The difficult road ahead
Chris Weeks blogs from Kinshasa – the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The country is the largest in Sub-Saharan Africa, around two-thirds the size of Western Europe, but with no effective road network. Elections were held here in November, the second since gaining independence in 1960.
Of all the striking images I’ve seen around Kinshasa over the past few days, this one is right up there. The streets are littered with crashed cars – in fact, most of those being driven are worryingly crumpled.
But a yellow school bus? To our minds it’s the very symbol of safety and security for schoolchildren. I was to
ld that this one rolled over in a rutted “road” in the Kinshasa suburbs killing 20 children.
“Road” is in inverted commas because, outside the city centre, they’re not paved, potholes are the size of swimming pools, and vehicles can crash into them and flip over.
No-one I spoke to knew exactly what happened with the bus. What I do know is that, if it had happened in Europe or North America, we would expect headlines for weeks, inquiries, prosecutions (civil and criminal), and resignations.
Patience for change
I just met my colleague Vianney Dong, an energetic and inspiring woman who’s in charge of Advocacy and Justice for Children at World Vision in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She has her work cut out.
Amid my barrage of questions, Vianney explained to me that World Vision isn’t going to fix problems overnight and we’re not going to fix them alone.
That’s why, she said, we’ve been working for years alongside government, the legal system, schools, religious leaders, other aid agencies, families, and – most importantly – children. All of them, and us, have a responsibility to change things. And that’s why we’re here for the long haul.
Baffling background
I recently wrote about elections in the Congo and started to delve into the country’s tragic and confusing past. My colleague here blogged that it’s easy to become swamped by statistics – 5.4million deaths during two wars in the country, nearly half of them children; the lowest ranking out of 187 countries in this year’s UN Human Development Index; two million rape victims.
It’s not just the subject matters that make it tough to tell stories from this country. For a start, the cumbersome name: Democratic Republic of Congo. Some people shorten it to DR Congo (which, to me, looks like “Doctor” Congo). If you just say “Congo”, people ask which Congo – because there are two.
There’s this Congo, with the capital city Kinshasa; and the other Congo, with the capital city Brazzaville (which I can see if I clamber to the fifth floor of this building and look out across the Congo River).
A picture of life
I’ve come here to do background work for a news story which has direct relevance to the UK. We’ll publish more about that later.
World Vision UK is increasingly focusing its attention on this country – one of the world’s toughest places– so we’ll be working to paint a picture for you of what life is really like here for children.
But most of all (and something I think World Vision can be really good at) we’ll endeavour to stand back and let children tell their stories directly to you – including how support in the UK can help shrink the distance between these children’s dreams and reality.
Chris works for World Vision UK’s Media Team.
Tears, laughter and a whole lot of face-ache
2 February 2012
“All of us have face ache,” Clare told me on our bus back to Hoima this evening. “I don’t think any of us have ever smiled as much as we did today!”
I spent yesterday with some sponsors from the UK, as they met their children for the very first time. I know this is something many of our sponsors would like to do in the future, but you should be warned; face ache is just one of the side effects…
“Seeing Shirati toddling over it was hard not to burst into tears, I didn’t expect it to affect me so much but she was so beautiful and happy to see us and, well… real. I couldn’t help but fall in love with her there and then.”
Clare has just begun to sponsor three-year-old Shirati, together with some friends from work. Watching her play with her ‘dolls’ (she’ll pretend anything she’s given is her baby, even a banana!) you’d never know it, but her short life has already been incredibly hard. Her mother died in childbirth, and her father has also passed away.
She lives with her grandmother and cousins in a house they are borrowing from another family after her grandmother was forced to leave her previous home. It’s not permanent – the family could come back at any time – but they are saving to buy some land of their own.
“Shirati’s too young to understand everything her grandma’s been through. She’s HIV positive, with no home to call her own and although she’s well at the moment I can see how sponsorship is a big weight off her mind.
“It’s not a quick fix but with World Vision’s support for the family and the whole community, she can be confident that things will improve in the future. I’m really excited to see how we can help, and about getting to know Shirati as her future gets brighter and brighter.”
Shirati loves playing with dolls and will pretend anything is her baby, even a banana
After the heartache of yesterday, meeting Shirati was a much needed, joy-filled start to the day. I’d certainly never done the hokey cokey in 30 degrees before! Our next visit also provided an encouraging contrast with one of this week’s toughest moments.
From Shirati’s house we went to meet Colin, a little boy that Poe’s brother and sister-in law have sponsored for the last four years. Like Domina, who we met yesterday, his mother suffered terrible abuse at the hands of her husband. But unlike Domina, she and Colin had some support.
“It was hard to hear that even sponsored children can aren’t immune to that sort of pain. But it was also lovely to see how family is just as important to them as it is to me and my brother. We’re just the same in that respect. Colin’s mum is living with Colin’s uncle now, and Colin’s gone to live with his aunt, closer to a good school. What was especially touching was how much they value the support they have from World Vision, and the relationship they have with my brother Peter and his wife Ruth.
“They all pray regularly for each other and asked me to pass on a prayer request to them, for stability at home. I felt so privileged to be able to do that, and humbled by their faith in God, despite everything that’s happened.
“I’ll take that home with me, along with a long list of things to tell my brother about Colin – starting with how much he treasures the letters and cards he receives. I’d love my brother to send him a football. Colin loves it, but he doesn’t have one to play with.”
Yesterday was my last day in Kimu and Ntwetwe. But before I go I’d like to pass on two messages of encouragement for child sponsors, whether your child lives here in Uganda, or anywhere else in the world.
The first – please don’t underestimate the importance of writing to your child. Every sponsored child I’ve met treasures the letters and cards they receive. However dusty and dirty the surroundings, they’re kept safe in boxes and folders and plastic bags; a reminder that however hard life may be, someone is thinking of them. That relationship is a gift more precious than any amount of money could buy.
The second – you are changing lives, not only by giving money each month, but by giving hope. I’ve met 12 families this week. Some with children who are sponsored, others with children who are not. Often, there’s been little difference between them in terms of wealth, clothes or food. But what was missing from those not yet sponsored was a special sort of hope we saw today.
Clare saw it in the eyes of Shirati’s grandmother, who can trust that her children and grandchildren will see some big changes in her community. Poe saw it in the strength of the relationship between her brother and Colin, and the support around them from World Vision.
In the communities where World Vision is at work, there are small changes happening every day that make hoping and dreaming possible. When I’ve asked families who have not been involved with World Vision what they hoped for the future, all too often there was no answer. But the families of sponsored children have each been able to express their plans for this year and the next – how they are going to make life better for their children.
And the more children who are sponsored, the further that hope can spread. If you, or someone you know, are able to sponsor a child in Uganda, that would be amazing. I’ve seen it all week; how sponsorship reaches much much further than one child, or one community. It’s a ripple effect. The most exciting side effect of sponsoring a child – and enough to give anyone face-ache.
Andrew Stott.
A kick in the guts
1 February 2012
After all of the joy and laughter of the last two days, that’s how this afternoon felt. I’d just met five-year-old Hamimu. He loves being tickled and was all smiles and giggles and love. Then I heard that, in the few short years he’s been on this earth, he’s seen things that no child should.
Along with his two brothers, he’s seen his mother horribly abused by the man she married when she was just 16. And he’s seen the results of that abuse – not just the bruises, but the isolation, loneliness and complete absence of help that the family must now live with, day in day out.
Domina’s husband finally left five months ago, leaving her free from violence, but utterly alone. Her husband’s family don’t check up on her or help her, and although her roof is badly in need of repair she will have to find a way to do that herself too. “When it rains it comes through the roof all night,” she says. “Normally it is the men in the community who would do this, but my neighbours fear my husband. Even though he’s gone, they are scared that if he finds out, he will hurt them too.”
“My children are my comfort.”
Domina gets no friendship or support from anyone around her. She earns a little money helping people with their gardens, but there are times when it isn’t enough to feed the children. “I live by God’s mercy,” she says . “I don’t blame God for this. All my hope is in Him and I pray all the time that he will keep my children safe. Sometimes I regret marrying so young but my children are my comfort and I love them. It’s bad to die without leaving a child behind.”
I was able to spend some time praying with Domina and her children, but as we finished I couldn’t hold back the tears any longer. The hopelessness of her situation was too much to bear. And then, just a short drive away, we met Godfrey.
