Children – the heart of Sri Lanka

ChildFund New Zealand Programmes Manager Michael Vujnovich visited Sri Lanka in October to check on progress in the programmes that New Zealanders support. Here Michael gives us an insight into what happens on his annual visits.

Michael being introduced to children

When I’m in Sri Lanka I look at the work ChildFund New Zealand is supporting, meet our Sri Lankan ChildFund colleagues and with children and families who are participating in our programmes. They show me the progress of the projects to demonstrate the difference they’re making and that the funds are well spent. It’s always pretty intense, lots of serious and focused discussions about the causes of poverty, the plans to address them and how those plans are going. All rather heavy stuff, but very interesting (for me at least!) and important to ensure we bring good change in the communities we work in.

Michael meeting children

Sometimes, in amongst all this serious stuff, I have the opportunity to meet with groups of children. I prepare for this – to little kids I must look like a huge gorilla, I’m 6 feet 3 inches, so I don’t want to scare them. I crouch down so they’re taller than me, I speak slowly and quietly, I tell them a bit about my own life. I behave like this because I want them to feel safe and share with me what it’s like for them in their lives and what they aspire to, the challenges they face and how they see themselves and their futures. And sometimes, just sometimes, they really let me know.

One group of children presented a dance they’d been practising, they were fantastic! Other children sang and some showed me their art. They told me about themselves and some of the challenges they face such as the distance to school and the lack of public transport or bikes.

“It is a very long walk, an hour each way,” one very small girl told me. I thought of my own 20 minute long walks to school as a child and realised she was walking at least three times as long, this poor little child!

The children told me about how they are ensuring that their friends attend school with them instead of minding the cattle. These children know that their parents’ income is increasing and that more of their friends are getting access to healthcare and school. These children see a bright future.

Discussing progress

Arriving with a purpose in mind I went about my business, trying to ensure that the funds we raise are well spent in the fight against poverty. My purpose was to assess progress and value. And, while doing this, I met these amazing children. In their opinion the project progresses well. In their opinion there is good change happening in their community. Their lives are improving and they know what’s needed for their lives to continue improving.

This is the point of all our support and work, the point of the projects through which we seek to bring good change in poor communities – the lives and wellbeing of these children.

Why I do this

I’m often asked when I come back to New Zealand how I feel about all the poverty I’ve seen. Honestly, I feel extremely dissatisfied, angry and grimly determined to do something about the fact that children grow up in poverty, threatened and hungry. But it’s not about me, it’s not about how I feel.

So I lock my feelings away and get driven from the inside by them. It is like a huge pressure, an impatience, a seething rage against the rotten sick injustice of it. But, the veneer cracks a bit, sometimes a lot, when I see children flourishing like this… I well up with tears when I see how their lives are changed as they and their families slowly free themselves from poverty and yes, in spite of or perhaps because of my feelings, my heart breaks with hope.

From violent past to youth mentor

We wanted to share a lovely story from ChildFund International about how one child’s life can be turned around and impact so many more.

Denzel will speak the UN on Oct 19 as part of International Day of Eradication of Poverty

A 16-year-old Dominican boy who overcame a violent and hopeless past through a programme sponsored by ChildFund International will share his transformational story at the United Nations next week. The event is part of the commemoration of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty and the world body’s continuing observation of the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Denzel Matthew is one of five children from an impoverished family in the Caribbean nation of Dominica. His troubled life centred on his involvement with a spate of violent activities until a photography course brought him purpose and direction.

Like so many youth in Dominica, Denzel faced a bleak future, having been involved in violent activities since a young age.

“Every day was a struggle for me to survive, as I come from a poor family and community,” he says. “I could not see my future. I had nowhere to go.”

But last year, a photography course made possible by ChildFund International donors opened an unexpected doorway for Denzel. After years of despair, he discovered how to channel his energy in artistic rather than violent ways. In addition to providing him with new skills, the photography class introduced the teenager to others with similar interests. When the programme ended, Denzel wrote in his evaluation that he no longer felt like dropping out of school or hanging out with the local gang.

