Reflections...

Dear Friends,

I pray this finds you well.  The past month and a half has really been hectic for the team and myself. On a daily basis we have been up and about involved in life changing work and sometimes being game changers in key policy meetings with different stakeholders. All this has come through our policy of influencing the conversations that happen in communities and at a national level. These conversations we believe, should have children at the centre and should be concerned about ensuring that the child who is not accessing early learning facilities is able to get such services.

As you may all now by now, yesterday, 25 September 2012 we were part of the huge crowd of up to 400 adults plus 1200 children who came to witness the official opening of a two classroom block preschool. This indeed was a momentous occasion not only for us as an organization but for the community as well. What struck me the most was the fact that speaker after speaker spoke about community involvement in all issues to do with children and how it is important to provide early access to education for the children whether orphaned or not, vulnerable or not.

Team Nhaka has been at the forefront of making sure that the communities are directed towards using their energy for the development of their schools and public facilities. This morning I was reflecting on the work we have carried out this year as an organization and looking at the impact made, number of children reached, the perceptions on early education that we have changed and the influence we have put in high level meetings on early childhood development. All the work has been amazing and I wondered how such a small, youthful and under resourced team would do all this. As I reflected on all these things my spirit was led to the Book of Nehemiah chapter 4, where Nehemiah writes about the dangerous work he is doing in Neh ch4:11, how extensive it is in Neh4:19 but however he expressed satisfaction because the work he was doing was GREAT! Neh 6:3. 

Friends, I think the work we are doing is great! The level of community involvement, the number of children who have been reached and supported make us very happy and willing to continue this work. Your involvement, support and prayers have pushed us forward with zeal and determination. God bless you!

Finally friends, in all our endeavours, in all our work and indeed in our lives, let us continue to reaching out to those less fortunate than us. This we should not do because we feel it is right but we should do it because it is demanded of us in James 1 vs 27: "Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” 

Until next time,

Patrick

Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.
-Edmund Burke

One child at a time...

Dear friends,

Last week schools reopened for the last term of the year. The once quiet school classes and grounds are now filled up with children chasing each other up and down having fun and catching up with their friends.

Being back in school allows the children to learn and equip themselves as they grow in this increasingly challenging world. My memories of my school days as a youngster always bring tears to my eyes. Back then everything would function well, teachers would come to class on time, we had stationery bought through the fees that our parents paid and we even managed to go on organized tours to different parts of the country. I never went to a private school were in modern day reality the above experiences are part of the daily private school life. Government run schools back then used to be the pride and envy of communities surrounding them as everyone would rally behind their local school and contribute in different ways. I even remember too how the social protection system used to work. My gosh, the social welfare department would pay school fees for the under privileged children on time and no one would be thrown out of school for not paying school fees. In fact disbursements of these grants by the social welfare department happened almost predictably before the beginning of each term.

Seventeen plus years later, the government schools are no longer the envy of communities, the school fees assistance mechanisms for the vulnerable children are no longer reliable and parents are no longer as involved with these schools as before. Children are no longer benefitting from organized school trips, unless where they have to pay a huge fee to facilitate such. Indeed times have changed.

At Nhaka Foundation our main thrust is to ensure that all children grow up to become vibrant, contributing members of society and that resources to ensure their growth and development are availed to them. Our work with communities through appreciative inquiry meetings at schools and in community development meetings always inform us that communities, when given the direction, knowledge and a few resources are able to promote the well being and welfare of their children. We are delighted in bringing out the community strength and channeling it towards the protection of orphans and vulnerable children by the community. We absolutely do not believe in giving handouts and in fact in all our work we first ask the communities to provide matching contributions whether through the provision of labour, bricks, sand, water etc so that they realize that the bigger picture lies with them and not us or the supporters of the work we do.

With your continued support, we can do more to ensure that the children live a healthy life and that they are able to reach their full potential. As the old adage says “it takes a village to raise a child”, so it takes you and us to reach out to the children, one child at a time!

Until next time, God bless you!

Patrick

The events of childhood do not pass, but repeat themselves like seasons of the year.
-Eleanor Farjeon