Thousands of Families Reached in 2011 – Welcome 2012!

By Lindsay Bennett, Digital Media Executive at ChildFund New Zealand

One of my New Year’s resolutions this year (along with the usual eat less, exercise more, give my mother-in-law a call) is to get to know You better.  You are, more than likely, a child sponsor, a ChildFund supporter, a staff member, or someone who’s just interested in what ChildFund does.  Thank you for everything you do!

My name is Lindsay, and I’ve started this year as ChildFund New Zealand’s new Digital Media Executive.  I get to share stories, successes and thank you’s online through Facebook, Twitter, our blog and our website.

While there is a lot of exciting stuff on the horizon, I think it’s worth sharing some of the amazing things ChildFund New Zealand has accomplished in the past year with your support.

During the 2010-2011 financial year we were able to raise and send more than $12 million to projects and partners overseas.  And thanks to generous Kiwis, 22,108 children were sponsored in 22 different countries.  Because child sponsorship also helps the sponsored child’s family and community, many more lives were positively impacted by this generosity.

Many of you also helped us to respond to the natural disasters of 2011 with emergency care, including the Sri Lanka flooding, the Christchurch earthquake, the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, and the famine crisis in the Horn of Africa.

Here is a small sample of our achievements in 2011:

Incomes:
55 households were provided with goats
400 households were provided with low-interest loans
100 households received training in business skills

Education:
92 teachers were trained
150 schools received equipment such as desks, water filters and books

Water:
104 farming households were provided with water pumps
2 water pipeline extensions were built for 684 people and 9800 livestock

Health and Nutrition:
12,000 malnourished children were fed
1,500 seedling fruit and shade trees were planted in schools
9,350 mosquito nets were provided

What a year of generous giving!  I’m looking forward to sharing our stories with you throughout 2012, and I’m also looking forward to reading all of your comments and hearing feedback.  Let’s get to know each other better.

Happy New Year!

Bruno – a sponsor’s story

A guest post from Louise Simpson, child sponsor about friendship and photography and making a difference. Louise is behind a photo exhibition at Jafa Cafe, Grey Lynn Auckland, which will run for six weeks from 19 November 2011, when there will be a special launch and auction starting at 7.30pm.

Louise and Paloma and the boys!

By Louise Simpson, ChildFund child sponsor

Having travelled through places such as Cuba and Mexico, seeing firsthand how challenging the conditions under which so many children are forced to be raised and the enormity of the hurdles these people have to conquer in order to achieve even the basic living essentials that most of us here in NZ take for granted, I made it a goal to not go through life without reaching out a helping hand.

I knew that there was little I could do as an individual to target the global child poverty issue in any great way, however my thought was if I could at least help one life to jump a few of these hurdles then hopefully the knock on effect would be great.

In 2007 after seeing a ChildFund television commercial I felt compelled to stop procrastinating, pick up the phone and sponsor a child. After being introduced to Brazilian culture a year earlier and connecting strongly with the Brazilian community here in New Zealand it seemed only natural to request a child from a country that I felt had enriched my life in such a positive way. I asked ChildFund New Zealand to connect me with the child in Brazil that had been waiting the longest and was most in need of a sponsor, and that is when my journey with little Bruno began.

From the moment I received his picture and story I felt an unexplainable connection, a responsibility that was far beyond anything I had anticipated, there was just something about this little boy that I could feel was super special. Over the past four years we have had numerous letters back and forth, Daviana (Bruno’s 19-year-old sister and main care giver) writing the letters and Bruno in charge of the decoration. I had the opportunity to travel to Brazil in 2009 however was unable to make it to the remote area where Bruno lives, but this experience only increased my understanding of Brazil and Bruno’s culture.

In 2010 I meet a girl called Paloma, a Sao Paulo native living here in NZ with a background in child psychology, and it was only a matter of time before we realised our mutual interest. On a trip home in 2010 Paloma offered to take a bus to visit little Bruno, this was no small offer as just one way is an 18-hour overnight trip on a less than luxurious coach.