“For the first time in my life, I had a way to let out my emotions without being violent,” he says.

As he shapes his own future, Denzel also wants to change the lives of those following in his footsteps. He has joined a youth group of about 20 peers who are committed to making a difference in their community. Denzel’s latest effort is to create a mentoring programme to assist children in his community with reading and writing skills.

The youth group also is developing a conservation programme to help protect an area known as Nature Island, a popular tourist destination on Dominica.

“Today, I am a happier person and am happy to tell my story,” Denzel says. “I hope I can change the future of others who may be in situations like me.”

Denzel will take part in two U.N. events on Monday, Oct. 19.

The first, “Children and Families Speak Out Against Poverty,” takes place 1:15-2:30 p.m., in Conference Room 2, U.N. Secretariat Building. This commemoration is organised by the International Movement ATD Fourth World, the NGO Subcommittee for the Eradication of Poverty and the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs, and co-sponsored by the Missions of France and Burkina Faso to the United Nations.

The presentation will be followed by an interactive panel: “Children: The Future and the Present — Participation in Poverty Reduction and Accountability for Rights.” This event takes place at UNICEF’s Labouisse Hall, 3-5:30 p.m. The panel is organized in partnership with UNICEF by the NGO Subcommittee for the Eradication of Poverty and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, with the support of the NGO Committee on UNICEF.

In Philippines disaster, family comes first

Following severe flooding in the Philippines, many families find themselves without a home and are struggling to return to a normal life. We visit a family in the Philippines who is just thankful to be alive.

By ChildFund Philippines Staff

Catherine, an 8-year-old girl in the Philippines, is alive and safe thanks to the quick-thinking actions of her parents following flooding caused by Typhoon Ondoy on Sept. 26.

Catherine and her two siblings are elementary school students. Their father is a pedicab driver and their mother works as a maid. They live in a small house, constructed of light materials alongside a river.

When Typhoon Ondoy hit, heavy rains kept the family at home that day. Around 10 a.m., the family noticed the river rising and overflowing its banks. Alarmed, Catherine and her parents and siblings started packing and trying to save their most important possessions.

But as the heavy rain continued, water quickly penetrated their house, which caused the family members to panic. The couple’s attention turned from saving their belongings to making sure their children were safe. The only way out of their house was to go onto their roof. Almost 16 hours passed before the water finally subsided. They were wet, hungry and uncomfortable.

Catherine tells ChildFund Philippines staff that she was extremely nervous and was afraid as she saw the water rising. She cried as she talked about losing her school supplies. Her father says that the experience of losing their belongings is tragic, but that life is more important than personal items. Things can be replaced, but life cannot, he says.

For more information on ChildFund’s response to the flooding in the Philippines and disasters in the Asia region, click here.

More on the Philippines

Population: 97.9 million

ChildFund beneficiaries: More than 450,000 children and families

Did You Know?: More than 7,000 islands make up the Philippines, but only about 2,000 of them are inhabited.

Moses – Part II

Phill Prendeville’s post of June 30 tells the story of a Kenyan orphan called Moses and his desperate battle against disease and famine. Since then Moses has been receiving corn-soya blend porridge once a day. The fantastic news is that he now has a new sponsor from New Zealand.
 
For the many of you who want to know how Moses is doing, here is an update below from Violet Lukale, Sponsor Relations Officer for the Emali Dedicated Project in Kenya.

Violet

Warm greetings from the entire Emali Dedicated Project here in Kenya, and from Moses and his family.

Moses still lives with his grandmother and his uncle as his grandmother is too old to take care of him all by herself. The grandmother is working hard though casual jobs are scarce and the family depends mainly on ChildFund’s support for emergency relief food.

The food situation is bad in the area as it is still affected by long dry spells making it hard for the family to do any subsistence farming. However ChildFund is distributing emergency food rations to families in the area. We are concentrating on the most vulnerable groups such as malnourished children, like Moses, children under the age of five years, and pregnant and breast feeding mothers.

Children assemble at Early Childhood Care and Development Centres in their villages and their parents prepare vitamin-enriched porridge for them once a day.  Because of Moses’ poor health he has received supplementary feeding of vitamin-enriched porridge, beans and maize.