After losing his father 14-year-old Godfrey moved into the district with his mother and his brothers and sisters. Not long after moving, and still raw with grief, the whole family caught ‘giggas’, a skin condition that quickly spreads up the legs and can cause loss of fingers and toes. Unable to walk, they essentially became prisoners in their own home, until the Word Vision team found them on a visit to the area.
“Godfrey’s mother especially was lonely, and very depressed,” explained Trust, who works for World Vision in the community. “But we’ve kept checking on them, encouraging them to keep clean and now at last they can come out of the house.”
With encouragement from Trust and her colleagues the family are now strong enough to make the trip to the local health centre for treatment. Their skin is still bad – you can see the sores and blisters on their feet and legs – and the loss in their eyes is still very real. But you can also begin to see a way out.
Godfrey’s brother, Gregce has begun work on the garden and where the ground has been cleared, you can begin to see the first green shoots of grass appearing; and with them, the first few seeds of hope. Now that the community know that they are there, they are beginning to reach out and help them. With World Vision’s encouragement, they’ve already clubbed together to give the family new bedding and mattresses. Trust and her team are hopeful that they can work with the community to repair the back of the family’s home too.
”When we hear from our sponsors we feel so much hope and love.”
At the moment, neither Godfrey or Hamimu’s families are registered with World Vision, but because we are working in their communities they’re already beginning to benefit in small ways. And this evening, I saw how all of those small things can add up to make an amazing difference.
Our final stop of the day was to visit a family with three sponsored children – Geoffrey, Charles and Nuwheria and learned a little more about the joy sponsorship can bring.
Their parents and grandparents have learned about nutrition, the importance of clean water and how to keep their home clean. Like many families they make a trip to the nearest stream for water every day. But they have a bicycle to carry the 80 litres they need for themselves and their animals. And once they get home, they boil it. The boys also have all the equipment they need to go to school and when they hear from their sponsors, well, that’s the icing on a cake.
Dressed in a suit about three sizes too big (just like in the UK his mother is hoping he’ll ‘grow into it’) Geoffrey proudly showed us the birthday card he’d been sent from his sponsors in the UK. “The cards make us feel hope and love” he told us, before he and his family waved us off with a traditional song and dance.
I pray that Godfrey and Hamimu’s families will feel that same joy one day.
Andrew Stott
Geoffrey is really happy to be a sponsored child!
Godfrey and his family have only recently been able to leave the home due to their skin condition
Bolivia back to Battersea Park
Royal Horticultural Society award-winning designers, John Warland and Sim Flemons, have just arrived from Bolivia where they have been gaining inspiration to create World Vision’s charity garden – due to be unveiled at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
Our trip to Bolivia has ended, and we return to snowy England to prepare for the Chelsea Show. At present we are still missing the plants, a contractor and a few other bits but I am sure we will get there… only 16 weeks to go!
The trip was very empowering 
regarding the importance of raising awareness of the work World Vision does, and the impact the act of child sponsorship can have on a family & community.
Act of faith
‘There is no act of faith more beautiful than the generosity of the very poor’ – for us, this phrase best sums up the burning emotion from the week in Bolivia.
The feeling of gratitude and hospitality given to us by Ronald, his family and village was immense.
To those that wonder whether £22.50 a month will make a difference, all I can say is that we have seen the affect it has in providing basic security and support. The contribution does not just affect the child individually, but around children and their families too. By providing the simple needs of clean water and key nutrition to a community, you provide security for the children to thrive in school, and allow the parents more time to not just grow subsistence crops, but possibly grow a small surplus to take to market and generate income for the village.
We returned home to a greetings card sent by our sponsored child Ronald, reminding us how easy it will be to remain in contact with him, but also highlighting what an arduous journey that simple communication must have had to reach us!
As we turn the central heating up a little more to ward off the incoming freeze in the UK, my mind reverts to the recently departed community of Mosoj P’unchay. Bereft of the chance to turn the thermostat up a notch or two, their perseverance in the face of such adversity was a privilege to experience and support.
Bringing home the spirit of Bolivia
In the most barren of lands, where they wear the most vibrant of costumes, and facial hair fails to pierce their polished mahogany complexions, there is a spirit. A spirit of endurance and human fortitude. A spirit driven by their desire to nourish and build their communities. A spirit that allows them to grow strawberries, where humans and modern airplanes struggle to function. A spirit so rich, in a country so poor. A spirit where they continue to give so much when they have so little.
Limbert, the head of the World Vision project in Mosoj P’unchay left us with some poignant words upon our departure. He said, “You have a mission. You have a mission to let the world know about the work we do here.”
So this is where the real work starts, and we hope that our garden can help highlight the ripple effect that World Vision’s work helps create through child sponsorship not just in Mosoj P’unchay, but across the world.
The case for hope
31 January 2012
I came third in the sack race today! An achievement I’m quite proud of, but the 170 sponsored children cheering me on were what this was really about.
What an incredible morning. It’s the second day of school here in Uganda, and World Vision was gathering together all the sponsored children in the area – to check on their health, encourage them to get back to school promptly (it often takes a few weeks to wander back to school here!), and just to have some fun together. It was fun being there while some of the children opened presents from their sponsors together as well. Teaching one boy how to play Penguin Bowling was a riot!
A young boy and member of the World Vision team open post together
Just a couple of metres from the boy with the present, I watched as each child in turn was weighed, measured, and given a general health check up. Seeing them cared for so attentively brought me so much joy. Yesterday I wondered how children with so little could seem so happy and full of hope. This began to answer my question.
Hope for education
A boy stands on the scales next to a health professional at a monitoring session
Down the hill from the church where the monitoring was held is a school, with newly built teachers’ accommodation (built through child sponsorship funds) just a stone’s throw away. It is a thriving school, which has increased from 500 to more than 700 students in the past two years. The classrooms were filled with smartly turned out, attentive children. Children who just a few short years ago would probably have been out working, were now learning biology, history, and English.
Four years ago, we noted that the poor attitude of this community towards education was a major barrier in the way to the wellbeing of their children. Today, it is completely different, and the fantastic encouragement children receive in their studies is clear. We heard child leaders (young spokespeople for their villages) explaining to the younger children how important it was to keep on going to school; real progress, brought about by child sponsors back home in the UK. Case number two for hope.
And yet, just a short drive away, there remains so much suffering.
Hope for the wider community
There I met Olive. She is 28 years old, already widowed, and has five children to care for on her own. Her eldest son is 16, which means she was married with a baby by the age of 12. She’s also seriously ill; it takes all her strength to walk the eight kilometres to her check up every Thursday, and she needs help from her daughter Margaret to make the two-hour round trip to collect water every day. Her mud hut is hardly big enough for her family to fit inside.
Olive sits with three of her children on one of the mats she has made
Olive earns a living weaving beautiful coloured mats from the thick grass that grows around her home. There’s a quiet determination about her and she has a beautiful smile, but when you look into Olive’s eyes you see a sadness and tiredness that go all the way to her soul. This is hardly surprising. And yet, even though her children are not sponsored, there’s a ripple effect at work.
More than anything, Olive wants to know that if her health continues to fail, her children will be able to look forward to a brighter future. When I asked her what her hopes are for her children she said: “I’d like them to be able to study and finish their studies.” And if you sponsor a child in Uganda, that is now beginning to happen, thanks to you. Because we’re at work in Olive’s area, all but one of her children are now in school. Case number three for hope.
Hope for sponsored children
Case number four? Two little boys called Kenneth and Rogers. Both of them have been sponsored since 2007 and the difference it’s made to their family was obvious from the moment we pulled up in front of their home.
The joy of their parents beamed from their faces, as they proudly showed us around their beautifully presented house and yard. “In the future, we may buy more land to help the boys with their future,” said the boys’ grandfather. “We will grow, bananas, maize, coffee and other crops. I want them to be able to achieve their dreams.”
Rogers has just turned 11 (he proudly showed off the birthday card his UK sponsors sent him!) and wants to be a judge when he grows up. His brother would like to be an officer in the military, and I have no doubt that both of them will be able to be whatever they want to be.
I was thrilled to call their sponsors in the UK directly from their yard, and let them know how well the boys were doing. Most importantly, sponsorship has given them security they need to build themselves a brighter future. It’s opened up possibilities they would never have dreamt of before. And with possibility, comes hope.
Andrew Stott
Kenneth and his brother Rodgers have been sponsored through World Vision since 2007
Bridging cultures
Royal Horticultural Society award-winning designers, John Warland and Sim Flemons, are in Bolivia to gain inspiration to create World Vision’s charity garden – due to be unveiled at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show. Here, John submits their final blog from Bolivia.
The question that our Western mindset keeps on asking as we drive into these extremely remote local communities is: “Why do they live here?” If they moved a few hundred metres lower, or closer to the cities, it would appear that a lot of their food security and health issues would be solved. But of course, this is their home, their life, it is all they know and have known for hundreds if not thousands of years. They love their community, and are proud of their culture and life in one of the world’s most inhospitable environments. Why should they move?
Personally, if you told me that I had to go and live on top of Ben Nevis year round (that is at only one quarter of the altitude experienced here), and try and keep livestock and maintain a balanced diet without access to any modern food chains, there would only be one simple answer.
Building blocks
So World Vision does not attempt to move these people, or even tell them what to do. After a two year consultation period to establish what the communities require, World Vision provides them with the knowledge and basic infrastructure with which they can help themselves. After an average project period of 15 years, the community’s needs should have been met or exceeded and they should be self sufficient. This is a model we have seen working on a daily basis during our time here. Before they had the knowledge and materials to build the greenhouses their diet consisted mainly of the staple potatoes and quinoa. The introduction of tomatoes, spinach, salad leaves and other veggies has meant they now enjoy a balanced diet. They vouch for getting ill less often, and the children are more alert at school. Jamie Oliver, eat your heart out!
Like nourishing a plant in its earliest years usually leads to longer term success, the same is true for children. With access to clean water and a balanced diet in place, a series of fundamental building blocks for the children of the communities of Mosoj P’unchay produce a legacy that will live on long after World Vision has completed its mission here.
Thirst for knowledge
Common bonds can bridge language and culture divides across the world. Whether it be a shared football team or familiar joke it can often break the ice.
So it was almost heartening to hear that gardeners in Bolivia experience the same gripes and failures that we share down at our allotments on a weekly basis.Whether it be the dreaded potato blight, a lack of crop rotation or beasts and bugs reaping devastation amongst the broad leaved varieties, the problems and possible solutions were shared today in a small village in the Andes of Bolivia. A small slice of an unusual Gardener’s Question time perhaps?
The thirst for more horticultural knowledge and the pride and desire to exhibit their handiwork is overwhelming here. Without access to the internet, books or experienced word of mouth the gardeners here often rely on Chinese Whispers and hearsay to guide their horticultural progress. Am I correct to rotate my crops, ventilate my greenhouse, encourage earthworms? Simple questions that would be answered at home over the garden fence or across an allotment in a matter of seconds, whilst here they may wait months for confirmation of their newly held beliefs. So it has been rewarding to share our own knowledge and experiences, and hope that it will lead to bountiful crops for generations to come. If all else fails we did leave a Bob Flowerdew book here, so if he can’t help I guess nobody can?
Almost forgotten land
Our time in the remote region of Mosoj P’unchay is nearly up and there will be a few memories that will linger…
1. The lack of oxygen! Gasping for air on a daily basis was a challenging experience for us all.
2. The cold climate in direct contrast to the warmth of the hospitality…enough to thaw the coldest extremity!
3. The incredible indigenous people of Bolivia, strong, beautiful and proud.
4. The raw beauty of an almost forgotten land, with snow capped high altitude passes, plunging gorges, verdant plateaus and raging rivers…we have crossed them all on this journey.
4. Being exposed to llama, alpaca and guinea pig as food types is always eye opening.
5. The almost surreal vision of watching communities try and garden at over 4000m in altitude, producing superb crops of the basic food staples and the odd strawberry. Extreme horticulture and human endeavour at its very best!
6. Meeting our sponsored child Ronald was a day never to forget, and remind us of how we can offer support and love across a global divide. To give Ronald, his parents and the community the knowledge that people do care about them, that people want to help them and that their culture and heritage are more secure than ever before.
7. Did I mention the lack of oxygen? Still gasping here…
Smiles in the Dust
From the window of our minibus I can see red dust everywhere. And I mean everywhere. It’s forming a thick layer over car windscreens, gathering on the umbrellas of the market stalls that stretch as far as the eye can see. And there are children playing in it. Young children – babies – crawling in the dust outside their homes.
