Friday, September 12, 2014

Guest blogger - Amin Maaz

A few weeks ago, Amin from the company Flexibla traveled to Sudan and visited the orphanage. As we have previously informed you, Flexibla raised a generous amount of money to support I Care, and this is his story of the experience:

After a long day of shopping and buying diapers, powder milk, toothbrushes, toothpaste, soup, washing powder, rice and a lot of other things for the orphanage we finally arrive at the orphanage with a car filled with so many grocery bags, they were sticking out of the windows. We parked the car just outside the gates and as soon as the children saw me standing there with three footballs in my hands and all the things in the car behind me, their eyes lit up with happiness.






I felt an indescribable feeling of joy as the kids started running towards me and I let go off the footballs.

The children, being overwhelmed with excitement, all wanted to say hi and see what we brought. Their excitement was so intense that I even felt the need to close the gates a bit to keep them from running out into the streets.
The children proceeded to grab as many of the things we bought as they could cary and showed me the way into the orphanage. As I entered the orphanage I looked around and noted that the place was not in good condition. It felt extremely hot and everything inside was dark as the electricity was gone and there weren't any windows to let some light in.
As I walked around I noticed a few other children that were lying on the ground, they were too disabled to play with the other kids and I saw how they were stretching their necks out to see what was going on.
I walked passed one child who stretched his hand out and grabbed my ankle. I looked down at him and sat down on the ground next to him. With the biggest smile on his face he said "Mister, Mister... Thank you" over and over again.




I brought out my camera to capture this moment when suddenly one of the workers walked up to me and asked me to stop. I asked her why and she said " it doesn't look good that he's laying on the ground like that, Let me pick him up and wash him and put on some better close before you take a picture". I tried to explain that it was okay and that she didn't have to do that, but she insisted. As the day went on I noticed that she did the same thing with all the children. My intention was to capture reality with my camera and they wouldn't let me.I walked over to a friend who lives in Sudan and therefore knows the way things work. I asked him why they did that. He said that their mentality is like that. They see the kids as their own and don't want the rest of the world to see them in a compromising state, they feel embarrassed over it.After that I went around and played with the kids and they were just so happy to see a grown man there to see them and to play with them. All of them wanted to high five me and shake my hand and just wanted my attention. It felt like it was a real treat for them to receive all these gifts we brought them and to have an older "boy" there to play with them.We bought a lot of things and it felt good but leaving there I couldn't help to wish I could do more for them. I wanted to fix the whole place up, bring all the kids new clothes instead of the rags they were wearing, more books and pens and for their incredible small library, paint the whole place instead of the sand/dirt walls they had, replace the beds, have them engage in more activities. The list of things to do for these children is endless and I could go on forever.

The feeling I am left with is that I just wish I could do more.