Moses

Moses is receiving anti-retroviral medication and ChildFund ensures he and his uncle have transport to the clinic on a monthly basis. His health is not too bad now but is affected by opportunistic illnesses. Last week he was diagnosed with an eye infection and has been referred to a specialised hospital in Nairobi for further treatment. We will make sure that he has transport to Nairobi.

We will keep you updated on Moses’ progress.

Many thanks to New Zealand for your interest in Moses and your continuing much-needed support.

Uncertain future

 

By Phill Prendeville

 

Twins Hannah and Beth

I met twins Hannah and Beth on the day they turned five. The two girls didn’t know it was their birthday, their mother Margaret had not told them as she had no means to provide presents or a cake, in fact, she wasn’t sure whether there would be food for them at all that day.

Margaret is HIV positive, her husband, the twins’ dad is believed to have first contracted the virus and is now dead. Hannah has also been diagnosed as HIV positive. As Margaret told me her story she stopped many times stifling the pain and the tears. As a mother, her tears were not for herself but for her beautiful girls…tears for Hannah whose life was to be cut short and tears for Beth whom would be left alone.

HIV does not discriminate but in relation to the twins it chose to spare one, a cruel twist when good health commits a small child to a life left alone on the streets of a sprawling slum in Nairobi.

As the girls danced and played outside the rusting corrugated iron shack they called home, they seemed oblivious to their suffering, unaware of their plight, their future or their loss… two normal happy 5-year-old girls locked in their own world together. As I watched them, Margaret told me of the love they have for each other, how they slept wrapped in each other’s arms and how they never left each other’s side. Again tears rolled down Margaret’s face as she contemplated Hannah’s death. She did not fear her own death only the consequences it would create for her children.

Margaret and her girls

Children left to fend for themselves on the streets here are vulnerable to disease and sexual exploitation, their only protection is in numbers so they flock together for safety, hunting in packs and sleeping rough, they scavenge for food sharing what little they find, and create a family to replace the one they have lost… and incredibly most of them survive.

This is not the life a Mother would wish for her child. However it is not Margaret’s greatest fear, what Margaret fears most is that Beth, unable to cope with the loss of Hannah will almost certainly take her own life.

“There go I but for the grace of God,” I think again… I think of my girls at home and what their fifth birthdays were like, the four month count down, the wish lists, the parties and what turning 5 means to a child in the western world, the first taste of independence, education, new beginnings. I look at Hannah and Beth, playing amidst the rubbish and sewage, they don’t want for anything because they have never had anything, but the fact that they only know this life, a life of begging for food, crying yourself to sleep hungry and watching the other kids go to school doesn’t mean that Beth and Hannah do not have a right to a decent childhood and a good life, they can’t ask for it, but we can give it to them.

The twins smiling

One of the things I love about my job is there are times when I can do something personal to help and the best thing I can do for these girls right now is celebrate them, I buy both girls a cake and watch as two cakes, candles blazing are paraded towards them in their mother’s hands… the pure delight, the absolute joy and surprise from the twins in that moment, I treasure. The look on Margaret’s face sharing their joy was beautiful. As we eat cake and sing happy birthday Margaret tells me that this is the first birthday party the girls have ever had.

Meeting Margaret and the twins I can’t help but feel a deep sadness knowing that disease has given this family a death sentence and premature separation, sadness that turns to anger at the injustice small children like Beth and Hannah face, condemned to struggle to survive. Small children whom soon may find themselves abandoned and alone on the streets, whilst greed and gluttony parade themselves shamelessly in all walks of our modern world.

In a world where there is enough for everyone I wonder what it will take for everyone to get what they need? We live in a time when it is every man for himself and the winner takes all but to leave our fellow man in the gutter as we step over them on the way to the ball still seems to go against the grain of being human. Perhaps I am naive to believe in goodness as an intrinsic human quality but the funny thing about giving is that it makes you feel so good.

[Ed: Hannah and Beth feature in the television commercial that Phill shot. You can view it here.]