It’s the first day of my visit to Uganda and I’m travelling towards Ntwetwe, one of two communities where World Vision is at work. As the scenery changed from traffic jams and high-rises, to banana and coffee plantations, I watched young boys working with their dads to make bricks. I saw groups of children walking up and down steep hillsides to get home from school. And little girls, probably no more than five or six years old, carrying water on their heads in large yellow buckets and jerry cans, even long after darkness had fallen.
Life for children here couldn’t be more different from life for my children in the UK. Or more heartbreaking; I think the image of babies crawling in the dust will stay with me for a long time. Yet, if you sponsor a child in Uganda, you are here too. And earlier today, I caught a glimpse of the joy and hope that your sponsorship brings.
I spent a few hours this morning at the head office of World Vision Uganda, in Kampala. This was for a security briefing. But I also had a chance to see what happens to letters from sponsors when they get to Uganda.
The post room team showed me stack after stack of airmail letters, waiting to go back to sponsors all over the world from children in Uganda. And sack after sack of parcels, letters and cards waiting to be delivered to children in some of Uganda’s hardest places. Including Ntwetwe. I was especially excited to see a pile of birthday cards from sponsors in the UK.
There are tens of thousands of sponsored children in 52 ADPs across Uganda and every letter or parcel they receive is opened and read by someone in this team. It’s their job to make sure it’s as encouraging and appropriate as it can be, and that it gets to exactly the right child, as quickly as possible. They check each one for a child’s ID number, address, sponsor’s name, putting all the clues together to make sure it makes its way to the child who’s waiting for their letter.
Because they are waiting. Those dusty children really can’t wait for the post that they receive.
“When they hear from their sponsor, the children celebrate with joy,” one of the team told me. “They celebrate with their friends and family, and then they write back to their sponsors to say thank you. We know that sponsors celebrate too, when they hear from their children. Everyone celebrates!”
The passion in that small office was contagious. I left that meeting with a real sense of the true meaning of sponsorship, and the joy that the relationship between child and sponsor can bring. I think I saw a little more of that joy later in the day, even amidst all the red dust.
Every child I saw, grubby as they were, was waving and grinning from ear to ear. At first glance, they have nothing. And yet, there was happiness and hope in their eyes.
Tomorrow, when I spend some time with sponsored children and families in Ntwetwe, I hope to learn a little more about where that hope comes from.
Andrew Stott
-
- Women open and sort through parcels and letters before they are sent to children
-
- Piles of children’s airmail letters in the post room
-
- World Vision sign in red dust outside our offices
Meeting Ronald
Royal Horticultural Society award-winning designers, John Warland and Sim Flemons, are in Bolivia to gain inspiration to create World Vision’s charity garden – due to be unveiled at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show. Here, John continues to tell the story of their trip.
A tumultuous night of sleep, broken by the random pattering of hail storms and dynamite being let off to prevent further rain, left us rather bedraggled for our early morning start. The dynamite – which is a cultural tradition* – had not worked, and the heavy rain meant we would have to take the slow route to visit our sponsored child, Ronald.
The route is only passable with experienced 4×4 drivers, with 500 metre drops on a trail descending the river valley. The fast flowing river also had to be crossed, just reinforcing how remote and inaccessible these communities are.
The adventurous journey finally led us to Ronald’s village. We had been told most children in the area are very shy, but it seems Ronald is the cheekiest chappy in the whole of the valley! After greeting us with big hugs, and an eternal desire to hold our hands, his family shared their home with us.
As is so often the case, people who own the least, give the most. The family bestowed us with further multiple flower garlands, embroidered indigenous jackets, wristbands and, best of all, an amazingly warm reception for new guests in their village.
High hopes
We shared a game of football with Ronald, whilst his father explained the importance of the sponsorship of his son. He himself had grown up in an unstable family, and wished that his son would enjoy a secure childhood full with the basic ingredients of food, education and of course unconditional love. It is hard not to love Ronald with his playful ways, grimacing grins, and abundant energy and affection. To say that he was not shy, is a horrendous understatement, and he played the crowd for all his worth.
A huge lunch was prepared with the fresh ingredients that have been produced with the family’s greenhouse and livestock. We feasted on a selection of potatoes, tomatoes, onions, eggs and of course the ubiquitous Bolivian hot chill sauce. Favourite for us was probably the quinoa style bread, topped with sheep milk cheese. As good as any farmer’s market in England!