The report back, photos and video she took moved me so much that when it came time to get married in
January this year I talked my husband into exchanging traditional gifts for a travel fund idea and raised enough money to purchase airfares to Brazil for our honeymoon with the main goal being to visit this special little man.

This trip did not only motivate me however, through this experience Paloma herself had some realisations and has become a sponsor of another little boy from the same area, Carlos Douglas. We were able to time this next trip perfectly with another trip home for Paloma and we all set about planning this journey once again to meet Bruno and also Carlos Douglas together.

So in late August this year we all boarded the 18-hour bus, it was a Friday night and it was full of the sugar cane workers heading home for the weekend, the three of us definitely stood out as different. Between excitement, nerves and a very bumpy bus ride not a lot of sleep was possible that night. I have to admit, 8 hours in I began to wonder what the hell we were doing, but as soon as I arrived at the community centre in Virgem da Lapa, saw Bruno’s shy face poking out from behind a tree, my eyes welled up and I knew I was exactly where I was meant to be.

We started getting to know each other, meeting Daviana his sister and her insanely adorable daughter Evelyn, and whilst Dan (my husband) took Bruno outside to test out his new soccer ball, Paloma and I had a meeting with the incredible women responsible for running the community centre.

We had long discussions about Bruno and his situation, the community centre and what they were achieving in the 35 communities they serviced within the Jequitinhonha Valley. We also talked extensively about the challenges they face, the two at the top of the list were 1) the lack of government support and
2). educating the kids to believe that they can make a better life for themselves than what is currently facing them, to teach them to believe in themselves and that there is a much larger world outside the valley.

I know there isn’t a lot I can do about the Brazilian government, however what I do know is that I have been given a unique opportunity to show this little boy that what and who he is matters, that whatever he dreams can become his reality.

Having gained a Bachelor in Visual Arts with a photography major I know only too well the power of imagery. Of course I had my camera out that day documenting this incredible experience with a plan to share these images somehow on my return to NZ. The camera captured the interest of the boys so I also handed my small Canon G10 to an excited Bruno, we didn’t speak the same language but we definitely bonded over photography. Carlos Douglas got in on the action and before long we had two little boys running around taking photos of everything, all I have to say is thank God for digital!

It wasn’t until I returned to NZ however and was taking a good look through these images that I discovered just how powerful, gorgeously naive and super humorous the images they managed to capture are. Not too bad for first time camera users! So this is how I became connected to these cool little boys and where the inspiration was born for this photographic exhibition “Bruno”.

The six-week exhibition begins on Saturday 19 November, 7.30pm at Jafa Cafe with a special auction event. Drinks and nibbles provided $20 at the door! All welcome!

We are all in this together

ChildFund New Zealand Chief Executive Paul Brown visited families in Turkana, northern Kenya where drought has brought starvation and death, but has not dimmed hope.

Turkana, Kenya

By Paul Brown

It’s just under a month since I returned from drought stricken Kenya. Many people were intrigued about exactly where I visited.

Turkana, in the very north of Kenya doesn’t appear in our papers regularly. It is stunningly beautiful, harsh and sparse, and the Turkana people are striking and warm. But it’s well off the tourist trail and is not featured in travel promotions. Instead this part of the world features in our press only at times of crisis.

Which has led to me fielding some strange, naïve – almost insulting – questions: “Why are we still helping these people? It was dry here 30 years ago when Geldof and co put LiveAid together. Why do they live there?”

Cynicism is the easy option. The people living in northern Kenyan have lived there for thousands of years. And while it may not be lush New Zealand, it is home to the pastoralists of Turkana. They know how to survive the changing seasons. But weather patterns have changed dramatically.

The elders I spoke with talked of dry years, when the rains would fail, happening once a decade. Now they occur every two years. This is the driest period since 1950.

Their home and their lives have changed, and we can help.

The 3.2 million Kenyans surviving this epic food crisis consider this the worst it has ever been, the culmination of a tragic chain of events.

In the red - severe acute malnutrition

The farmers I met described how the dry weather has meant insufficient feed for livestock. Their livestock which had not died were in terrible condition – meaning these farmers could not sell them for enough money to pay for food for their family. To add insult to injury the global recession, amongst other things, has driven food prices up and farmers cannot even find casual work.

