On the 18th of October, 2008, we held a 'Make a Difference Day' (see www.csv.org.uk) event at the orphanage, where nearly 40 children, many members of staff, and several expats gave up their morning to paint the compound, library, offices and classrooms of the orphanage. The Hanna's Orphanage charity provided the paint, and paintbrushes (which of course will be useful in the future) and we all provided the manpower!
I know I often moan about how the pace of life (and therefore work) is much slower in Ethiopia, but my goodness these children can paint fast! We started at 9 o'clock and the whole thing was painted, everyone cleaned up and admiring their handiwork by lunchtime! I've honestly never seen such teamwork and military precision.
The kids were really excited about painting, and soon there were teams washing down the office walls with mops and a hosepipe, preparing the paint tins, and organising who was going to paint which bit. There were so many eager children that I couldn't manage to get a paintbrush (story of my life!), so after helping to wash down the office walls I was relegated to taking photos and videos and providing moral support to those doing the work.
Health and safety is obviously a very important part of volunteering and these kind of events, but I have to admit that the older boys were making very unstable looking towers of chairs and tables to paint the top of the walls, while the little ones crouched under the tables and painted the lower parts of the wall. Luckily, no disaster befell us – though more by luck than judgement – and everyone was still in one piece by the end of it.
As the compound became more and more green, expats and friends started to arrive to help. U and her flatmate B came along first, shortly followed by Y, one of the Ethiopian family I live with. Then M, a friend of a friend from England who hadn't been in Addis for that long, came and joined the group. Of course, the fact that there were no more paintbrushes and the children were running the show like a military operation meant that they had to be content with watching, meeting the children and being shown around the orphanage.
My theory is, the more people who know about the orphanage, the better. B works for the Danish embassy and was soon able to suggest different grants programmes they could apply for, and I spent a while explaining exactly how the orphanage worked, the ethos behind it, and what people could do to help. I guess I felt that was my 'Make a Difference Day' volunteering, as I certainly wasn't needed to help with the painting!
By lunchtime, everything was painted and everyone had cleared up, and a very happy bunch of children went back to their individual homes for some lunch. Next year we're looking at possibly painting and cleaning up some of the community homes, so maybe 'Make a Difference Day' will become a permanent fixture for the orphanage?
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment