Akany Avoko

From my experiences working with children in many different areas I have come to realize that they all need the same thing.

On December 19th a few of my fellow Peace Corps Volunteers and I went to a local orphanage in the outskirts of the capital of Antananarivo. At the time I wanted to post this I couldn’t because I couldn’t get the words out right so here it goes. I was excited to see the orphanage because of my experiences in Costa Rica volunteering at an orphanage there. When we first arrived the feelings were the same, excitement to see all the child’s smiling faces and happiness because these children are living a life that children should be living…laughing, playing and just being kids. The buildings, practically carved out of the side of the mountain, were earth friendly. Rain-catchment tanks, human waste composts, bio-degradable coals to cook meals and sun reflector ovens.

Towards the beginning of the tour I was amazed at all the things that the orphanage had. The children played in the courtyard on grass, girls braided hair on their bunk-beds, a group of children helped cook meals in the kitchen. Seeing poverty the way I have, has me torn.

Children in my village are happy, yes…they smile and run around, but then they go back to their grass and leaf huts and sleep on the floor.  Most of them do not go on farther then middle school.

The children at the orphanage are given the resources to continue their education and potentially go on to university. I can only be happy and grateful that this facility is available to children. Before the tour we thought it was in fact an orphanage, but it wasn’t. It’s a place for young girls to go who would otherwise be in prison awaiting trial to prove their innocence against allegations of petty crime. Also if the girls have any siblings that would otherwise be unsafe in the current household they can live there too. ( Check out their website http://www.akanyavoko.com/ ) But all in all, the tour was nice and at the end as we were leaving a little boy came up to me as I was walking out of the gate and held my hand. As I gave him a fist with the opposite hand to give me daps (dona kely – in Malagasy) he had no hand to dap me with. His opposite hand was amputated but he still dapped me and had a smile on his face. I walked away with a smile. I never got that little boys name.

 

 

~ by healthymadagascar on January 13, 2011.