Banner (Team Leaders), Linda Ware, Judith Ware-Weil.
Cynthia and Judy emailed word on Sunday, the 17th that they had all arrived safely and were preparing for their first distribution on Victoria Day Monday.
Post your comments here.
Togo: Post your comments here
To add your own comment, enter it in the box at the bottom of this page. Then click on the button to "Post Comment."
As a courtesy, please include your name at the end of your comment or click on "Select profile ,,," and fill in your name by selecting "Name/URL" there.
As a courtesy, please include your name at the end of your comment or click on "Select profile ,,," and fill in your name by selecting "Name/URL" there.
Philippines: Mission Accomplished
The Philippines 2009 travelling team has returned to Canada after delivering bedkits to 6,000 children in the Philippines -- 6,000 children who will now sleep more soundly thanks to our donors.
Post your comments here.
Post your comments here.
Philippines: When it Rains ...
 |
 |
| From Philippines 2009 Photo Album |
All of our distributions have taken place under tin-roofed open aired auditoriums or school assembly areas. At first the air was thick and sticky as we distributed the bedkits to the children. We wondered if a cool breeze would ever come our way. Well, our wish came true. In a downpour the likes of which we have never seen. The noise of the rain hitting the roof made it impossible to hear and rather than have the children leave the distribution in the rain and risk getting their bedkit wet, we waited almost an hour for the rain to subside.
We all laughed later at the noise and size of the raindrops (We are sure they were as big as we have ever seen.) but it didn't dampen the excitement of the kids as they waited happily -- if it was raining or if the sun was shining -- but, boy, when it rains here, it sure does pour.
Team Philippines 2009
Post your comments here.
Philippines: A day in the life ...
 |
| From Philippines 2009 Photo Album |
A mother of six was interviewed by one of the Sleeping Children team and it was very informative. She was asked what a typical day for her would be like.
She said that she wakes up early and feeds her children and then in the summer works with her husband all day in the rice fields. She says that they make about two dollars a day and sometimes less if they can't sell their produce. After working all day she returns to her one-room home where she cooks supper over a wood fire for her family. They sleep altogether on a mud floor and because of the danger of malaria and dengue fever she must wrap her family in blankets to keep away the mosquitoes.
She was so thankful that a malaria net was included in the kit because now they all can sleep under the net and the blankets will not be necessary. She said that the heat is unbearable sometimes in their tiny home. She was so thankful that her daughter was receiving a bedkit and because she said she wanted to teach her daughter how to care for the bedkit so she could give it to her daughter!
She told us that her dream for her daughter had come true!
Nancy Loveless
for the Philippines 2009 SCAW Travelling Team
Post your comments here.
Philippines: Treated like a rock star
 |
| From Philippines 2009 Photo Album |
Due to Manilla traffic, we had a police motorcycle escort to our distribution site. We were treated like royalty or a rock star! We certainly felt very special. We felt like 'kids in the car.' ... excited ... chatty ... wondering what's next. Or like the kids felt when we arrived at the distribution.
We arrived to cheering, clapping children. We wove our way through them shaking hands, getting "high fives," connecting, before we set up.
As we saw their large, brown, dancing eyes, and the excitement of the day to come, and what was next, we realized that we are all kids at heart.
And as you know ... we were as excited as they were!
Today's picture shows our bedkit recipients of yesterday's blog with Dr. Ito Torres who has been the Kiwanis organizer in the Philippines for the past 25 years. He was a very close friend of Murray Dryden and told us many heartwarming stories about our SCAW founder.
From the Philippines 2009 SCAW Travelling Team
Post your comments here.
Philippines: Former bedkit recipients
 |
| From Philippines 2009 Photo Album |
On left is Fatima Salazer, 17 years old, from Manila area who received a bedkit at eight years of age now is a student at PSBA college in business management.
On the right is Christine Joy Evangeliste, now age 19, who received a bedkit at ten years old. She is now quite proud to be a McDonald's employee and we extracted from her that she is going back to a college in June for computer programming.
From the Philippines 2009 SCAW Travelling Team
Post your comments here.
Philippines: The Team has Arrived
In the Philippines, 6,000 children will receive bedkits from Sleeping Children's 2009 travelling team: (Left to right) Tom Chudleigh, Carol Rolph, Ken Graham (Team Leadre), Marilyn Oliveros, Warren Wagstaff, and Nancy Loveless.
Post your comments here.
Philippines: Post your comments here
To add your own comment, enter it in the box at the bottom of this page. Then click on the button to "Post Comment."
As a courtesy, please include your name at the end of your comment or click on "Select profile ,,," and fill in your name by selecting "Name/URL" there.
As a courtesy, please include your name at the end of your comment or click on "Select profile ,,," and fill in your name by selecting "Name/URL" there.
Kenya: Yala, our final distribution
 |
| From Kenya 2009 Photo Album |
We returned to Yala for our final distribution - 5,000 bedkits in 9 distributions. At each distribution there are a number of speeches by officials related to the school board, local councils, and the clergy with Alan greeting the kids with a speech in Swahili about SCAW.