I’m no farmer, but like most kiwis I enjoy putting on my gumboots and walking over the hills with the goats at my sister-in-law’s lifestyle block. But let’s not forget, these aren’t pet goats Kenyan farmers raise – farm animals mean livelihoods and the ability to provide for your family.

Speaking with the farmers in Turkana, I could see the pain on their faces, hear the frustration in their voices as they opened up, sharing how they could no longer provide the necessities of life for their children.

Some had lost spouses, some had lost children to starvation.

Yet these hardened families, toughened through tragedy remain determined. I saw the difference the ChildFund emergency programmes were making. The ChildFund water tank had become the focal point for the community – a meeting place to share experiences and resources. Soon ChildFund will sink a borehole, and train a committee of volunteers to manage and maintain this facility for the community for now and the future.

I felt proud to see how we are working together – farmers are uniting their herds and working with ChildFund to establish new water management techniques, volunteering their time to provide labour for constructing boreholes, taps and tanks.

Feeding young children

Here I was, a world away from my home, humbled to be a New Zealander, helping another person in their hour of need. And then it struck me – we’re all in this together.

I talked with Takwo Lokuruka, a 31-year-old farmer, waiting for his sons Epem and Ekure to finish their day at a ChildFund pre-school (under a nearby tree). Takwo once had a herd of 40 cattle, 12 camels, eight donkeys and nearly 100 goats. Now he only had 17 scrawny goats left.

He told me:

“When we find water in the boreholes we will manage it and slowly build our herd. My sons will be educated and learn new ways to be better farmers. Maybe they will help your family.”

Takwo’s determination in the face of such adversity and his faith in the future is inspiring. Working together we can create a better world for each other.

We are all in this together!

To help children in Kenya please donate to ChildFund’s Horn of Africa Crisis Appeal.

No more sitting on the floor for Timor-Leste students

By Marilou Suplido, ChildFund Timor-Leste Program Manager, with reporting by program team members

Timor-Leste has one of the highest birth rates in the world, with almost 70 percent of the population under age 25. Educating Timor’s children is essential to ensuring this young country has a brighter future.

ChildFund Timor-Leste is working with its local partners to help fill the gaps where government is not yet able to keep up with the demands of the growing number of children going to school.

Two primary schools in the remote southwest Covalima District are benefitting from ChildFund’s support through the Community Partner Organisation Graca.

Students are happy to be off the ground at Lontale school

Lontale Primary School is just one example of an under-resourced school struggling to meet the needs of schoolchildren. It has 336 students in grades 1 to 6, and just three classrooms. In fact, the school has so many enrolled students it has divided the students into two groups, with older and younger students attending class at different times of day.

ChildFund has assisted the school by providing desks and chairs, and we’ve built an office for the teachers. “There are many primary schools in the 13 districts of the country,” explains Jose Gusmao, school director, “and although we are always asking the government for support, the resources are limited. Hence, the support from ChildFund has meant that our schoolchildren do not have to sit on the floor during their class.”

In nearby Sukabilaran Primary School, until earlier this year, all 120 students were sitting on the floor. Ignacio,12, is a student in the fifth class. He says that he and his friends “felt sad” when they had to sit on the ground. Writing and studying were difficult.

His schoolmate, Florentina, 13, nods in agreement. “I am very happy that ChildFund provided chairs and desks for our school,” she says. Florentina explains that she has a long walk to school, but is always prepared to make the trip because she loves school. She wants to continue studying so that when she grows up she can become a teacher.

ChildFund sees improving school facilities as an entry point in working together with the government and the community to ensure that children can be educated in a safe and child-friendly environment. Our goal is to help students finish school and achieve better educational outcomes.

Florentina and Ignacio sit at their new desks in Sukabilaran school

By providing schools with basic services such as desks, chairs, books and teaching materials, as well as water and sanitation, ChildFund envisions that more children like Florentina will continue to enjoy attending school. Better educated and more confident children are needed for Timor’s future development.

Please sponsor a child in Timor-Leste by clicking here or phoning 0800 223 111 in New Zealand.

Hardship and hope in Vietnam

Today September 2nd is Vietnam’s National Day. ChildFund New Zealand’s Cassandra Chapman recently visited the newly established New Zealand dedicated project area in Cao Bang, northern Vietnam. Here she shares her feelings and thoughts about the remarkable children and parents she met.

Seventeen-month-old Kien

By Cassandra Chapman, Marketing & Fundraising Coordinator

“I hope my son will grow up to be a better man than I am,” the young father tells me, “and be able to provide enough food for his family.”

I feel tears well up.

Here I am, in the humble home of 26-year-old Quyet and his young wife Nham. For the last hour we have been talking about their life and the burden of responsibility they carry to care for three dependent adults as well as their baby son, Kien. The couple described to me their daily routine which involves getting up in the pre-dawn to collect firewood to sell at market before working until sunset in their corn field – back-breaking manual labour. There are three or four months each year when, despite their best efforts, there simply isn’t any food. At that point Quyet must resort to begging alms from the neighbours to feed his young son.

This young man who works so hard to support his family quietly says, “I feel sad and ashamed of myself that I cannot provide for my family.”

And I feel tears well up.

* * *

I just got back from Vietnam. I was visiting the northern province of Cao Bang. This is where ChildFund New Zealand’s support is focused and where Kiwis’ sponsored children live.

The reason I was in Vietnam was simple – meet with children, talk to their families, see and hear and feel their lives, then come home and share their stories.

This moment with Quyet is the one that stood out for me.

I heard a lot of sad things during my days in Vietnam. I saw a lot of broken houses and hungry children. In fact, I’ve had quite a lot of experience with poverty – I’ve lived in Ecuador, volunteered with orphans in El Salvador, and worked in Haiti after the earthquake. When you see that kind of suffering first-hand you get pretty good at staying strong and holding it together so you can do your job.

Showing Kien and his family my photos

When that young man told me his biggest dream for his baby son was that he would do a better job of feeding his family than he could, in spite of my experience, the wall came down. Here I was, one human being standing in front of another. I felt profound compassion for Quyet, a decent man who loves his family and is trying to do the best he can in difficult circumstances. The dignified struggle of his life moved me to tears.

Yet Quyet’s wasn’t the only sad story I heard in Cao Bang. Hardship is everywhere.

People live in ramshackle wooden structures with gaping cracks in the walls, which cannot keep the icy cold out during winter. Open fireplaces fill the one-room homes with smoke. Children suffer from frequent respiratory problems. Their parents work tirelessly to grow what rice and corn they can to feed them. But there is never enough. For many months of the year families are hungry. Children go to bed without dinner and try to fall asleep as quickly as possible to forget their hunger pains.

Sponsorship will change all this.

Sponsorship makes a world of difference

Through Kiwi sponsorship support, communities in Cao Bang will be transformed. Parents will learn how to make their crops more productive. Children will no longer have to go hungry. They will even get the chance to go to school.

With the support of generous Kiwis like you, Quyet’s dream may one day come true – maybe when his son is a grown man he will have plenty of food and a good life for his own family.

If you would like to sponsor a child from Vietnam please click here or call 0800 223 111.

Marathon effort to help children in need

By Kiri Carter

CEO Paul Brown between Emily (right) and Phil (left) before the 42km marathon

You don’t have to be crazy to work here but it helps.

That was the thought that went through my mind when I saw Emily Burgess, our Fundraising Campaigns Manager, and her partner Phil Taylor dressed from head to foot in green spandex – that’s non-breathable nylon. Not only were they running the full Jerry Clayton BMW North Shore Marathon to support ChildFund they were going to do it dressed as part of the ChildFund logo. They certainly stood out amongst the competitors as the starting gun sounded.

Just ahead of them was our CEO Paul Brown running his first ever marathon, his knee bandaged for support. He was smiling at the beginning…

Bang! And they're off!

