Working Kids

In the evenings and at weekends we´ve often bumped into the kids on the street working. All of them have jobs outside of school and Seeds. We´ve seen them shining shoes, selling oranges, selling sweets and selling hard boiled eggs. They have to do this to supplement the family income. They seem to have fun, but in reality they should be having fun in the playground and not on the dirty streets.

Yesterday, we went to the houses of a couple of kids and this really hit home how poor some them are. You don´t really realise at the school, as they´re always really happy and smiley. It´s only when you look closely at the children and their faces and hands are filthy, they have holes in their clothes and their shoes are falling apart. The picture here is the house of David´s family. There is no running water in the house, no bathroom or toilet and no electricity. There are 9 people living in this house - a mixture of cousins, brothers, sisters and parents. Three of the children living here attend Seeds of Hope and are really lovely kids, but they are incredibly poor, even though their parents work all hours. Many of the homes of the kids are the same and the families similar too - mud huts and large families. Seeds of Hope gives them a few hours of contact with adults who have the time to spend with them, help them with their studies, provide a place to get clean and give any help and support to them and their families (should they need it). Seeds of Hope means so much to these kids and it´s great to be part it.