The afternoon was spent touring the greenhouses in the village, and understanding the influence that modern agricultural techniques has had on their potato production. With better quality seed potatoes, the integration of composting and organic fertilisers the community now benefits from a hugely increased yield throughout the year.
Memories to last a lifetime
The rain started to arrive, and the fear of being trapped by the ever-rising river meant it was time to head for home.
So what better way to leave Ronald than give him a gigantic orange space hopper? Hard to say exactly what he made of it all, but he seemed engrossed by its giant orangeness as he waved goodbye and dragged it back into the dry.
The whole day was very fulfilling, with the knowledge that our small monthly commitment via child 
sponsorship can have such a huge and enduring influence on a community on the other side of the world.
The ability to support a child through their most vulnerable years, and give them the basic building blocks for life, that we take for granted, is a huge privilege.
Overall, it was an amazing experience, with the warmth and generosity of the community and memories of the enigmatic Ronald to surely live forever.
* Some Bolivians believe that the dynamite, when it explodes, hits the falling raindrops and causes them to disperse
The heights of inspiration
Royal Horticultural Society award-winning designers, John Warland and Sim Flemons, are in Bolivia to gain inspiration to create World Vision’s charity garden – due to be unveiled at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show.
They’re seeing how horticulture can help improve child nutrition high up in the Andes. The gardening duo will also be meet the little boy they sponsor through World Vision. Here, John tells the story of their trip.
It is a long way from SW1 London. In fact it is around 10,000km and 48 hours of hard travel via Miami, La Paz, Oruro, Sacaca before finally dropping “down” into our final destination of Mosoj P’unchay. If you noticed my use of the phrase “dropped down” it is worth explaining that the majority of Bolivia rests as one of the world’s highest located countries. La Paz airport is around 4000m, and the planes are equipped to land at high speeds to cope with the thin air, illustrating the difficulties humans have when living in such extreme climes. As soon as we stepped off the plane, the effects of the thin air were obvious, and we still suffer from varying degrees of dizziness, headaches and nausea.
Coping with the altitude sickness is easy….just look around you. The magnificent towering snow capped peaks surrounding the cauldron city of La Paz are enough to take your mind off almost anything. The reception from the locals is also enough to warm us up when the temperatures drop below zero.
La Paz itself has offered up a selection of cultural highlights in our short time trying to acclimatise here. Taking on Rio’s Carnevale is a hard task, but Bolivia gives them a run for their money with the imminent February display in Oruro. For us, all we have been hoping for is a little bit more oxygen and some double-thickness thermal underwear.
Flexible adventure
After leaving the relative creature comforts of Oruro, we began our journey to the village of Mosoj P’unchay. The combination of heavy showers and rough-hewn roads meant that travel can be slow and impossible. Flexibility is the key to travel here, with mudslides and the infamous Bolivian timekeeping all waiting ready to throw a spanner in the works.
Passing through remote valleys – looking not unlike the Scottish Highlands at times – we travelled through villages that World Vision has supported from provision of a sustainable water supply to the reintegration of a crop called “tarwi”.
The flower is from the same family as the lupin we get in the UK, full of purple and white flower spikes. However, this breed – which has been called the lost plant of the Inca’s – is in fact a high protein bean that had become unfashionable for cultivation in Bolivia, but offers vital nutrients for a traditionally low-meat diet.
Diverse diet
After finally crossing a high mountain pass at 4200m, we arrive to our new home; the World Vision base for Mosoj P’unchay. Greeted with traditional flower garlands and music we visited our first 
greenhouse. It is in fact a “brownhouse” with earth brick walls, and a polytunnel roof covering creating a secure and warm environment in these harsh environs.
The homeowner has only had the facility for four months, but already it was bursting with lettuce, spinach, tomatoes and beans. This provided a balanced and diverse diet for her family, and reduced her need to travel more than six hours to the nearest market by foot to find these food types.
The whole family helped build and maintain the greenhouse, and unlike in the UK the, kids love to eat every kind of vegetable going, sneaking them to eat whilst their mother is looking the other way. Wherever you are in the world, the natural naughty instincts of children will prevail!
Unforgettable encounters with incredible people
World Vision volunteers – know as the ‘femme relais’ or ‘relay women’ – are trained to monitor mothers and children in each village.
