By Rod Whitehead | Volunteer UK Co-ordinator
The staff and children at New Generation send their greetings to their wonderful supporters round the world! Thanks to improved funding from people like you, the staff have been able to expand their outreach program in the last few months, helping more children who live on the streets. The staff have also started visiting prisons. They found over a hundred children locked up in the main adult prison in Bujumbura. New Generation knows many of these children and it appears the only “crime” they have committed is sleeping on the street. So New Generation has started working with the authorities to provide a better solution.
When my wife and I visited New Generation 18 months ago, we met a 10-year-old girl, Belinda (name changed). Her mother is a sex worker who had started offering her child to her clients. She was found with her hands tied and so had been brought to New Generation. Belinda was very disturbed – she had never been to school and she did not know how to relate to the other children. The staff were not sure whether to keep her at the center. But she loved being cuddled, and was keen to please.
Gradually Belinda responded to the care and attention, and was able to go to school. But she struggled and it quickly became clear that she had learning difficulties. In a country where there are so many thousands of children in urgent need of help, the staff could have been forgiven for concluding that Belinda’s case was just too difficult…but they didn’t. There aren’t many special schools in Burundi, but they managed to secure a place at a boarding school in Gitega, two hours away. They took her to her new school in September, and she is settling in well. Belinda’s school fees are just £40 a month ($50) – but that is a major unbudgeted expense for a charity that has to watch every penny.
If you would like to help with Belinda’s school fees please do get in touch. Your continued support is saving children’s lives every day.
By Nick Turner | Street Action Trustee
By Nick Turner | Founding Trustee
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