Tough times in Kenya

 By Phill Prendeville 

Still smiling

In Kenya today, life is tough – tougher than I remember it from other trips… everything seems somehow more desperate… but still the people smile.

Economic crisis and hardship has hit worldwide, many in New Zealand and around the world have watched their security and dreams collapse before them. As I sit in a dwelling in a Nairobi slum waiting for the torrential down pour to pass I can’t help but wonder what dreams my humble hosts have and how the world wide recession is affecting them. Funny thing about having nothing is you have nothing to lose.

I wonder if the tables were turned, and it was these Africans whom were the wealthy ones being asked to help the poor starving people of New Zealand how they would respond. As this family offer me the only seat in the house and prepare a cup of tea and try to find some food to serve, my hunch is they would do whatever they could. Even people who have nothing will offer you half. It is a hospitality and warmth to strangers that seems a thing of the past back home.

All this family wants is to give their children an education, to give them a chance at a better life than they themselves have received, to have some food to put on the table and some kind of roof over their heads. Perhaps they are the lucky ones not having to worry about losing the bach or the boat.

The recession, although tragic and painful for many, will give people in developed western countries an opportunity to think deeper about others whom have never known good times, never had abundance, and never had savings, investments, a mortgage or the luxury of credit card debt.

Perhaps people who are already sponsors will not give up on the kids here as they tighten their belts and rationalise their budgets, perhaps more than ever they will empathise with those facing absolute poverty. I wonder how far people will go for another they have not met. I wonder how easy it is to forget. Unfortunately I know the answer, since January this year hundreds of New Zealanders have returned their sponsored child to sender.

Living in poverty

Everything is relative. Even though I know kids here are dying needlessly from curable diseases everyday, I still get annoyed having to queue or wait in traffic and I still worry about where the next dollar is coming from. I understand that at times, we have only the capacity to deal with what is right in front of us. I understand that some people really cannot afford to help a child somewhere on the other side of the world. I just hope that they know what huge effect that decision makes to a household like the one I presently sit in… I hope that the child that they have forfeited is not for the price of two bottles of wine or a 50 gram packet of tobacco.

The western world is facing hardship but right now in Kenya there are more than 3 million people including half a million children facing starvation due to drought.

Farmers can no longer grow their own food and have no money to buy it. The water holes are drying up and the animals are dying.

The Kenyan government has responded to the crisis by distributing maize to the worst affected areas but, it is simply not enough, the maize can’t be fed to the very young and has little nutritious value.

They won't give up

In rural areas like Emali, children are dropping out of school because they have to spend their days looking for water. Relatives and neighbours do their best to look after each other, especially the children. But with no food or water, the children here are literally starving to death whilst their parents or grandparents watch helplessly, unable to save them.

The human spirit is strong. These are good people living in hard times. They are doing their best against what seem insurmountable odds, they won’t give up but if anyone desperately needs help… they do and they need it now.

Moses

By Phill Prendeville

Moses

Mostly we tell the stories of kids living in desperate situations, kids that despite their circumstances still have a real glimmer of hope in front of them, kids that have the potential, with a little help, to achieve great things in their lives… but not always, today we met Moses.

Moses stood out amidst all the other kids… he was simply skin and bones with deep set blood shot eyes… instantly I could tell he was unwell. I met Moses and his grandmother, he is one of those rare children I meet where there is really very little hope, at eight years old Moses’ body is totally malnourished, he is HIV positive and I am sure, just by looking at him that without massive intervention he is not far from death.

Some children’s stories are almost too sad to tell because of the effect they may have on the viewer, and I wonder whether people will see Moses’s suffering and view the situation as hopeless and do nothing or maybe just shake their heads and change the channel which is the last thing these kids need. It’s a risk I’m prepared to take and spend the morning filming with Moses, he is a great little boy and even though he is literally starving to death he allows us a glimpse into his world.

The images we capture of him reveal a stark and harrowing existence; he is cared for by his grandmother whom, it is obvious, carries the burden of bearing witness to her grandson’s premature demise, unable to do anything to save him.

