This is a picture of one of my favorite kids and me this past Sunday--she always sneaks into my class with the older kids when I teach English.
I was emailing with Allie (one of my best friends from home) who spent a summer volunteering at an orphanage in Guatemala. She explained leaving so well—she said that she cried when she left because she felt so bad about leaving the children….but that she felt a little bit funny because she was crying but the kids had to go on and live the rest of their lives in such a sad poverty (I hope that explanation did justice to your eloquent words Al!)—I don’t know how well I explained it…but the idea is—you go and help for a short period of time, but what happens to the kids after you leave? They go on and face the same, hard lives day after day. So I want to try to be more optimistic than I have been and think that maybe I can be of help even when I am back in the states. Simply by being here and bringing back stories about what people have endured and how their lives are affected by it today—I am sure I will be able to raise money as I have wonderful and generous family and friends. Also, if I can do anything to help raise the consciousnesses of people in the United States about places like Rwanda—that will be a good thing too.
The problem I am faced with day after day is whom should I help? How do I decide whom “deserves” money or food more? For example—there is a woman who works for WE-ACTx named Fluoride. I mentioned her daughter Annanice in the last posting, I believe. So Fluoride was hired by WE-ACTx part time to work in the children’s program. She earns the lowest salary from WE-ACTx, making close to nothing (a high paid employee—a trauma counselor at WE-ACTx earns around $300 a month). She is a single mother (her husband died of AIDS) raising four children—one whom is adopted—and lives in absolute poverty. The sad reality is—she makes seven times more money than the average person in Rwanda (side note—the average woman in Rwanda also has over six children)! She was sponsored by an American family all of last year—but that was only a one year thing—so she is back to struggling to support her family. For me, the problem is—I want to support her and her family—but it’s hard to wrap my head around the fact that she is more “well off” than so many other families!
This is a picture of the women with whom I work--from left to right (when looking at the picture)--Alice, Naila, and Fluoride (the woman I just told you about). Also-please note my outfit! When I am in public at the Sunday Children's Program (it is held outside of a Mosque) I need to wear clothes like this!
So that is how things are going here—and I will have to confront these issues in my final two weeks.
Something else that is hard for me is that the organization WE-ACTx is absolutely dependent on grants, most of which are yearly! So we must re-apply for grants year after year—if we do not receive the grants again—there will be no money for the organization—and thus no money to pay the many people who work for WE-ACTx and also to provide the wonderful services to so many people. This reality is especially burdensome (not so much for me, but Mardge, my supervisor and medical director of WE-ACTx) because so many people’s lives are dependent on their jobs at WE-ACTx or the services they receive from WE-ACTx.
This picture is of a very good friend I have made here--Frank. We went to Gisenyi (western Rwanda, right next to the Congo) last Friday to meet with these widows of the genocide who started a successful sewing cooperative. We are standing next to Lake Kivu, the lake that separates Rwanda from the Congo. During the genocide many dead bodies were thrown into the lake. Also, many people escaped the genocide by swimming in it to get to the Congo.
On another note—my focus group of adolescent girls will be held this Sunday! I am very much looking forward to this. We selected ten adolescent females who are HIV positive. They will come to the WE-ACTx clinic on Sunday and we will discuss different things that they face living in Rwanda with HIV. I want to know what they think about the future, are they stigmatized because they are infected, and how can we better understand and help them. To thank them for coming, we will provide transportation money, food, and diaries for them. I have mentioned this before—but I think that keeping journals will be a rewarding experience for some of these girls. I hope that I have developed strong enough relationships with them so that they will feel comfortable talking candidly with me.
Well I had better finish this, as I don’t want to be late for work! Email me if you have any ideas or anything about how we can help out when I am back in the States (Leah.Ansell@gmail.com).
