JL | journal

Good Samaritan - name of the orphanage that we visit every Tuesday and Thursday - has new meanings after reading the following passage from The Tipping Point: (more…)

Everyone’s got a different take on things.

Oh, did I mention that I reached the summit in a pair of Teva’s?

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Today is the day.

Look out for Stephen’s update, as well :-)

A rather disturbing news article shed light on yet another issue between the two colors.

Albino girl murdered in Tanzania

*Thanks Wendy for sharing.

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Maji ya Chai - in Swahili Water of Tea, which describes the milkish water that flows through the village - is a peaceful, tranquil, harmonious place.

It is home to the original CCF center. When German founder Peter Cool used to carry supplies on his head six-foot six above ground, walking up the hill on rocky paths, this new home was a promising new hope for many street children. When Peter departed from this country, and soon after, this world, so have much of his hopes for this organization which he so dedicatedly founded.
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In “Development Aid: End It or Mend It” (International Center for Economic Growth, Occasional Papers No. 43, 1993), Bauer railed against calling it aid because “it promotes an unquestioning attitude. It disarms criticism, obscures realities, and prejudges results. Who could be against aid to the less fortunate? The term has enabled aid supporters to claim a monopoly of compassion and to dismiss critics as lacking in understanding and sympathy” (p. 2).

End it or Mend it, any ideas?

Stuffed with street kids who have just finished our street teaching session, the daladala reeked of sweat, dirt, spit and glue – that they sniff to get high.
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Sometimes the best way to convey a message is by not saying a word. (already too much)

House of peace, in KiMaasai.

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It was truly peaceful. Sitting in the slightly modernized mud hut - with windows and sinks and sofas - drinking traditional Maasai herbal tea that cures too many things, listening to Gemma and her parents Peter and Sue, and her husband Lesikar, talking about Maasai culture, Tanzanian politics and the unexpected marriage between Gemma and Lesikar.

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One of the things that us volunteers of OHS are doing now is helping to solve the situation of the growing number of street kids in Arusha. We came having the impression that most of them are orphaned by HIV/AIDS, but we soon found out that was not the case. I went onto the internet hoping to educate myself a little more about the situation and here is one excerpt from an article that I found which agrees with my own experiences so far.
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What causes children to run to the streets?

A child’s departure from home is seldom sudden, despite common conceptions to the contrary. Rather, it usually takes the form of a series of steps in which individuals find out more about the urban environment, investigate work opportunities and make contact with homeless street children. Similarly, the factor prompting departure is less commonly a single event than is often thought – rather, it is often a combination of stressors on different causal levels, as suggested in a recent ILO report:

Immediate: the reason why a child may leave home and go to work or live on the streets could be a sudden drop in family income; loss of support from an adult family member due to illness, death or abandonment; or an episode of domestic violence.

Underlying: chronic impoverishment, cultural expectations (such as the idea that a boy should go to work on the streets as soon as he is able), desire for consumer goods, or the lure of the city.

Structural: factors such as development shocks, structural adjustment, regional inequalities and social exclusion.

This multiplicity of levels means that few children are able to perceive all the circumstances that contributed to their decision to leave home. The reasons given by a child on the day of leaving home may anyway be quite different to those they offer three months later after s/he has rationalised his/her home situation and their actions.

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*full article here: http://www.mkombozi.org/learnmore.html