Moses and his grandmother live in the shell of a delapidated structure of an unfinished shack. No floors or windows just brick walls and some tin on the roof. It is savagely hot and they are miles from anywhere in rural Kenya reckoning with its fourth year of drought… and the onset of famine.

I can’t help but ponder at times like this the often quoted words “There, but for the grace of God go I” and how the luck of the draw defines so innately who we are and what we will become. Having children myself I look at kids like Moses and feel a mixture of emotions, despair for him but so grateful for my own situation. I endeavour to be totally positive and upbeat around Moses, he has no need for sympathy, so I hide it from him and give him as much cheer as I can, and silently commit once again to trying to do what I can to helping those I can.

During filming I wanted to show Moses eating, I asked his grandmother if there was a little food we could put in a bowl. In the nine years I have been coming to Africa, this was the first household I’d ever visited that didn’t have one solitary scrap of food to eat. I asked Moses’s grandmother how they survived, she told me that they often had to ask for food from others. They call it “borrowing” if they asked their neighbours and “begging” if they asked strangers. Whatever they call it, it’s a harsh, demeaning life, one where Moses’ grandmother, with nothing to feed him, boils water pretending to cook until he falls asleep.

Recently though and cause for more concern, Moses has stopped asking for food, perhaps because he knows there is none or perhaps because he doesn’t want to cause any pain to his grandmother, whatever the reason he has no energy and is starving to death. He is a child robbed of childhood.

Both Moses’ parents died from HIV and AIDS, Moses’s legacy is the disease itself and the stigma that comes with it, stigma that has ostracisized Moses and his grandmother from the community and forced them into a life of relative isolation and suffering.

Moses is receiving antiretroviral drugs which should allow him to live a relatively normal healthy life. However, the drugs must be taken with food to be totally effective.

More than 11 million children in Africa have been orphaned by HIV and AIDS. And no one knows how many of these kids also have the disease.

In a world full of excess, waste, selfishness and extreme greed,  I wonder  how best to document Moses’ plight… how best to help him and kids like him… in a time when so many people are stopping sponsoring kids here, I still have to  believe that people  really do care and will act, if given the opportunity. I just hope it’s soon.

The cry of the child

By Phill Prendeville

Violet

In the rural Kenyan town of Emali where we are filming, I am helped by Violet Lukulai, a tireless worker and advocate for children. Violet is a social worker for ChildFund and whilst we are here she will work as our translator during filming.

One of the trickier aspects of this project is not being able to speak the language when the whole filming process requires communication so the translator is pivotal for anything to happen. I generally try to use women as they tend to make the children more comfortable.

Violet is a bit of a character and she doesn’t look like she’ll take much nonsense. Before we start I apologise in advance for how demanding I will be of her. It’s a tough job as she has to immediately become part of the crew and ask the difficult questions for us with no prior experience.

Within an hour of meeting we are working and she is asking a grandmother about her imminent death. Violet has a tough veneer but as she talks I notice a tear sliding down her cheek. I think this is what makes Violet and people like her on the front line so amazing, that after all they have witnessed, all they have heard they are still affected, they still feel and are not hardened to the grim reality they face day after day.

Violet with Josie & friends

Over the next few days I find out that Violet walks miles to check on children and families. Sometimes hiring a bicycle, if she has a particularly long way to go. She never complained once. And when Tom and I got a chance we sat her down to get her perspective about the current situation and its impact on the orphans and vulnerable children.

What are the main challenges in Emali?
Drought is a problem. When the rains come, we buy seeds and give them to the parents to grow food but the crops fail because there is not enough rain. Food scarcity is a big problem because of the unreliable rain fall. The rains may last one or two days, the planting is done but then in a week the rains are gone. It has been this way for the last two years.  We don’t have any food and the food in the market is quite expensive.

As a result of the drought, most of the water points have dried up leaving families with no access to safe drinking water. There are a lot of children using dirty water, and then they get waterborne diseases like diarrhoea. We make sure that when the children get diseases they are treated so there are few deaths.

