School
“Children, if they are loved and appreciated, educated and healthy, can change a nation.”
Little did we know where our work was taking us when we first agreed to cross the border into uncharted territory. It reads a little like a Captain Cook story, first the crossing by boat, then the trek over foreign terrain and ending with the discovery of a community, quite removed and with little influence from the outside world.
Only our story differs when we realize most of these people are enslaved by rulers of their land:
given little to help their survival and nothing to increase their future; families without homes; families without food and safe drinking water; children without school or any form of an education; no primary healthcare; children left while their parents are forced to go and labor for the military; children sold; children abused.
We opened our doors to the children from around the community and school was started.
No tables – No chairs – No black boards – No paper – No pencils. They wrote with rocks and sticks on wood and soil. Slowly the necessary equipment was provided.
However this was not enough – the needs go so much further than just schooling, and so a sponsorship program called Help Save The Kids was born.
This year our 4th year students took their exams along with the government school children, our students passed within the top percentile. The word went out and this year registrations went to almost 200 students.
We are looking forward to making a positive influence on the larger community this year.
“We are working to change a nation…”