Before the Half Marathon began a number of us, staff and former staff and friends, shared a tube of Deep Heat. I pulled on a strap for my dodgy knee. Someone admitted to nerves. And then we were lining up behind the bright pink start line and the gun went off and that was it, we set off running or walking around the streets of Takapuna, Milford and then all the way down to Devonport – a scenic view from the top of North Head and all the way back to Takapuna.

We all finished, which in itself was a great achievement. When people have sponsored your run/walk, it makes for great motivation when the going gets tough. None of us wanted to let down our supporters, ourselves or the children ChildFund helps.

Cassandra celebrating the end of the 5km fun run!

No matter what trial or challenge we set ourselves here, we know that children in need, especially children right now in Kenya and the rest of the eastern Horn of Africa are really suffering. That those children weak from hunger and dehydration are walking incredibly long distances in the hope that there will be food and water at the end of their journey.

So it’s fantastic to learn that overall, marathon, half-marathon and 5km runners raised more than $10,000 for children in need through ChildFund. Thank you!!

Despite all the aches and pains, it was worth it. It was a stunning day and we’d like to say a special thank you to Dion and the team at Jerry Clayton BMW North Shore Marathon and our support team especially Kathy and Emma who fed us all so well after the race!

If you would like to donate to our Horn of Africa Crisis Appeal please click here. To see more photos please visit our Facebook page.

Running for the children

Emily and Paul - first across the line for ChildFund!

By Paul Brown, CEO

Taper? What does that mean? Apparently I am supposed to be able to run 32km (or even 36km) by now, then my body will be geared up for tackling 42km on 28 August.

I wish.

It’s now less than 3 weeks to go to the inaugural Jerry Clayton BMW North Shore Marathon. I’ve managed to run 28km last week and have another long run to do before psyching myself up for my first marathon. If you see me on the day I’ll be the one running with a water bottle AND a torch. There won’t be records broken on this run!

There are a few ChildFunders and friends of ChildFund also running, and thanks to you all for supporting them with their fundraising and training.

It’s not too late to either support them (they each have fundraising pages on childfund.org.nz or everydayhero.co.nz) or if you want the challenge, to run and raise funds yourself.

I’d also love your support – please check out my fundraising page at http://www.childfundchallenge.co.nz/PaulFBrown – I’m aiming to raise $2,000 for our emergency response to help children in the famine in East Africa.

To those of you who have already donated – thank you!

To those of you running – good luck! And please be nice to the bloke hobbling with a torch….

Schools closing due to drought in Kenya

By David Kang’ethe, Sponsor Relations and Communications Director, ChildFund Kenya

Lopeyok and her children at ChildFund ECCD centre

Recently we visited Natukobenyo Boarding Primary School, one of the two girls’ boarding primary schools in the district. The school has an enrolment of 375 girls but was forced to close today because they ran out of food.

As we arrived at the school, the pupils were receiving their end-of-term reports ready to go home. From the looks on their faces, you could tell the girls, who come from all over the district, were not eager to leave because they knew the food shortage was worse at home.

When we visited the school kitchen and food store, they were empty, the last meal having been prepared and consumed earlier today. “There is nothing left here for the pupils and we cannot keep them around anymore,” said the acting head teacher Mercy Lobuin. She told us they had done their best to stretch the little food they had but now it was all over.

Mercy showed us that they have kept aside just a small amount of food for Class Eight pupils, who are preparing to sit for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education in October. These students will return to school earlier in order to prepare for the examinations. She said the little food they have might not be enough to cater for them but the school board of governors will deal with the problem at that time.

From the school, we proceeded to Lochwarengan Village, where we visited Lopeyok, a 32-year-old mother of seven children aged between 6 months and 17 years. Her husband is a herder, while Lopeyok is a charcoal burner. She also sells firewood to supplement her income. She told us that the current drought has killed all her animals and she now has to depend on charcoal selling for her livelihood.

She told us providing food for the family was a daily struggle, adding that they normally survive on one meal a day. On a bad day, she said, her family is forced to sleep hungry.