What are some of the problems the children are facing?
Some of the young girls waste so much time looking for water, they travel very far.  Under those circumstances they miss school because they are looking for water.  And for the orphans who live with their grandmothers, the grandparents are too old to look for water so the children look for water.

Even if they go to school they don’t get what the teacher is saying because they are hungry.  They go to school with empty stomachs.

Day by day I come across orphaned children. When I see them I feel sad because of their suffering, because they don’t have food, even clothes or go to school.  Some stay with old grandparents who cannot work to keep the children going.

If the grandparents die they may end up on the streets or be mistreated by people who will take advantage of them because there is no one to take care of them.  They may even be used as casual labourers even at a tender age.   They will go without food, they will walk naked and not be able to go to school.

What is the solution for the orphans?
We are looking to empower the community to take care of these children. We are planning to extend the piping and drill more bore holes to reach more families. Rather than spending a whole day looking for water, children can go to school and women can do more productive work. We need funds to extend pipelines and to train the communities in health and sanitation.

We have a feeding programme and relief food – especially for the orphans and vulnerable children being looked after by their grandparents. We have growth monitoring each month to identify the malnourished children and have supplementary feeding programmes for them.

What would you say to Kiwis?
I would like them to know about the cry of the child.  There is an orphan child who needs food, education, this child needs care and all this is not there. We are looking for someone who can hear the cry of these children.

You might think that Violet’s job is overwhelming, that no one could do what she does day after day for too long, but Violet has worked for ChildFund for eight years. As she says:

We should keep on day after day, not get tired, and not give up.  If we give up the children will suffer more and more.

Again there are tears on Violet’s face… not because she is sad but because she is so full of love.

Violet and friend

Amazing people

By Phill Prendeville

Josie and her grandmother

Another amazing day with more indepth insights into people’s lives. With such tight timeframes there is little time for small talk when interviewing people about their lives. Within 5 minutes of meeting someone I find myself asking them about the deaths of their children and their own imminent demise. Even through their tears they are completely open, honest and generous with their answers. Like a grandmother telling us how she feels knowing that when she dies her grandchild will be left to fend for herself on the streets, a place where children scavenge for food, are raped,  murdered or forgotten. They tell their stories in the hope that they will be helped.

Josie’s story begins in Emali, a rural town on the Nairobi-Mombasa highway. Five-year-old Josie lives with her 85-year-old grandmother. Her mother died when Josie was born. Her family are Masaai and depend on cattle, but all their cattle have died because of the drought.  Life is very hard because her grandmother is too old to work the land and selling livestock is their only source of income. With no livestock her grandmother borrows food from neighbours.

Josie at the waterhole

Besides food their biggest problem is access to clean safe water to drink. They have to walk a long way to a waterhole used by animals. The water is murky and not fit to drink but they have no choice. When there is no water here Josie walks further still to a dried up river bed where there are still some underground cachets remaining. It is the waterborne diseases that are killing the kids here. Josie often gets sick with stomach upsets and coughing. She also suffers malaria regularly.

Josie’s grandmother says that Josie was like a child that was thrown away and she needed to pick her up. She has picked Josie up as best she can and obviously loves her deeply. This elderly woman provides Josie with food when she can and emotional support. They live in a small hut made from cow dung in the middle of nowhere amidst a drought affected desert. I remember bits of a quote which was something like… they are children but they do not have a childhood. I look at Josie and think of my own girls at home and how I would feel as a parent having them go through this. But even with all this hardship, they still laugh loudly and smile broadly.

In the small rural town, another orphan Faith is helping her grandmother Elisabeth to prepare a meal – a porridge-like drink. There is no income and this is all they have. I ask Faith if she had one wish in the world what would she wish for… she says, to always be with her grandmother. Unfortunately Faith’s grandmother has cancer, she has had one breast removed already and there is little hope for her. I hope there will be someone to care for her when Elisabeth dies.

Faith - an orphan

The tenacity of the human spirit is amazing. People have incredible courage in the face of such adversity. What stands out most to me is the overwhelming, very apparent love they have for each other and how this overcomes the desperate situation they’re in.

