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Day 5
Posted Monday, March 14, 2005
This morning we went to the GOAL drop in centre where all the kids they pick up off the street come to.
It is some place. When we got there a handful of the kids we met yesterday were just getting up to the first day of a totally new life. We watched as they were given new clothes and shoes. They had these huge smiley faces and just looked so happy. Three of them ended up wearing the same khakis, they looked like bloody Westlife!
All the kids who live at the centre couldn’t wait to hug them and help them get their new threads on, they were even teaching them to do up their buttons. It was the nicest thing I’ve seen since I’ve been here, these little kids having the chance to be little kids again – thanks to Comic Relief cash.
Later we watched some of the older kids graduating, going off to start a new life. Not on the streets, not on drugs but on their way - educated and hopeful. Fantastic. I don’t think I could have imagined how much of a difference this one place has made to so many of Addis Ababa’s kids. It’s like a future factory!
As I was
wandering around just talking to all the new kids I meet this great little guy. He must only have been about 10. Genet told me he’d spent the last 2 years on the street alone. All I wanted to do was pick him up and give him the biggest hug ever, he looked so lost.
It was almost too much to bear when he started crying about his family. We think they might have died, but he couldn’t tell us he was so upset. All I could do was put my arm around him and try to make him laugh.
But the end of the day was the best! These kids are just brilliant. I mean here they are, they’ve been out on the streets, they’ve literally been living in the gutter and then GOAL gives them clean pyjamas and a safe place to stay and they were just up singing and dancing all night - they have me worn out!
Leaving tonight I felt alive. I felt hopeful. I felt that we really can make a difference. God it’s good to be back in Africa.
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