Justin Byworth, World Vision UK’s Chief Executive, has just returned from Niger where the population faces a growing food crisis.
Day 9, Niamey (Niger) and Paris airports
What a week it’s been in Niger. Full of heartache, but also of hope. Unforgettable encounters with incredible people. Children facing hardship that would be unimaginable had I not seen it with my own eyes. Hugely committed and capable people working to bring real change in those children’s lives. Agencies and governments working together to stop the food crisis becoming a catastrophe.
Then there are the many wonderful people I’ve been in touch with this week in the UK who are smart and caring enough to open up their hearts and minds to a place so different and so far from home and to give of their time and resources to make such a difference. Tired as I am after such an intense time, it’s good to step back and reflect a little on what I’ve seen and learnt in Niger.
Power of sponsorship
Three people and my encounters with them stand out especially:
- Aissatou: eight years old, but looking no more than six. When her tiny frame walked into the room, as we heard of her escape from marriage with a man old enough to be her grandfather, it was if all the oxygen had been sucked out of the room.Through Aissatou, her two aunts already lost in childbirth and a third, Zainab, just 12 herself and also rescued from being a child bride, we caught a glimpse of the scale and tragedy of early marriage in Niger.
- Kidri: working for his children’s lives at the likely expense of his own. Hearing his voice from the 50-foot hole, seeing his face emerge as he climbed up to meet me, then talking about our families, it seemed like the chasm between his world and mine was momentarily bridged. For his ten-year-old son Amadou, healthy and at school, that’s a bridge that can impact a lifetime through the power of child sponsorship.
- Alhoussane: clinging on to her fragile little life, the pain of severe malnutrition etched across not just her face but her mother Rakia’s too. It was hard but essential to take her picture for the world to see what will be happening many thousands of times over if we do not act now in response to the food crisis.
Preventing crisis
At the start of my visit I said that I wanted to see how the food crisis in Niger and across West Africa’s Sahel region compared to the famine I saw in Somalia and the Horn of Africa last summer – and whether World Vision and other agencies can act earlier to prevent the horrors of famine here. It’s too early to say for sure, with long, hard months ahead before the next harvest, but the signs are hopeful that, yes – we can.
The Niger government and all agencies are working well together already with the launch of the international appeal by Niger’s prime minister in Tillaberi yesterday and last night’s reception for the visiting European Union humanitarian commissioner. It was good to meet and talk with UNICEF, the World Food Programme, Save the Children, EU etc and to hear one clear message – if we act now, together we can prevent this crisis from becoming a catastrophe.
Overwhelming in scale
As I change flights in Paris, I see that today’s UK news is reporting that delays in the East Africa famine cost lives – undoubtedly true as I saw for myself. As the reports say, we all bear a part of the responsibility for that – governments, UN, aid agencies, media and the public. I remember well the reports of impending crisis there almost a year ago, and the difficulty we had getting support until the media helped focus the world’s attention there last summer.
By then the situation was already overwhelming in scale and need. World Vision and others still saved many lives there not least because of such a generous response from the UK public to the Disaster Emergency Committee appeal, which we are part of. World Vision is not alone in already putting the learning from East Africa into practice here in West Africa. We will not let that happen again.
The other focus of my visit has been to understand what childhood means somewhere like Niger. I’ve seen how vulnerable children are to things that no child should have to experience. Girls to the abomination of early marriage and motherhood. Boys to the hardship of labour in unacceptable conditions. For both girls and boys, this means having their childhoods taken away from them. We know Niger is not alone in this. We just cannot let this continue. It needs action at every level from those communities to their own societies and governments, through to our own government and the international community. If we can do it to prevent famine in Niger, can’t we also protect children from such neglect, abuse and exploitation that is taking place every single day but all too often goes on unnoticed and unchallenged?
For all those who have followed my journey over the past week or so, through the blog, Facebook or Twitter – thank you. It’s such a privilege to be able to see and share first hand some insight into just one of the many places where World Vision is working to bring real change to children’s lives. It’s special, too, to be able to interact and get to know some of the thousands of wonderful supporters that World Vision has for our work in Niger and across the world. As I return home to my own beautiful family, I have so many things to give thanks to God for – as well as many people and places to continue to uphold in prayer.
