CHILDREN OF AFRICA: DONATELLA TARASCO

Dody is a volunteer from Italy who created an association similar to ours in her country, Maisha Safi. Before coming to Kenya she fundraised around 3,000 euros to cover projects both in Likoni and Tsunza. She was great at discovering all what the communities needed and, being a dentist and her mum being a doctor, she was very sensible with projects related to health care. Here are some of the things that she could cover:

Almost 400 euros were invested in school material for Tsunza school and different teaching centers. She spent 300 euros in a health project consisting on bringing a doctor to Tsunza to check the health of more than 120 people and take blood tests on more than 40. She also brought some villagers to a good hospital, and especially took care of a mum that had just given birth to a baby, and of baby Sophia, and an 11-months orphan baby who was about to die as she was undernourished.
With 600 euros she bought a wood saw to cut palm trees, in order to start a carpentry project that would provide job at least to five people. She paid for the water used to build the library in Tsunza, and for rubbish containers and different utensils for the villagers.
She also distributed more than 100 toothbrushes and paste, and spent around 1,100 euros to finish the construction of the two classrooms in Timbwani school Barcelona Block, that had been started with the 2400 euros sent by Peter Bragg and fundraised through Treviglas School in UK.
She paid for the university fees, room rent and transport of a student from Likoni, Boniface Malenje and she bought three bicycles for kids in Tsunza. Apart from this, she was varnishing beds, covering books for the library, making cement, bringing stones, painting the library, building shelves, and above of all, giving so much tender, love and care to the kids.

THE ESSENCE OF VOLUNTEERING

"Volunteering abroad is not an opportunity given to the rich and developed citizens of occidental countries in order to experience an extraoridinary adventure. In fact, I think it's unacceptable that we allow ourselves the luxury of dreaming about sensational experiences, while the people of the needy countries we want to visit can only allow themselves to dream of some piece of bread in their mouths.

A volunteer workcamp is not a selfish opportunity to satisfy our egos or our cravings for travelling; a volunteer workcamp is an opportunity that the volunteer himself provides in order to offer inconditional assistance and support, time, economic resources and efforts to the most needy ones; an opportunity to change a small, tiny piece of the world.

Therefore, a volunteer should never allow himself to become an extra burden for those he's trying to help. It would be simply nonsense. A volunteer must be a relief, water on top of fire, sugar on top of the bitterness that rules their lives, a streched hand, a balm for the open wounds, a whisper of peace...

Then, we cannot expect that a home, where we are planning to spend some time and where they already have problems enough to bring 50 children to school and provide them with food, water, clothes, etc., opens its doors for us only for love's sake, just becoming another mouth to feed. It is not the same being a volunteer in our own country or being a volunteer in a different continent in somebody else's home. Here, we can offer our time and efforts and later go back home where we are catered with everything. In Africa, to become an assistant requires something else.

When we arrive at an orphanage, we become part of it, another member, which means more food, more water, more electricity, more dirty clothes, more washing-up liquid, more bed covers, etc. It is clear that the romantic idea that Occidentals have of bringing our big love and tenderness to those people, of spending time by their side and exchanging our knowledge with them is highly praisable. But there is something that we should never forget: LOVE ON ITS OWN DOES NOT FEED CHILDREN.

I've been moving in and out of Kenya for almost four years now, living with those incredible peoples, and I swear that they really appreciate the time we spend with them, the moments we listen to their problems, the time we play with their children... But, no matter how strong you might me hugging them, if in that moment their stomachs are empty, and there is nothing to bring to their mouths, our big love will be vanished to ashes. And it is normal and understandable: human beings can only allow themselves the pleasure of loving and dreaming when the basic human needs are covered (drinking, eating and sleeping).

As a consequence, with my full belly, I allow myself a dream: to fill their bellies so that they can also dream. And among many others, the best ways to achieve such a dream are those where governments will never invest enough, building up strong and long-lasting infrastructures, with auto-sustainable projects which can bring them autonomy and better life standards and, ABOVE OF ALL, improving the whole institution of education by building up better schools, with better materials, improving teachers formation, and working on the basis of universal values and human rights.

Susanna

CHILDREN OF AFRICA

DONATELLA TARASCO

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