Archive for the ‘People who know’
Hach nicht schon wieder
Ich hab ja langsam schon ein schlechtes Gewissen, wenn ich hier nur Links auf Spiegelartikel poste. Kann ich ja gleich die Domain auf Spiegel-Online verweisen lassen und mich damit begnügen. Aber was soll ich machen. Ab und an gibt es da zwischen den Artikeln über das Versagen von Regierungen, Managern und ganzen Konzernen interessante Artikel, die mich schmunzeln lassen, nachdenklich stimmen oder auch welche, wo ich sage “Ach, so kanns ja auch gehen”.
Gibt es bei den Mosuo das Konzept der Heirat, der Ehe?
Ja, den Kindern wird sogar damit gedroht, ‘Wenn du nicht brav bist, dann verheiraten wir dich’. Die Kinder kennen Verheiratetsein als Horrorgeschichte. Mich haben sie gefragt, wie wir das machen. Ich sagte: Mann trifft Frau, sie verlieben sich, haben Kinder und leben ihr ganzes Leben zusammen. Ah, sagten sie, das muss toll sein. Und du weißt, sie lachen sich darüber kaputt, dass wir ständig etwas wiederholen, von dem wir selbst wissen, dass es nicht funktioniert.
Every Child Has a Name
It is now nearly a year since I came back from the Philippines.
I lived there for almost two years. There I learned a lot about what
we call the “Third World”, but even more about us and our so often
naive ideas about what we should do there.
My mother refuses to get into the rundown van. It is not because of the jalopy, nor is it because of the precipitous roads, the potholes or the steep slopes that meander dangerously close to the track - it is because of the doleful or accusatory looks she is getting from the children who have gathered to wish her goodbye.
This happened in a little place not far from the Philippine capital Manila - a place that is both tranquil and horrific. Doña Remedios Trinidad has 20,000 inhabitants, many of whom live on less than $2 a day. Here Robert Tiangco has rented a former farm estate for one symbolic dollar and converted it. For more than ten years the “Damascus” organization has been rehabilitating and looking after street kids and drug addicts. There are many reasons why people can fall into the drug trap in South-East Asia. First and foremost is the fact that drugs ease the hunger as well as offering flight from everyday reality. “Damascus” offers a different refuge, no matter how bleak the surroundings may seem. Robert Tiangco and his helpers attempt to help at least a small number of people who have decided to free themselves from their addiction.
Recently the trust opened its doors for children who would otherwise lack the most basic necessities - food, medical care and education. During outings in the immediate vicinity Robert and his colleagues noticed the astonishing number of hungry and hollow-cheeked children working with their parents in the surrounding fields. Totally lacking in education these children were unable to give even their family name or their age.
On the edge of Doña Remedios Trinidad, where the air is muggiest and the water is dirtiest, settlements of squalid shacks have been established which sink into the mud when it rains and where it stinks of decay when the sun shines. There is no running water and worse: there is no “running” life. The adults vegetate in their shacks, mostly under the influence of alcohol. The children running round half or even completely naked lack everything, but above all else they lack attention and affection. There are enough schools - even for the poorest of the poor. But what use are these schools when the children leave them again after a couple of weeks? Because they do not understand what they are supposed to be doing there, because their parents do not care or even find it a nuisance, or because they simply cannot follow the teachers.
The Damascus Learning Center is a sort of pre-school which was set up in July 2007. The trust decided to support the weakest of the children and to let them have lessons and food five days a week. These were mainly children who do not go to school yet, in other words four- to six-year-olds. But the workers are doing things we usually do to amuse twoor three-year-olds: simple sentences, names, object, but above all it involved getting them to notice each other. These children overwhelm their counterpart with everything they have: they tear at him with their tiny hands, with their looks, with their few words; intense, serious and laughing all at the same time. Every second you can tell how much they would like to be children but are not allowed to be. Many of the children have to walk miles to get to the school. Most of them come with their mothers and their brothers and sisters, because without the aid of Damascus these too would only get one meal a day. Here the children are supplied with food, uniforms, school supplies and books. Basic medical care is provided for both, the children and their mothers. In addition the parents are informed of opportunities to earn money so that the family can be helped with at least a little extra income.