She told us the family did not have any food to eat tonight: “I know it will be very painful in the evening for them to sleep without an evening meal. But I’m happy tomorrow they will be able to get something when they go to the ECCD centre, where they will be able to be fed.” The ECCD centre is supported by ChildFund and is one of 13 in the community still providing feeding for children under five. All the other centres in the area have run out of food and closed, leaving thousands of children in danger of starvation.

Cups in hand, Lopeyok and children walk to ChildFund centre for food

We also visited Lokitaung District Hospital, where six severely malnourished children have been admitted for stabilisation. The children are also suffering from dehydration and pneumonia. The clinical officer in charge told us two children died because they were not referred to the hospital in time. From our observation, malnutrition levels are increasing with more children falling into severe malnutrition.

Your support for these children now is vital. Please donate today.

Horn of Africa: why children under 5 are most at risk

Waiting for food

By Victor Koyi, National Director, ChildFund Kenya

As our team in Kenya grapples with the worsening drought affecting more than 550,000 people in ChildFund program areas and more than 2.5 million across the population, our constant concern is the well-being of children, especially those five and younger. They are at the highest risk of death and life-long development issues due to inadequate food intake at a young age.

Our analysis also shows a gap in the outreach to this vulnerable age category. Most drought-response efforts are targeting children in general, seeking to provide support through primary schools. But children in the 0 to 5 age range are not found in the basic schools. To assume that they are being reached through the general food distribution to their parents is taking a huge risk of excluding this developmentally critical age group.

To close this gap, ChildFund Kenya is targeting young children through existing structures we have in place on the ground, including health facilities and ECCD (early childhood care and development) centres, which are both home- and community-based.

We’re also mobilising our network of trained community health workers to deliver services and monitor child health. It is an efficient way to reach and serve this most vulnerable population. We’re also directing our services to expectant and lactating mothers as another means of ensuring we reach infants.

A number of interventions are under way. We are providing supplementary feeding in all ECCD centres in ChildFund’s seven operational areas: the North Rift region, the Lake region, Mt Kenya region, Emali, Turkana, Mukuru and the Nairobi Integrated Project.

Cups in hand, mum and children walk to ChildFund centre for food

In addition, we are trucking in potable water and setting up point-of-use water treatment stations, as well as providing training on hygiene and sanitation practices. Health interventions include monitoring child growth to spot malnutrition at the early stages, providing vitamin A and iron supplements, deworming and treating minor illnesses. We also are providing psychosocial support, which is essential to help children recover from the trauma as well as cope with the situation.

In all of our drought responses, we are linking up with any partners also working in the area, including the government and the World Food Program. We’re also positioning ChildFund to respond to an increase in drought severity anticipated in the next few months.

Already the malnutrition rates in Turkana stand at 37 per cent — way above the 15 per cent threshold established by WHO for emergency conditions. Interventions to improve the health status of children in these hard-hit areas, especially pastoralist populations, present a huge challenge. This population’s near-constant migration in search of food and water limits their children’s access to primary and emergency health services.

A different but equal challenge exists in Kenya’s urban areas. Due to hunger, children remain in the house instead of going to school. This limits their access to education and basic health care as well as nutrition support.

In Kenya’s worst-hit areas, we do not have the luxury of time. We must act now or consign huge numbers of our population to fate, and that is contrary to the spirit of our joint humanity and resolve.

Our commitment as front-line development workers is to save lives. Our appeal to citizens of the world is to respond to this call to save young children facing the ultimate risk.

Please donate today to save children’s lives.
Photo credit: Jake Lyell

My Sri Lankan Adventure by ChildFund Ambassador Alison Quigan

ChildFund Ambassador and well-known New Zealand actor, playwright and director Alison Quigan travelled with ChildFund New Zealand to personally meet the children and families in Sri Lanka that need our help and witness the progress that ChildFund and New Zealanders have made possible. Alison travelled round New Zealand last month to talk to supporters. This is her speech.

Alison and her sponsored child Vithusha

I had a wonderful and hectic and amazing time in Sri Lanka. It was so unexpected. I never expected to travel in 2011 and I certainly never expected to travel to Sri Lanka. I knew nothing about Sri Lanka – well I knew the names of some of the cricket team, I knew how great they were and how difficult they were to beat. I had no idea about their country and the challenges they face.

