Remember making pirates hats out of old newspapers?
Flying a kite made from sticks and magazines?
I bet you do.
But thousands of kids don’tNo matter where in the world, kids are kids.
Working with children in India I was making trains and crocodiles out of old shoe boxes, a part of my childhood that I had taken for granted, I soon realised that these were totally new concepts for the children, they had never made a kite, a hat, or played hopscotch - fun, simple, free and effective! There are millions of children in orphanages across the world, who never actually have childhood, the orphanages receive little or no funding, are understaffed and result in the children being unstimulated, uneducated and unloved. You cant even begin to imagine the conditions they live in and what they live without. The term ‘orphan’ has become obsolete and forgotten , but the reality is that an orphan is someone with no family, no ‘mummy’ or ‘daddy’…
So a few months a ago my flatmate and greatest pal Sarah suggested that we head overseas for a couple of months, great idea, but I wanted to do something else. After spending time both as a tourist and as a worker in foreign counties, I have found that the best times come from off the tourist track, with the real people, the real tastes and culture and from giving something back to places where you are a guest, and that give you so much. The Orphanage Experience was born as a way to combine our passion for travel with our passion for social responsibility.
Next week we leave for our OE,but this is not the typical Kiwi Overseas Experience, but an Orphanage Experience - in orphanages across Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos to teach the kids of South East Asia how to make shoe box trains… plus more!
- sports days / sustainable arts and crafts
- dance, drama, and music / functional education: hygiene, environmental etc
- passing on innovative, effective & sustainable teaching methods to the teachers
- and just giving the kids some of the love and fun that they deserve!!
Through various media outlets including this journal, we are raising an awareness of the plight and the issues facing children without families in institutions across the world. Ignorance amongst people in developed counties just perpetuates the conditions they live in, and the attitudes held of thier situations.
Over the last couple of months Sarah and I have been fundraising for financial donations that we can take to the orphanages to buy resources that they need. The support has been unbelievably overwhelming and generous. People have donated money, balloons, paint, and even the proceeds from sheep sold off a farm! I would like to give another HUGE thank you to you all!
You will be hearing from us on a regular basis, and we would also love to hear from you - feel free to get in touch with any comments or questions.
Hanna