Even after just a few weeks a weight gain and an improvement of their general condition could be observed. Eager for knowledge and without worries they romp around the yard these days. Damascus also looks after the families in this region, gives them concrete assistance and imparts to them what is most important: the belief in a future where not everything must be as it now is.
Damascus looks somewhat more closely and seeks ways to help, above all, the children in the bamboo shacks in the long term. Injustice and poverty make people angry and ashamed. Above all because they are a vicious circle that is so difficult to break out of. On the edge Doña Remedios Trinidad Robert Tiangco and his helpers have succeeded in doing so. There education is now something worthwhile and the future is something concrete.
On that occasion my mother had been invited to the first formal graduation ceremony after the first school year. The “diploma” that the children received there has no formal value; after all, it is only a case of a private pre-school program. And yet the children in their little academic mortarboards, their graduation pictures and their certificates were prouder than I ever was during my whole time in school. And most importantly: so were their parents.
More information at:
Digitale Engel beflügeln die Heilung
Der Verein „Kinderschutzengel e.V.“, unter der Leitung von Jacqueline Boy hat es sich zur Aufgabe gemacht, schwer kranken und bedürftigen Kindern zu helfen. Das Ziel besteht darin, nicht nur den betroffenen Kindern, sondern auch tatkräftig und mit viel Herz den beteiligten Familien beizustehen. Das ehrenamtliche Engagement geht jedoch weit darüber hinaus. Die Kinderschutzengel helfen verletzten Kindern aus Kriegs- und Krisengebieten bei der medizinischen Versorgung. Religion, Geschlecht und Herkunft sind hierbei nebensächlich. Das Wohl steht im Vordergrund.
Das momentan aktuellste Projekt ist unter dem Titel „PC am Krankenbett“ bekannt. Viele Kinder liegen wochenlang isoliert von ihrem normal gewohnten sozialen Umfeld in ihren Betten und müssen sich in dem Krankenhausalltag zu Recht finden. Was dabei auf der Strecke bleibt, ist der gewohnte Umgang mit den Freunden aus der Nachbarschaft und der Schule. Diese Kinder haben kaum eine Möglichkeit am alltäglichen Schulgeschehen teilzunehmen, was wiederum die Regenerationschancen mitunter mindern kann, denn wenn sich ein Kind, trotz Krankheit einigermaßen wohl und sicher fühlt, sind die Genesungsaussichten meist auch höher. Daher hat Frau Boy und ihr Team beschlossen, das Schulzimmer in das Krankenzimmer zu holen, und wie sollte es 2009 anders sein – in Form von Datentransfer und Webcams. Zu fest verabredeten Zeiten, welche mit den behandelnden Ärzten und dem Klassenlehrer abgesprochen werden, wird das Kind via Skype in den Klassenraum geschaltet und hat somit zum Einen die Möglichkeit seine Mitschüler wiederzusehen und zum Anderen dem Unterricht für ein paar Stunden zu folgen. Dies fördert nicht nur die Abwechslung, sondern auch die Wiedereingliederung in die spätere Klassengemeinschaft.
Zum ersten Mal startete dieses Projekt im Berliner Herzzentrum, wo unter anderem die herzkranke 10-jährige Sandra betreut wird. Sie ist eines der Kinder, die lange nicht aus dem Krankenhaus heraus kommen werden. Das benötigte Equipment, wie Laptops und Webcams werden über den Verein gestellt und dadurch hatte Sandra schon vor einigen Wochen die Chance, ihre Klasse komplett wieder zusehen.
Wir wünschen uns, dass dieses Projekt Sandra und allen anderen Kindern wieder ein Stück Normalität in ihre Welt bringen kann und hoffen, dass es viele Interessierte gibt, die diesen Verein tatkräftig bei seiner Aufgabe, die Medien zu nutzen um mehr Lebensqualität bei kranken Kindern zu erreichen, unterstützen möchten
Kayser van Zoonen
today (May 05 2009) we decided that we want to know how we can make our world a better place to live. so this page would be our self fullfilling prophecy. if you know it already, youre invited to share it with us.