Please Note
Hi Ronan, your Dad here. Thought I’d share here some of my feelings on what we saw in Lesotho, in the last few weeks. I’m back home now in Ireland preparing for Christmas and to be honest I have only just now worked out why my enthusiasm for Christmas is not as it has been in previous years. I just cant get ‘into’ it and it must be to do with our experiences in Lesotho.
No words can describe what you shared with me Ronan. No words can describe the Meseru East ‘orphanage’. I am a parent and parents do things for their children – they take care of scraped knees, of little tears, little worries. As a parent I have been used to solving my little ones many problems. But the feeling of complete uselessness and hopelessness I felt when I saw those little children standing in the dust outside the galvanise huts they call home. I can honestly say there is no pet owner in Ireland who would put their pet in such a shed. I walked around these 2 huts and looked in tentatively. I saw a young boy asleep in the mid day heat with flies buzzing around him. He looked sick but I wasnt sure. I looked in their food store section and saw Ronans bags of provisions for the week. There was absolutely no other evidence of food. What would have happened that day if Ronan didnt bring food ? We also gave them sweets for a treat and it was very clear the way they pushed with oustretched hands, that this was the first food they had eaten for some time. These little kids were clearly hungry. I couldn’t see for the life of me where these kids could sleep. 20-30 little bodies to sleep where – no beds. Just mud floors. My God, what an existence. And these sheds were located on waste ground just alongside a river. So when Ronan said they were living like rats – it is true they are living like and with the rats which inevitably come up from the river, 5 metres away.
We stayed with them for about an hour and found it very difficult to leave. My feelings of hoplessness, uselessness, sadness, desperation and fear for these kids stayed with me for that day and indeed the week after and I just wanted to go back to see if they were ok. We couldnt do any more for them – they had food for the week but I just wanted to take these little kids away from that rat infested place they call home.
But there is light. Ronan brought us to see a new building that has been built for them. Red tape and pen pushers with inflated egos have delayed for weeks these kids moving into their new home. Ronan and I spoke to the Irish Ambassador Paddy Fay and his wife Dee over dinner that night, and it seems the problems will get sorted out soon and the kids will have some semblence of a home.
And of course there is Anna. Anna is an intelligent beautiful young girl who looks afraid when you speak to her. She has very bright eyes and with any chance in life could do well. Ronan has found a sponsor for Anna and the plan is she will go to a boarding school for the 6 years of her secondary school education. The Lesotho government only fund national schools so at 12 yeras old kids have no where to go. Boarding school in Lesotho is not like in Ireland. They are very nice, clean and well run places of education, usually run by a religious orders.
In Anna’s case my concern was for her safety. As I said to Ronan she is a young beautiful girl and with the incidence of rape and aids in Lesotho – I would be very fearful for her at this tender stage in her life. So Ronan is working hard to try and get her into a boarding school hopefully after the Christmas holidays. What is amazing is it only costs less than €500 per year to put Annn through school which includes full board, uniforms, books etc.
In conclusion, I would just like to say here publicaly how immensely proud I am of Ronan. I have of course told him this privately but he deserves all my praise and support. It was my great privilege to spend time with the beautiful, smiling people of Lesotho and to see Ronans work which I hope he can continue until his college starts in October 2009.
I hope these few words of reflection have helped to expand on Ronan’s writings and I would encourage anyone who can afford to travel to a place in the world who have less than we have in Ireland – to do so. As Ronan said to me whilst in Lesotho – the recession in Ireland may leave some families getting by with only one car or forgoing a holiday but this is a long way from the experiences of wee kids in Meseru East orphanage.
Good luck Ronan with the rest of your work in Lesotho and you know you have all our love and support with you.
Dad
Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008 and is filed under Messages from Africa.
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