23 July, 2011

Working with young people

Before I come to my reflections on my time here, I have to write about today.  Today was an amazing day for me.  Working with children is always such a joy (even for those of us who like to give them back!).  The organisation I work with IDEWES, runs an OVC (orphans and vulnerable children) programme.  Within this programme, we have a psychosocial session for children under 18 which involves occasionally bringing them together on a Saturday and involving them in activities.  Besides creating space for them to be children the session also helps the organisation identify any cases relating to violation of children’s rights.  Since my work began here in April, there has not been one psychosocial event due to lack of resources to run it.  So I decided to fund one psychosocial event to take place today.  And if I have the time to do it again before I leave, I most certainly will!  

First, I arrived at the office at about 1.15pm today, together with 2 other members of staff, and the Director Julie, to prepare for the arrival of children at about 2pm.  I printed off some drawings for the younger ones to paint and colour with crayons and I cut up some flipcharts for them to draw on.  Lillian proceeded to wash cups for refreshments.  At the excitement of seeing children arrive and gather round the registration table, I dashed outside to take photos.  Here’s where my ‘children are amazing to work with’ feeling starts.  I proceeded to take random photos of them. They noticed this and start to pay more attention to their facial expressions and poses.  I got one cracking photograph of two girls about 10 or 11 I’d say when I encouraged them to smile – in the end I get a laugh from them – great photo!  I show another girl of about 8 or 9 a photo I’ve just taken of her. She is so excited to see herself on my not so sophisticated digital camera and giggles away.  I think - the simple things that put a smile on a child’s face.  They all want their photographs taken.

Chora shule! Cheka!

Once we have registered a good number of children, we group them into three – the younger ones, about 7 and under, and the older boys from the girls.  The younger ones stay indoors while the older ones go outside to play with skipping ropes and footballs provided by the organisation.   Later, I give them a Frisbee disc and show them how to throw it.  Now, there’s a short story behind the Frisbee disc.  My flatmate back in London is a keen ultimate Frisbee sportsman.  He donated one of his very special Frisbee discs to the children to play with and requested that I take photos too, which I have done.  I hope he won’t be disappointed when he realises from the photos that given the small space they were playing in, coupled with the fact that my Kiswahili is limited to a few words and no sentences, their ultimate Frisbee sport closely resembled rugby!  The important thing though is that they loved it.  

In our small office, the younger ones sit on the floor and are given drawings and crayon to colour.  It’s a joy to see children colour, choose different coloured crayons, and draw things that are familiar to them.  When each one of them was done with colouring a photograph they would come to me with it, as if to say ‘see what I’ve done – isn’t it amazing?’  I gave them more to colour and plain paper to draw on, and I learned a few more words ‘chora’ (draw) ‘chora shule’ (draw your school), etc and when taking photos ‘cheka’ (smile).  Finally when they are all done I get them to hold up their drawings and I take several photos of them.  It is rather amusing and the photos are a bit of a mess as they keep crowding round me in a bid to make sure that their drawings are captured by the camera!

Behind the smiles...

I also take photos of the older girls skipping, and the boys playing football and rugby (both with a football), and Frisbee.   After about 2 hours, it’s time for refreshments.   Juice concentrate and biscuits for all.  They love it as all kids do.  They queue for their refreshments, after which we bring the afternoon to a close.  But not before Lillian has identified a case of a child who says that her mother beats her until she bruises.  Behind the ‘cheka’ of these children, there is always a story that pulls at one’s heartstrings.  The staff are trained paralegals, so Lillian will follow up on this next week.  

Pulling at my heartstrings and the results

In all 83+ children went away with smiles on their faces and happy tummies.  That certainly put a smile on my face.  The two staff who led on this also have done a fantastic job too. They were so well organised and complemented each other very well.  

It’s so easy to put a smile on children’s faces.  My best moment of today has to be when this little guy – about 5 years old – came to me and confidently demanded that I take a photo of him.  I was so impressed and taken by his attitude that I made a whole show of readying up my camera to take a photo of him.  I was rewarded with a cheeky smile and a pose which I recognised to be a ‘peace’ sign but I was told was a ‘chill’ sign. Nice.  I loved it – I took a couple of photos of him, which he loved.  And then he asked if he could take a photo with my camera.  Unfortunately, I could not give in to that for many different reasons, and I felt rather bad about it, but it certainly brought an idea to mind – a photography session! Now that’s an idea for next time!