During our last day with the care volunteers and children in Sommerset there were lots of times to cherish and think about...
Sophie -
Today, we visited Sommerset again and
we managed to go on some home visits. I visited the house of a careworker where
she looks after her 6 grandchildren. Her total income from the government is
only about £60 a month. One of her grandchildren is at risk of being kicked out
of school as they don’t have the correct papers to go to school. This is
because his mother died and no death certificate was made after her death, and
he doesn’t have a birth certificate to prove that he was born in South Africa.
This problem massively affects children in South Africa on a daily basis and
they can be kicked out of school regardless of how intelligent they are. These
people will unfortunately have no future as they won’t have any qualifications
to get a job so they won’t be able to support their families.
Libby-
Today I went on a home visit to a
young lady's house. When we arrived there was a small, rectangular room with a
bed, a table and lots of their belongings stacked up. It was a relatively small
room, so I immediately assumed that this was her bedroom, but after digging
deeper, I realised that this was the room that she shared with her sister, her
grandmother and her two children. Not only that, there was just one bed which
they shared between the five of them. This was their bedroom, kitchen and where
they bathed. The woman’s mother had died and the only income was from the money
they received for their children. The woman found a job that she was praying to
get. If she got this job then she would have to travel hours on the bus every
day to get there. I was very surprised that despite the struggles that she was
facing, she continued to smile and laugh.
Maisy -
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| Painting today |
There were many great memories that I
have experienced today, such as: going on the home visits, painting and drawing
with the children and making even more new friends. As of the home visits, I
went to a young boy’s and his sister’s house, which they share with their
mother, to see how they live and then to bring them back to the care point for
a meal. I found it very difficult as they were very young and we found them
alone - as their mother had to leave to get their medication. Their house was
one room and consisted of a bed, a fridge, a stand and a rail which had their
clothes on. It made me feel very guilty, as I understand that I may sometimes
take things for granted whereas the children were happy with what they had. We
brought them back to the church at the care point where, along with all the
other children, we painted with our fingers and enjoyed each other’s
company.
Personally, I feel it was one of the
best days yet as I, as well as the rest of the team, really enjoyed ourselves
but felt that saying goodbye was extremely tough.
Alex-
Today was an amazing day, I feel as
though I connected with loads of people. On the journey there I was quite
anxious because we were told the day before that the people of Sommerset had
tough stories and that there was a lot of abuse within families and drinking to
allow people to forget about the problems that they are facing. But as soon as
we got there and sung some songs I felt as though I was mentally prepared to
face what was to come. When I arrived to the house that I was visiting I noticed
the conditions that the people that lived there were in. The floor was dirty,
the chance of them getting robbed was high because there wasn’t high enough
security. This made me feel bad for the people that lived there as there was
only one adult caring for three children. We spoke to the auntie who is looking
after the children before she left for work and she said that there was food
for the children to eat but after looking we couldn’t find any food. We then
took the 2 kids that were there back to the care point as the oldest was still
at school, we fed them and they then enjoyed the activities that we offered to
them. We then had to face leaving the children, this was the hardest part about
day as I wanted to
stay. The faces of the kids were so happy as we were there
but as we left I noticed that there facial expression had dropped. But just
before I left the care point the child that was at the home visit came up
behind me and patted me on the back, I turned around and she started to hug me.
This made my day and possibly made my whole trip to Africa amazing.  |
| Sommerset today |
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| The remarkable care volunteers cooking lunch at the care point in Sommerset - with some Link for Life helpers |
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| Some of the friends we made in Sommerset |