She writes:
"With a fresh infusion of money, we were able to purchase additional iron sheets to complete the roof and on 19 Occtober, 2010, the sheets were delivered.
Additionally, about a dozen of the street children were agreeable to working at the site to cut the grass - which as you can see from the photos below, was quite tall. Instead of paying wages to others in the community, we thought to employ these children. They were asked if they wanted to do this, and they said, "Yes!"
Several of them walked to the site (a distance of about 3 kilometers) and several were picked up at the local dump site. The older boys were asked to go and work, but they said that if we didn't take the smaller children, they wouldn't go, so they all piled into the Toyota and away we went. The car is definitely not designed for driving in the bush - but we made it there and back - two times! We returned in early afternoon to take them back to town to purchase food.
They said that they preferred to be paid with food, as if they had money the older boys would beat them and steal the money - so we agreed to this arrangement. When we took them back to town we gave them enough money to purchase a good meal for themselves, plus we gave enough extra so they could have a soda! "
Additionally, about a dozen of the street children were agreeable to working at the site to cut the grass - which as you can see from the photos below, was quite tall. Instead of paying wages to others in the community, we thought to employ these children. They were asked if they wanted to do this, and they said, "Yes!"Several of them walked to the site (a distance of about 3 kilometers) and several were picked up at the local dump site. The older boys were asked to go and work, but they said that if we didn't take the smaller children, they wouldn't go, so they all piled into the Toyota and away we went. The car is definitely not designed for driving in the bush - but we made it there and back - two times! We returned in early afternoon to take them back to town to purchase food.
They said that they preferred to be paid with food, as if they had money the older boys would beat them and steal the money - so we agreed to this arrangement. When we took them back to town we gave them enough money to purchase a good meal for themselves, plus we gave enough extra so they could have a soda! "
One question we are wondering about is this: "Is it best to pay youngsters in money, or in food?" As noted above, if the younger ones get money the older ones are likely to steal it from them. Another issue is that sometimes they spend money on ganja (marihuana) or drink.
(This picture shows Mimi Burbank and Sebeya Peter discussing payment with some of the older boys.)
We are starting to explore the possibilities of setting up a street children bank, so that their money can be safe, and they can save it up. This is successfully done with street children in Delhi - see http://videosift.com/video/Banking-on-the-Future-Helping-Indias-Street-Children .
Remember, if you would like to help, visit www.justgiving.com/kasesestreetkids - all contributions, large or small, are gratefully received!
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