News Detail
EDGE Zimbabwe Blog Post #4
Working with the street children of Gweru
Tuesday, July 7
The experience that I had today was very shocking. We went to meet the street kids - yes, that is what our community outreach leaders address them as - and it made us look at all we have and to appreciate how lucky we all are with what we have. They have nothing. These children don’t have any sort of shelter, and they were struggling from starvation.
I can’t imagine myself, in the future, as a mom, knowing I am not able to afford any day-to-day necessities that are required to keep my children with the basic needs for living. However, all the kids were so happy, and welcomed us with big hugs when we went to see them. They asked us to play with them, they taught us their languages. Also, there were many kids who desperately wanted to learn math from us. All the kids LOVED learning with the resources we brought - math sheets, reading passages and comprehension books. We were all amazed at how everyone was craving to learn and how they were all like sponges, just listening so intently to everything we had to say and leaning in with intensity to absorb as much as they could. Students here love to learn, both the ones at Mkoba Primary School and the street children. It’s really amazing.
The children also asked us to play with them - skipping rope, tug of war, braiding bracelets, and we taught them a game that we play back at SLS - “Ninja”. They taught us their local language from this part of Zimbabwe - Shona. There were many kids who desperately wanted to learn math from us. It made me think how unfair the world is. There are people who are dying to learn, and there are people like us who would do anything to skip classes. It’s hard to believe that people with so little can care so much. We took a break for lunch, gave them food which we purchased at the local supermarket to make a beef stew and Sadza (a corn concoction that is eaten by everyone) and cooked for them. They immediately wanted to share their food with us. The kids that we were interacting with today are the same ages as us. It was sad to see them struggling to survive each day, not even having a place to go after having had a hard day, like we have the good fortune of doing. We need to appreciate what we have, because there are people in this world who aren’t even able to put food on their plate.
By Helena Hwang
Back
The experience that I had today was very shocking. We went to meet the street kids - yes, that is what our community outreach leaders address them as - and it made us look at all we have and to appreciate how lucky we all are with what we have. They have nothing. These children don’t have any sort of shelter, and they were struggling from starvation.
I can’t imagine myself, in the future, as a mom, knowing I am not able to afford any day-to-day necessities that are required to keep my children with the basic needs for living. However, all the kids were so happy, and welcomed us with big hugs when we went to see them. They asked us to play with them, they taught us their languages. Also, there were many kids who desperately wanted to learn math from us. All the kids LOVED learning with the resources we brought - math sheets, reading passages and comprehension books. We were all amazed at how everyone was craving to learn and how they were all like sponges, just listening so intently to everything we had to say and leaning in with intensity to absorb as much as they could. Students here love to learn, both the ones at Mkoba Primary School and the street children. It’s really amazing.
The children also asked us to play with them - skipping rope, tug of war, braiding bracelets, and we taught them a game that we play back at SLS - “Ninja”. They taught us their local language from this part of Zimbabwe - Shona. There were many kids who desperately wanted to learn math from us. It made me think how unfair the world is. There are people who are dying to learn, and there are people like us who would do anything to skip classes. It’s hard to believe that people with so little can care so much. We took a break for lunch, gave them food which we purchased at the local supermarket to make a beef stew and Sadza (a corn concoction that is eaten by everyone) and cooked for them. They immediately wanted to share their food with us. The kids that we were interacting with today are the same ages as us. It was sad to see them struggling to survive each day, not even having a place to go after having had a hard day, like we have the good fortune of doing. We need to appreciate what we have, because there are people in this world who aren’t even able to put food on their plate.
By Helena Hwang
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