I get a little taste of what it must be like to be a celebrity whenever I visit a school here in Kenya. The children all rush up and form a crowd all around me--wanting to touch me, wanting me to talk to them and wanting me to look at them and really see them – to acknowledge their presence at this memorable meeting. It is wonderful in some ways but can be mentally and emotionally exhausting in others.
It was both last week when I visited four schools in one day handing out school uniforms to youth who are orphaned. Most school children only have one uniform and for those who are orphaned, it might be the only pieces of clothing they own. By the time we have identified the orphans, their uniforms have seen better days. It is common to see sweaters which have holes in the sleeves, pants with patches, dresses and shirts that are ripped and torn.
I am not sure anything could have prepared me for the sight of one young boy about fourteen that came up to the vehicle at one of our afternoon stops to receive his uniform. Although his shirt and trousers were in pretty good shape, three quarters of the front of his sweater and one shoulder was just one large hole. Two lone threads of yarn are all that crossed his chest. When I saw his sweater, I could not help but think about the some of the journal writings the girls in my group have shared with me about feeling stigmatized at school for being an orphan. My heart could not help but go out to this young man whose threadbare sweater brands him an orphan every day he wears it. I can’t help but wonder, is a uniform sweater really so important to a child’s education that they must continue to wear it even when it is in tatters? Does anyone care about his/her psychological well-being?
Unfortunately, I think the answer to the latter question is a resounding ‘no’. Certainly not their teachers, with a classroom size of 80-120 students only the brightest stand out and garner their attention. The headmistress of one the schools I visited told me she has 1400 students in her school and she estimates that at least half of them are orphaned. Seven hundred orphans at just one primary school. Imagine.
I was glancing through a book that Tim had with him in the office the other day by Stephan Lewis. There was a line that really hit me. Lewis wrote, “What the world fails to realize is that these children don’t become orphans when their parents die, they become orphans while their parents are dying and this is especially true in the case of the death of the mother.” Some children spend years watching their parents die slowly. Which once again brings me back to the question -- Who is left to care about the psychological well-being of these children?
The term psychosocial support is thrown around with abandonment through out Africa in regards to children affected by HIV/AIDS -- but there isn’t a regiment of trained Psychologist or Social Workers to deal with it anywhere in the country. I think it would be safe to say that psychosocial support only exists for the rarest of cases. No one is working with these kids who souls and dreams have been replaced with trauma and nightmares. No one is helping these children learn to repair the emotional chaos their lives have become from grief, loss, and hardships that are a constant in their young lives.
There are other issues that make it difficult for children here, especially orphaned children, to be successful. Even though primary school is now ‘free’ in Kenya to everyone (since 2005) -- it really isn’t free. There are always the added costs that the families are expected to pay – uniform fees, book fees and exam fees are a given. But it is not unusual to see school fee structures here that include things like admission fees, caution deposits (should the child break something – like there is anything in most schools to break), Holiday fees, medical fees, transport fees, and even latrine fees. There is no way that families living on less than a dollar a day can afford such fees even when school is ‘free’. Especially when considering that the majority of orphans are living with aging caregivers who have a limited capacity to work.
Then there is the issue of delinquent fees. Since it is getting near the end of the second term, may of the schools ‘booted’ all students who have delinquent fees. They did this on Monday at the secondary school that three of the girls in my group attend -- only forty students remained. Kids were scrambling to our office to get funds – but the reality is –it is a process and it takes time to get the paper work, verify the need, and get the paperwork through the proper channels to get the checks cut and deposited in the school account. (I also had one of my girls get booted this week for not having the ‘standard’ black shoes that are required – she had outgrew hers and the aunt could not afford to replace them.) So when booted, the kids simply go home and wait until the family can generate enough money to pay the fees so they can return to there learning.
Yes, the ‘free education’ is getting more children in school at the present time, but there was no preparation -- so their were few additional teachers to hire when the policy was inacted. If I go to a school and want to see a student it usually takes me asking the head teacher, several classroom teachers and several classmates before someone recognizes who the child is. I also can’t help but wonder….what is going to happen to these children once they complete primary school. Secondary school fees cost a lot (by Kenyan standards) -- on average about 30,000 Kshillings per child. Not including the extra fees of course. What will become of the improvished children who are unable to go on to school because they have no working adult in the household and no skills of their own to generate income? Programs such as ours that rely on donations can not possibility met the need financial need of all the ovc’s in our catchments area at the current rate of funding.
When Collin Powell was the US Secretary of State he said that AIDS was the most significant threat in the world. I think he was right, but I think it is something that the majority of the world has yet to understand – they are too far removed from it. And even though the American media is being saturated with stories of celebrities who are trying to bring various plights of Africa to the attention of the world – I think one of the most overlooked realities about orphans is that the pandemic has be going on for so long now that the children orphaned by AIDS who feel desperate, lonely, sad, overwhelmed by their circumstances are now young adults being to have families of their own. It makes me wonder if enough people will ever care enough to invest in Africa’s most value resource – its people. So that they can pull themselves up out of the poverty that is so devastating.
