02/17/2006 - Canada: "Making Children Matter" is the second episode in the new WORLD CLASS series which runs on Canadian Learning Television beginning March 9 at 10 pm ET. The film premieres on Thursday, March 16 at 10 pm ET. Laura Thompson’s provides her personal account .
SOS Tema Village – Hope for the future
When I first heard about SOS Children’s Villages, I pictured an orphanage in a third world country. But when I had the opportunity to visit an SOS Children’s Village in Tema, Ghana, I found something completely unexpected. This is where my friend Samuel had grown up. Exploring the village, I found children playing soccer and helping with dinner and mothers sitting on the porches scaling fish. Everyone was so welcoming and conditions were a lot better than I thought I would find in Africa. Growing up in Canada, I expected starving children, crying for help but, what I found was anything but. However, we hadn’t yet left the village.
The following day we travelled north to where Sam was born. The journey took 15 hours through beautiful countryside over treacherous roads. Passing through villages, red dust filled our noses, and the sights alongside the route were shocking to say the least. This is what I saw on television, but somehow, it was so much worse. What you don’t see on T.V. are the children, only 4 years old wandering the streets on their own, selling bread and water at busy intersections. The deteriorating health of the people is evident through their thin arms and protruding bellies. The children’s clothes were torn and ripped, and their flip flops (if they had any) were worn through the heel and big toe.
Community elders told us of their struggles; horrible road conditions meant people rarely made it to the nearest hospital (which was hours away), no toilets meant human waste created black ditches everywhere, creating a breeding ground for disease. That first night I cried myself to sleep in a small cement room, my protective bed net my only shield from this scary new world. I thought that this trip would give me such inspiration, but all I felt was a hopelessness like I’d never felt before.
I awoke in the morning to the sound of goats outside my window. I went to wash up in the basin left for us by our hosts. We all took water from the same bowl, with no running water this was no easy task. The nearest water source was a water pump a few houses over. As I started pumping I found that I soon had a small audience to cheer me on. Small goats jumped around on small piles of dirt, making me laugh for the first time in what seemed like forever.
We travelled to a nearby village which was in even worse condition, but I soon forgot that as the children came out to greet us smiling and laughing. I met a girl the same age as me who showed me around the village, where she slept, her home (a hut made of earth and bamboo). I’ll never forget her telling me that she hopes to one day be a fashion designer. That was when it hit home. This wasn’t just some poor stranger I had nothing in common with -- this was a girl the same age as me, with hopes and dreams. This was just a normal girl, like me. This realization put everything into such perspective. No one should have to live like this. No one should have to settle for this. And they haven’t settled, they have not succumbed to the poverty, they have hopes and dreams and plans for the future, in spite of the poverty. Their hopes and strength and courage are what’s keeping them going.
Coming back the SOS Children’s Village in Tema, I have new hope. I have seen what SOS can do for these children; provide them with a home, a family, an education and a future. I only wish everyone had the chance to experience this, and see first hand how SOS Children’s Villages gives these children a future. I will never ever forget the friends I met, the smiles I saw and the hope these children gave me.
Laura Thompson