Let me take you into the home I visited on my first home
visit. We walked through the gate of
Sara’s house. To the right we saw that
their home was back dropped by one of the seven lakes that provide an oasis
from the hustle and bustle of Debre Zeit.
We walked up a few stairs and into a dark room that was their home. There was no natural light or lamps that lit
up the home but I could see that it was made out of mud clad walls that were
mixed with hay. It looked old and was
rented by the family from the government for only 2birr per month (the
equivalent of NZ14c). There was one bed
on the left that we were welcomed to sit on.
The bed that slept all three females in the home, doubled as the lounge
suite and Betty, their social worker sat on their wooden chest that doubled as
their storage. There were two of us
visitors, Mariana from the Netherlands had come to see if there was a place for
her at BCI. She was asking many
questions to Betty and also to myself. As
they talked, there were cockroaches running up and down the wall. It was evidence of the lack of hygiene
standards that existed in their home.
Like many houses, there is no bathroom. The bath is a bucket and the water supply is
not on site so water fetching is a daily ritual. The toilet is an outhouse with
a hole in the ground. It had been
raining that morning, very heavily and I noticed that there were gaping spaces
between the tin sheets that made up their roof.
I asked them if they had water coming through their roof, and of course
the answer was yes. A missionary had
fixed her roof the year before but it still left room for improvement. The smell of the house was also unsanitary,
like cat urine on dirt. There is no
maintenance requirement from the government as she pays so little in rent so
she is left to fend for herself.
The mother was beautiful.
She was young and had two daughters.
Her husband had died so she was left to care for her children on her
own. She worked when the girls were at
school but this was as much as she could afford for her girls. The girls are 7 and 5 and now able to attend
school because Sara is sponsored through BCI.
They also get a monthly food budget.
She provides for her family by making and selling injera and also by
cleaning houses. She obviously has a
great love for them and desires the best for them, but in Ethiopia, if you
don’t work, you don’t get any money.
Another home we visited was of Siam. Siam and her mother have HIV. At the time we visited her, she was also sick
with Tuberculosis. They rent a home on
the back of another property along with others who can’t afford their own homes. The size of their whole house was the size of
mine and Asaua’s bedroom here. And our
bedroom isn’t that big. Yet their home did
not have tiled floors with painted walls and an ensuite. Their home was one room with one bed for
their mother and 7 year old Siam and her 6 month old baby sister who Siam often
has to look after while her mother goes to work. See, if her mother does not work, she cannot
pay the rent on her home. She is in a
desperate situation yet she is managing well.
She prepared for the five of us visiting her, a coffee ceremony. Even though they hadn’t eaten all day, she
had saved some coffee beans and popcorn for our visit. Her baby sat on my lap, wet from her urine,
and Siam sat on one of the two couches that they owned.
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| Siam's mum and Betty outside their home |
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| Siam's home. With her social worker Betty and visiting Susan from America |
Most of the homes of our children are like the ones I have
just described. There is a gap here in
the care that we provide for these children and it is a very important
one. If the home environment is not
good, sanitary, or a place where the
child feels safe and warm, then the rest of their well- being will suffer. Studies show that seven out of ten children
who live in such conditions will not succeed at school. We can see the disturbance in these
children. They are restless at school. They don’t sleep well and they are given more
responsibilities than they deserve at their young age.
Some suffer with HIV or other diseases, and in the developed
world, we would provide a sanitary environment for them, ensuring they are
offered the best care. Here, they have
no choice but to keep living in the same environment they subsist in. The mud floors should be tile like mine. Their kitchen should have wipe-able benches
so that they can ensure hygienic preparation of their food so as to not cause
more illness. The government provides
medicine for HIV infected children so that they can live on with their
disease. But is it enough for them just
to survive? Should they not be protected
from other potential diseases that exist?
Should they not be allowed the light of the sun to shine into their
homes and welcome healthy minds and healthy bodies? They are entitled to it as much as we
are.
My desire for this area is to build a village. A village like unto the Watoto Village in
Uganda where one mother (usually a widow) cares for 8 orphans. We can build many homes so that mothers like
the ones I have described can have purpose and vision. The village will be near the school so that
the children can walk to school. They
will be purpose built and provide a warm, healthy environment for our children
where they can be supported by others in the village and by the community
around them- rather than isolated in remote areas where some who are disabled
have to rely on the delivery of food and other necessities from other
people.
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