Today, when I was out walking in the field I found myself once again thinking about the about the number of orphans at each school and the hundreds of children that rush up to shake my hand when I step out of the vehicle. I wonder…is really the sight of the Mzungu that draws them, or is it simply the overwhelming desire we all have for human touch?
It was both last week when I visited four schools in one day handing out school uniforms to youth who are orphaned. Most school children only have one uniform and for those who are orphaned, it might be the only pieces of clothing they own. By the time we have identified the orphans, their uniforms have seen better days. It is common to see sweaters which have holes in the sleeves, pants with patches, dresses and shirts that are ripped and torn.
I am not sure anything could have prepared me for the sight of one young boy about fourteen that came up to the vehicle at one of our afternoon stops to receive his uniform. Although his shirt and trousers were in pretty good shape, three quarters of the front of his sweater and one shoulder was just one large hole. Two lone threads of yarn are all that crossed his chest. When I saw his sweater, I could not help but think about the some of the journal writings the girls in my group have shared with me about feeling stigmatized at school for being an orphan. My heart could not help but go out to this young man whose threadbare sweater brands him an orphan every day he wears it. I can’t help but wonder, is a uniform sweater really so important to a child’s education that they must continue to wear it even when it is in tatters? Does anyone care about his/her psychological well-being?
Unfortunately, I think the answer to the latter question is a resounding ‘no’. Certainly not their teachers, with a classroom size of 80-120 students only the brightest stand out and garner their attention. The headmistress of one the schools I visited told me she has 1400 students in her school and she estimates that at least half of them are orphaned. Seven hundred orphans at just one primary school. Imagine.
I was glancing through a book that Tim had with him in the office the other day by Stephan Lewis. There was a line that really hit me. Lewis wrote, “What the world fails to realize is that these children don’t become orphans when their parents die, they become orphans while their parents are dying and this is especially true in the case of the death of the mother.” Some children spend years watching their parents die slowly. Which once again brings me back to the question -- Who is left to care about the psychological well-being of these children?
The term psychosocial support is thrown around with abandonment through out Africa in regards to children affected by HIV/AIDS -- but there isn’t a regiment of trained Psychologist or Social Workers to deal with it anywhere in the country. I think it would be safe to say that psychosocial support only exists for the rarest of cases. No one is working with these kids who souls and dreams have been replaced with trauma and nightmares. No one is helping these children learn to repair the emotional chaos their lives have become from grief, loss, and hardships that are a constant in their young lives.
There are other issues that make it difficult for children here, especially orphaned children, to be successful. Even though primary school is now ‘free’ in Kenya to everyone (since 2005) -- it really isn’t free. There are always the added costs that the families are expected to pay – uniform fees, book fees and exam fees are a given. But it is not unusual to see school fee structures here that include things like admission fees, caution deposits (should the child break something – like there is anything in most schools to break), Holiday fees, medical fees, transport fees, and even latrine fees. There is no way that families living on less than a dollar a day can afford such fees even when school is ‘free’. Especially when considering that the majority of orphans are living with aging caregivers who have a limited capacity to work.
Then there is the issue of delinquent fees. Since it is getting near the end of the second term, may of the schools ‘booted’ all students who have delinquent fees. They did this on Monday at the secondary school that three of the girls in my group attend -- only forty students remained. Kids were scrambling to our office to get funds – but the reality is –it is a process and it takes time to get the paper work, verify the need, and get the paperwork through the proper channels to get the checks cut and deposited in the school account. (I also had one of my girls get booted this week for not having the ‘standard’ black shoes that are required – she had outgrew hers and the aunt could not afford to replace them.) So when booted, the kids simply go home and wait until the family can generate enough money to pay the fees so they can return to there learning.
Yes, the ‘free education’ is getting more children in school at the present time, but there was no preparation -- so their were few additional teachers to hire when the policy was inacted. If I go to a school and want to see a student it usually takes me asking the head teacher, several classroom teachers and several classmates before someone recognizes who the child is. I also can’t help but wonder….what is going to happen to these children once they complete primary school. Secondary school fees cost a lot (by Kenyan standards) -- on average about 30,000 Kshillings per child. Not including the extra fees of course. What will become of the improvished children who are unable to go on to school because they have no working adult in the household and no skills of their own to generate income? Programs such as ours that rely on donations can not possibility met the need financial need of all the ovc’s in our catchments area at the current rate of funding.
When Collin Powell was the US Secretary of State he said that AIDS was the most significant threat in the world. I think he was right, but I think it is something that the majority of the world has yet to understand – they are too far removed from it. And even though the American media is being saturated with stories of celebrities who are trying to bring various plights of Africa to the attention of the world – I think one of the most overlooked realities about orphans is that the pandemic has be going on for so long now that the children orphaned by AIDS who feel desperate, lonely, sad, overwhelmed by their circumstances are now young adults being to have families of their own. It makes me wonder if enough people will ever care enough to invest in Africa’s most value resource – its people. So that they can pull themselves up out of the poverty that is so devastating.
Today, when I was out walking in the field I found myself once again thinking about the about the number of orphans at each school and the hundreds of children that rush up to shake my hand when I step out of the vehicle. I wonder…is really the sight of the Mzungu that draws them, or is it simply the overwhelming desire we all have for human touch?
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