We were a tight group, Kathy, Kiri, Jehan and I and we were there to see the projects and the people who run them.

Our first day was in Colombo and even though it is a big city it takes a bit to get used to. It was hot, and dusty. There seemed to be a film of red dust over everything. And chaotic. The traffic is loud and busy with people in vehicles of all shapes and sizes. The trishaws are everywhere – little scooters with a cab on the back. Big enough for three of us or about five locals if they squeezed in.

On Monday at 7.30am we set off.

We travelled with Dinenthe, ChildFund’s Regional Sponsorship Manager and our driver, Sarat, up to Nuwara Elyia (the tea plantations) A windy narrow road for 7 hours through Kandy up into the hills.

The driving was out of this world. I mean – what side of the road do they drive? BOTH!!! Thank goodness for Sarat, our driver. He was amazing on all sorts of roads. The city roads were incredibly busy and without controls – maybe three sets of traffic lights in Colombo! Big army presence with machine guns. Trishaws everywhere and bikes. Huge buses that drive through anything – they just barge through. It’s a real horn culture. The louder the horn the faster they go. When we first set out on the Monday we would wince and squeal at the near misses. Especially rounding a corner to see two buses coming towards us. One bus passing a trishaw and the other bus overtaking the first one but then just before impact they would all swerve back to the left and we would all continue. By the end of the week we didn’t blink. Somehow throughout the chaos they seem to get through.

After seven hours we arrived in Nuwara Elyia. It’s an Alpine resort town that some families visit when it is too hot on the coast. We met up with Saman who is the Area Manager and he guided us to the plantations. This is something I was really looking forward to seeing. I’ve seen the tea adverts and I like drinking tea and even though I knew there were problems nothing really prepared me for the reality. The tea plantations look amazing – like very neat hedges on hill after hill. But the shanty towns that surround them are so depressing. The roads are also almost impassable but we travelled on them anyway. They are completely destroyed by the heavy trucks that transport the tea and by neglect. Saman also took us to the housing that the pluckers and their families have lived in for generations. We were made very welcome everywhere we went. Each time we visited a new place, we were given a ceremonial welcome of flowers and special oils. And this is when we met the pluckers and their families, we met children in the schools and we saw their homes.

The pluckers are all women. They wear a heavy apron-like garment and they carry the sacks for the tea on their heads. 16 kilos a day. It is hot, back breaking work and they are paid $2.50 a day. It is a long day from 6am to 6pm for women who then go home and cook a meal for their families.

Five years ago ChildFund entered their lives. The difference this has made to their lives is dramatic.

Alison with school children on the Dessford Tea Estate School

When the women told us how their lives were changed by the tap and the toilet they wept. Their children were so much healthier, they had more time – they had a life. And children had ambitions now. After generations of children repeating their parents lives now they see themselves as doctors, engineers, teachers. They can see a future away from this cycle of early pregnancy, low wages and poverty.

The next day we moved to Batticoloa on the east coast. Where the tea plantations had been green this was a dust bowl. Barren. Three years ago this was a war zone. Huge army presence. Check points everywhere. The floods had wrecked everything. Ninety per cent of the rice crop destroyed. And that on top of being displaced and having had to live in camps, these people are truly poor. They have nothing.

This is where I met Vithusha, my sponsored child. Eight years old, very shy and very beautiful. And thin. Too thin, but a smile when it came that just breaks my heart. I met her mother Meenadchi (48) and sister, Uma who is 16 and they very graciously showed me their home. It must have been very daunting for them with all those people there.

There was our group of four from NZ and Dinenthe and at least half a dozen from the local office including our interpreter. Meenadchi and her daughters live in a mud hut made by her older son before he died. It has been damaged by the floods so has a gaping hole in one of the side walls. It is small, they are all small, I’m 5’ 3” and like a giant beside them. I bumped my head when I entered the room. There were three rooms. One bedroom, a room with the hole in the wall and a kitchen. There were no doors, no windows, just gaps and the kitchen was a bare room with a fire in a ring of stones on the floor at one end. Meenadchi earns a very meagre living grinding and selling rice flour but of course after the floods the rice crop was all but destroyed there would be precious little of that soon. I asked about water and she said there was a well in walking distance but I couldn’t see it and a toilet? She just waved her arm – anywhere in the area.