After the speeches, the children would recite poems or sing songs. In today’s ceremony the students present a play of about 20 minutes dealing with HIV/AIDS. This theme came up at each primary school that we visited, both in the entertainment of the children and in the recipients of the bed kits. A second recurring theme was to attend school daily and remain in school to provide more future opportunities.
Today we pack for our departures tomorrow. We fly out of Kisumu at 8:15 am to Nairobi where we will attend a regular Rotary meeting. After that we start going our separate ways. Edie heads to Tanzania and a climb of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Our thoughts will be with her as she makes her ascent. Elisabeth is staying in Africa for several more weeks, continuing on volunteer work with a project with orphans in Uganda.
The other four will leave Kenya Thursday night on an overnight flight to Amsterdam. Theo will remain in Amsterdam for a week before returning to Canada. Don & Chris will return immediately to Ontario with Chris getting ready for some R & R in Florida, while Don will head home to sort out the hundreds of pictures that he has taken on the way. Some may even appear on this blog. Alan flies from Amsterdam to Minneapolis and on to Phoenix, arriving approximately 40 hours after flying out of Kisumu.
Many friendships have been made with the team and with the overseas volunteers. Alan took care of the photos for SCAW, Don the photos (professional quality) and label counting for the team, while Edie, Elisabeth, Chris & Theo had a magic touch in lining the children up for the photos, always with a happy word to each child. While exhausting, it is sad to see the end of the Kenya SCAW Distribution of 2009.
Team Kenya
Leave your comments here.
Kenya: Kisumu Distribution
 |
| From Kenya 2009 Photo Album |
Heading to the west coast town of Kisumu, we left the drought stricken regions and passed through many tea plantations, a major export of Kenya. This area does not have the tourists found in some parts of the country as the area does not house the animals that are such a tourist attraction. Being on the edge of Lake Victoria, it is not surprising that this area had both greater humidity and a greater concern over malaria as there are more breeding grounds for the mosquito.
The Kisumu distributions took place in a town, 45 minutes to the north, Yala. On the first day, the majority of the children in this rural school appeared without shoes. Following the distribution, Don, Edie & Theo made a visit to the home of President Obama’s paternal step grandmother where they were able to communicate with her through the use of an interpreter. They described a gracious lady who has become somewhat of a celebrity since her step grandson with whom she has had little contact became President.
Team Kenya
Leave your comments here.
Kenya: Nakuru, AIC Church
 |
| From Kenya 2009 Photo Album |
The Nakuru distribution at the AIC church site provides a model for all distributions. At each site we are concerned with the children sitting in the hot equator sun while waiting for the photos. We encourage children to stay in the classrooms or in the shade although that is not always possible. At AIC, tents had been provided by a private organization such that the children were seated in the shade while listening to the traditional African music in the background.
The bed kits were stored in an orderly fashion in the church pews, which facilitated an orderly flow of photos and receipt of bed kits. Following the distribution, the music was turned up and we joined the children in a conga line dance throughout the property. This was an upbeat organized by the local volunteers.
Following the distribution we visited one of the homes that had received a bed kit last year. To get there we had to drive down streets that seemed paved with garbage before we found our destination, two rooms housing 8 people at the end of an alley of similar structures. The bed kit was one of the few possessions for the family and no doubt, the mosquito net was used by more than one child.
Team Kenya
Leave your comments here.
Kenya: Catchup Day
 |
| From Kenya 2009 Photo Album |
Sunday – this was our day of rest to catch up on laundry, paperwork and sleep, we thought. We are staying in the Lake Nakuru National Park for this respite and found ourselves on the road a 6:30 am for a safari. It was well worth it as we saw an abundance of wildlife – giraffes, hippos, buffalo, rhinos, warthog, ostrich, waterbuck, gazelle, wildebeest and flamingos (1.3 million in this park) – but no cats. We will try again this evening before dinner as we prepare for tomorrow’s distribution in Nakuru before heading to the west coast town of Kisumu.
Team Kenya
Leave your comments here.
Kenya: Ndabibi Primary School
 |
| From Kenya 2009 Photo Album |
Driving an hour in the Naivasha Region over roads made for mountain goats and donkeys we found ourselves at the Ndabibi primary School, sitting in the midst of what appears to be dessert due to the drought that has hit Kenya. Taking photos in the area was a challenge as on our right were brush fires, on our left was cyclones of dust rising hundreds of feet into the sky and above us was the bright sun found on the equator.
The ground was hot and yet over 50% of the children were not wearing any type of foot covering. We did surveys of the parents to determine the most beneficial parts of the bed kit. To our surprise, due to the temperatures in the high 30s, many felt the blanket was the most important item as the temperature drops as much as 20 degrees in the evening.
We had hoped to make a quick exit as we faced a 2 ½ hour drive to our next destination but had to go through the formal thanking ceremony. Two hours later, after several lengthy speeches while the children and the parents sat patiently under the hot equator sun we were free to leave. It was an eventful drive to Nakuru as we saw much wildlife upon the way.
Team Kenya
Leave your comments here.