Dana_M

ann_nyc,
The last batch of photos are as good as the first. Thank you for those and for the videos as well. What a wonderful experience you had. So often we (me included) think of Africa solely as a safari/game viewing destination. You've shown that does not have to be all there is to a visit to this amazing continent.

cybor

Thank you so much for giving us such good insight into the unseen world.

Although the featured children look somewhat happy, my heart breaks for them. Are there plans to bring in more medical facilities?
Your visit was surely appreciated by the children and as said, will hold a special place in your heart forever.
You're a good person!

Although not as brave and giving of my time as you, I look so forward to my pre arranged trip coming up soon (July 21) to an orphanage/school that I'll be visiting in Zimbabwe.

I'm sitting on my hands waiting to hear if the items that I've mailed over don't get hijacked before reaching the destination - big problem I hear in Zimb., as you can imagine.

My fear is that I'll fall apart when I visit the children to hand out the goodies (essentials mostly.)
As a nurse, I can handle any adult scenerio but seeing children in dire straits gets me everytime.
Were you able to keep it together?
Perhaps you know the tear stopping trick. When the tears start, look up and they wash back.
Sounds silly but it works.

ann_nyc

Cybor, one of the most surprising things to me at the orphanage was how content most of the kids seemed. So it wasn't hard to handle in that sense. For those kids, the thing that is lacking is a plan for what happens after they graduate. That is something that has actually given me sleepless nights after I returned home.

The kids outside, in the villages, are needier, and the desperation shows through. That was difficult, because I felt really selfish. The stuff I had in my backpack was probably more than all their worldly goods. And dealing with the ones who were obviously sick was the worst of all.

It was ok in the nearby village with the weekly medical clinic, because there was a source of help, but in the remote villages they are really stuck. So many of the children had obviously high fevers (likely malaria), or distended bellies, and that was heartbreaking. The feeling of helplessness was sometimes overwhelming.

I realize that my experience is merely anecdotal, and is not statistical proof, but at least it helps me understand the emphasis some of the aide groups have on supplying mosquito nets and clean water. It is clear that help in those two areas has an immediate impact to reduce human suffering.

In the nearby village (the one with the weekly medical clinic) they also explained to us that they had helped get the village a reliable source of water, with a tap in the middle of the village. THis had a huge impact on the health of everyone in the village.