Long-term Child of Hope friends and supporters, David, Clare and Anna Burrows from Surrey, have watched their sponsored child progress through the different classes in Primary school and continued as she went to Secondary school. And this July they visited her and saw the school for themselves.
Before leaving, they worked with their church (All Saints, Witley) to collect 718 sets of quality children’s undies for boys and girls. Usually, only poor-quality underclothes can be bought for the children and Bex and Moses had told the the Burrows family that it would be a real treat for all the kids to have a pair of good quality underpants. On arriving at the school, they gave them out… one-by-by to each child!
Here’s what they said about their trip…
“Joining the welfare team to find absent children, we walked from the school straight into the slum, calling in at homes the team knew the absent children lived. The local knowledge and expertise were apparent at every point on this journey. We saw children who were clearly not well enough to attend school, and the mother was given advice as to whether the school nurse could help.
“We were offered the chance to serve lunch to the 500+ children, and after donning aprons and hats had the exhausting but rewarding experience of serving a fine, nutritious and tasty (because we had some too!) lunch. The cooks had been hard at work since 5am!
“Then cooking a meal for three families in the slum was humbling and very educative… invited into the slum to prepare, cook and serve a meal for a large family who could rarely afford it. With the help of the CoH welfare team, we (eventually!) started one or two small charcoal-based clay ovens per family and prepared the food (meat, rice and vegetables). Several hours later we served up their dinner to huge excitement and appreciation.
“Seeing several of the successful businesses run by mums with a grant and training from CoH was awesome. From fruit-selling, charcoal-selling, tailoring, a small restaurant to an incredibly well-kept piggery, the mums were all hugely grateful to the CoH team for helping them get set up successful businesses. As a result, they can provide their children with the basics of life.
“There were many more experiences, too many to write about, that filled our days at CoH. We came away knowing that CoH is delivering a holistic program focused on giving the children all they need to concentrate on their education, by a team which demonstrated huge integrity and commitment in all they did.”