Facing the enormity of our task, we do not give in, but our financial means are ridiculously small compared to the misery and the needs of certain children and of certain families’ situations.
There is the sickness which just won’t go away and which keeps the children from going to school, because both the school and the doctor are too far away and too expensive for the parents who gain $0.5 a day.There is also this young widow, who is pregnant every year, and who doesn’t seem to worry about her five small children.

 

 

 

The straw roofs of some huts are broken by the wind and the weather, but the rain season will come back, necessarily. It will pour its heavy water upon those families who have given in, because they are victims of a life which has never given them anything good. From the look in the eyes of the woman who thinks that we can save her from this fight for survival, our jaws which get more and more tense, because we know how limited our means are.

 

AVEC works without tiring, and we are sending several tens of children to school. On top of this, we are arranging a big day of distribution: rice, bikes and “school survival kits” (5 pencils, 4 pens, 2 erasers, ruler and pencil sharpener, 5 notebooks and a school uniform) at the Dâksoso School.Fifty of the schools poorest children will be encouraged in several ways to continue their education (e g nutritional complements for the family during the year).More than one hundred children will be coming for this big occasion, and of course, their parents or guardians will be there, too. We hope to see the children’s eyes filled with wonder over their AVEC “school survival kits”.

Step by stepWe are only in the beginning of our work towards changing the attitudes of the villagers with regard to education. The road is still long ahead, but the day will come, when fewer children work in the rice fields to contribute to the subsistence of their families. We have to employ all our tact, especially when we are pressuring the family member who has the power to decide on the fate of the child. Many people are present, and nobody must loose prestige; it is the child’s future that is at stake.

 

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Note: photos copyright: www.info-avec.orgText corrected and translated by: Charlotta Friedner