During the day we work quickly, continually looking for opportunities to show the truth of people’s lives and getting the footage to illustrate it. It’s only when we stop at the end of the day that I have time to reflect how rewarding and humbling it has been. It’s only then that I realise just how much these amazing people have given us in such a short time. And that hopefully the work we are doing may give them something in return.

Filming orphans of Mathare Slum

 

Introduction

Phill in Kenya

Phill Prendeville and Tom Markham-Short spent two weeks in Kenya filming a television commercial for ChildFund New Zealand’s Africa Orphan Rescue.  This blog follows their journey from the slums of Nairobi to the rural town of Emali.

Filming orphans of Mathare Slum

By Phill Prendeville

Day 1, Mathare slum, one of the oldest slums in Nairobi. Around half a million people live here, many are third or fourth generation residents.  I have filmed here before and know that it is a good location to find true suffering and orphaned children living in desperate conditions.

Mathare Slum, Nairobi, Kenya

This is my ninth filming trip to Africa, I am no longer shocked by what I see, on the streets here, sewage spills out, only blocked temporarily by rubbish or people walking through it. The stench is what hits you first and then whatever you’re stepping in second… The slums are hugely overcrowded and hundreds of children run wild – the children and the poverty are the reasons we’re here.

Local ChildFund staff have let people know that we are coming to film orphans. Caregivers bring the children to meet us. We watch them play and interact, and talk to them. We ask about their personal stories from the local staff and then we talk to the children’s caregivers. We find out what illnesses they suffer from (such as malnutrition, malaria), how their parents died, how old they are, and whether they go to school.

We aren’t working to a script; we’re looking for stories in front of us. It’s difficult to choose a single child for the commercial to focus on as every single kid has a different unique story. All the children we see are orphans who live in varying degrees of poverty. One child suffers often from malaria, her grandmother is riddled with cancer, and another child’s grandparents are fit but very elderly and without them she will have to fend for herself on the streets. Within a couple of hours we have chosen the kids we will work with.

Molly

One of the little girls we film is Molly who is looked after by her grandmother Freda.  Freda is crippled and dying…Freda worries what will happen to Molly when she dies and tells me: “Orphans die here. The kind of life they live is terrible… I feel sad that they get food from the dustbins from the floor or they have to beg.  I don’t want her (Molly) to end up like that.”  Freda finds it difficult to think of Molly left on her own but is no stranger to the grim realities of life here. Freda tells me more of her daily struggle looking after Molly whose parents are dead: “If I don’t have enough money for water or to eat – we will just sleep… we will not have water or eat, we will sleep and wait for the next day.”

At first Molly is a little shy of the camera, but when she smiles her face lights up. Dealing with young children and getting them to walk and stand and smile when you need them to is not easy in any environment. We’ve only met Molly and the other children that day, we can’t speak their language and we want them to act naturally for us, strangers pointing a camera at them.

The day’s filming is long, frustrating but strangely exhilarating. Two white men with cameras in the slum attract attention. It’s like a travelling circus with no crowd control and a cast of thousands whose languages I can’t speak. I learn one word “Endelea” which means keep moving. I shout this out at the crowds gathered staring at us, many of the bystanders laugh and shout it back at me… fair enough. We rope in Alice, one of the local staff, and the security guys to help. Out of 10 takes, we get one or two shots we can use. It’s Tom’s first trip out of New Zealand, he seems to be taking it all in his stride… we’ll see.

Phill shooting in Mathare Slum

Filming in the slums definitely isn’t a walk in the park… we have all the usual hurdles of filming to get over… time, light conditions, crowd control, getting the kids to be natural, coupled with the intensity and slight edge of jeopardy that filming here creates… we have three armed guards with us as a precaution, but generally once people know what we are doing they are supportive. People here love a laugh and even in bad times have a real smile to share. 

At the end of the day we end up covered in mud and filth, filming has been sucessful and as we leave surrounded by a running escort of 100 laughing, shouting kids, waving like the Queen,  I know I can leave it behind, have a hot shower and a cold beer. I can drive out out of here. Half a million people can’t.