Outside Vithusha's house

I showed them pictures of me with my two children and Meenadchi told about the tragic death of her husband and daughter during the war and more recently her son. Her sorrow and despair almost overwhelmed us both, but she has a strong spirit and a great love for her children that keeps her going. I knew I wanted to make a difference in her life. My connection was really with Meenadchi because she was the one carrying the burden. I wanted to help her and I knew I could do it too. This family is not the only one that needs help. There are many more. I want to help them all I just can’t do it alone. If we can get more child sponsors from New Zealand to make a small investment in Batticaloa we can make a life changing and a life saving difference in that area.

The ChildFund people were inspirational. Practical, generous and funny. Bernard and his team in Batti have done so much for these people. Entirely funded by New Zealand they are working to make real improvements for the people of Batti. No sponsors out there yet*, but they have started with small loans to start modest businesses. Twenty-thousand rupees ($200) to buy chickens to start a chicken run and have an income. The loans then get paid back. Little group of goats the same. The women out there have formed their own committees – the Child Well-Being Committee – to motivate and provide leadership in these ventures. They arrived dressed identically with perfectly ironed saris. And we were there straight from a hotel, bleary eyed and wearing crumpled clothes. Their dignity and determination was a sight for sore eyes.

That was the night we stayed in the worst hotel of our trip. It did have air con – although it was so loud and strong it blew the mosquito nets off the bed. And the jumping frogs in the bathrooms. Not an optional extra.

Then back to Polonnaruwa and a series of projects that had been running for ten years, where people had electricity and fridges and a phone and their projects had produced success – Here we saw a woman who had used her loan to buy an oven. She now provided baked goods to the school and her whole community. She was now helping her community by taking in a boy who had lost his parents. We also met a woman who had been given cows and she created produce from those cows. Another who had a herd of goats, another with chickens. it was good to finish with an area that was clearly on its way.

We did do some sightseeing. On the last day Indra took us to the ancient city of Polonnaruwa from the 12 century – amazing architecture with toilets and drainage and ancient civilization. This is a very old culture. It was pointed out that in these great cities there was no permanent housing for the workers. Only for Kings and priests.

Back to Colombo. We drove for 42 hours in those six days. The best of the roads were normal country roads but the worst were severely damaged by flooding and were like waves on the shore so we travelled very slowly (3 kms an hour) and we were literally thrown around the van and cheered when we found flat roads.

When we returned to Colombo it was the Sri Lankan Pakistan game and Sri Lanka lost on the last ball. The cricket was a good thing to talk to the kids about. And because of my constant education on the game from my son Freddie I was able to have halting discussions about their favourite Sri Lankan players. Sangakarra is your favourite, isn’t he? No, Dilshan! With the Dilscoop! This from a boy who lived on a tea plantation, with one tap in the middle of nowhere.

Children of Batticaloa, Sri Lanka

Did I have a good time? Of course – in so many ways. So many experiences. In spite of their challenges, we met so many delightful people. The children seemed like all children, bright and cheerful. Their parents and teachers were watchful and thankful. When I looked into the eyes of Vithusha’s mother, Meenadchi, we understood each other. We wanted the same thing. Two women wanting the best for our children.

Sri Lanka is a wonderful country with a strong sense of who they are. They have much to offer the world. We are very lucky in New Zealand. Things we take for granted these people don’t even dream of. It is good to see the progress very obvious after two years, after five years and after ten years. It’s up to us now to make sure we do make a difference right now.

*Alison was the very first sponsor. Since we travelled there we now have more than 100 children sponsored by Kiwis – but we need 1,000 to start making a real difference. Eventually we need 3,000 kiwi sponsors. Please help us today by sponsoring a child in Batticaloa (The Singing Fish Project) as Alison has done. Thank you!