Our Work
My name is ANDREW and I work on a ferry ILALA
Three days and nights that we spent on a ferry Ilala along Lake Malawi gave us an interesting story. Ferry Ilala is used mainly by local people to travel along the country and to Mozambique on the other side of the lake. Every now and then you can find also few tourists on that ferry. On the night of our boarding in Nkhata Bay there was a huge crowd waiting to go on board. Local people with all their cargo, with heavy bags of maize on their heads, with bunches of matoke everywhere, pushing each other to the main entrance and this looked quite dangerous to us. Local people were almost fighting to get on board first and to get a good place on this ferry. Few tourist were waiting beside this crazy crowd, including us, and after a while we all got on board. When we got on there were people and cargo everywhere, we were a little bit lost, where to go, there was no air to breath, everything packed, stucked, with no space to put our luggage and prepare sleeping bags for sleeping. In all this chaos came a man, Andrew, who helped us a lot during these three days of travelling along Malawi.
Andrew is a really nice guy, he is 26 years old and he works on Ilala ferry already for a year. Every week Ilala departs from his home called Monkey Bay and goes all the way to northern Chilumba from where it goes back to south. When it comes again to Monkey Bay, ferry stays in the port one day and the next day the same crew goes for another trip …and so on…so the crew of this ferry is free actually just one day per week and also this day is usually spent in the port becouse there is still a lot of things to do. Andrew lives in Monkey Bay with his mother, brother and two sisters. Their father left them already some time ago, he went to another woman with which he has lots of kids. Family is run by mother and Andrew as her first son. Work on that ferry is not easy, there is a lot of physical work to be done on a daily basis. Andrew needs to carry difficult things as bags full of maize, beverage containers etc. Along lake Malawi there are few stops, also on Mozambiquean side, but real ports are only in start (Chilumba) and by the end of a trip, in Monkey Bay. In stops in between, local boats help to unload people and all the cargo. Unloading may take few hours, there may be just one or two boats coming to ferry to unload people and cargo and they need to come back many times to unload everything.
For this kind of work Andrew is payed really badly. He told us that with his monthly payment he can barely survive the family. In his free time he spent time with us and shared his life story. We talked and laughed a lot all these three days and this was seen on Andrew’s face. Before worried and sad expression on his face turned to a smiling face. When Ilala trip was over he told us that from now on he is Mr. Smiley, becouse we tought him how to laugh. Andrew has a big secret, to finish his school and later to find a good job. Becouse of him we changed our plans and we didnt leave the ferry in Chipoka (for Lilongwe), but Monkey Bay, his home. He wanted to take us to meet his family. So this is what we did, Andrew took us to meet his family members. But before the visit we went to a local shop to buy some food, some basic ingridients as sugar, maize, bread, soap and some biscuits for desert. His mother was happy of the gifts, he immidiately took the bags inside the house.
At first we planned to help Andrew out with a scolarship for him to go back to school, but later on we changed our minds. Why? We found out that Andrew is hiding something. In Monkey Bay town we met a woman from Australia who knows Andrew very well. He used to work in her hostel. She told us that Andrew has a wife and a baby and that she doesn’t belive he will go back to school since he dropped out many years ago. After Andrew went back on a ferry, we decided to visit his family once again. There were one woman and a baby more than the first time, Andrew didn’t mentioned those. We weren’t dissapointed, becouse we know that many african people see in whites an easy way to get the money. He probably thought that lying would help him to get some money from us, but the opposite. We don’t judge him, we actually understand him. We met plenty people in this part of Africa that try their best to find a way to get the money. Most of them through lying to people. We didn’t support Andrew with a scolarship. But this is not the end of this story…to be continued…
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ZANZIBAR ISLAND - an orphanage in the heart of Stone Town, TANZANIA
Anyone who hears the word Zanzibar, immediately think about the long sandy beaches, turquoise waters, warm sun, relaxation under the palm trees and drinking of colorful cocktails. This is all we know about Zanzibar, the only thing magazines and television show us. But everyone who visits this wonderful and colorful island, soon realizes that island Zanzibar is much more than that. Many locals live a modest life in little houses, and you certainly cannot see them on pictures and advertisements for island Zanzibar. And what lies behind the facade of this beautiful island?
Tourists love to walk around ancient Stone Town and its streets, visiting stalls full of food, beverages and souvenirs. They spend time in beautiful and expensive restaurants. Nobody blames them, this is a part of tourism business, some people gain money, others try to find their own way. In the middle of the most popular promenade stands beautiful white building with a tunnel underneath, where many people pass by every day, by foot or in their cars. In this building live a larger group of orphaned children. Do people who pass that beautiful building or those who seat in restaurants nearby ever ask themselves what is going on behind these walls. We also took pictures of this nice historic building from outside and we also didn’t know what is happening in there until we met a local guy named Pilo, who was willing to share true stories of Zanzibar with us.
We visited an orphanage with few bags of fruits that we bought on a local market (bananas, oranges, nectarines, mango etc.). Soon as we entered the building children sorrounded us and wanted to hold our hands tightly. The staff was more detached and to find out more about this organisation we needed to talk with a chief of the office. We were not allowed to take pictures inside the orphanage, so all the pictures were taken secretly. An orphanage is run by governmental management, that’s why all the reticence and modesty in words. They didn’t want to answer on all of our questions, they said for more information we should go to the main office in governmental building. Otherwise, the situation is not as bad as we’ve seen at some other places. However, high ceilings, dark corridors that leave cold and dark atmosphere, are definitely not suitable for young children to grow up. When you start thinking about how many tourists daily visit this beautiful island and how much money they spend here, life of these kids could be much better than it is.
If you are ever going to visit Zanzibar Island and walk down the promenade of Stone Town, do visit these lovely kids, who spend their lives behind those walls and bring them lots of laughter and joy. We believe they will be very happy of your visit. In our eyes Zanzibar is really warm because of the nature, local people and those kids.
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Story from Rwanda
To keep this boy safe we will not tell his real name, that’s why for now we will call him ‘Hope’. When ‘Hope’ will be on a safe place, outside of his country, his story will be published in complete.
‘Hope’ is an ordinary boy as many kids in Rwanda, he lives a peaceful and happy life, he has a home and a family; his father has a good job, few cows and he takes good care of the family; mother takes good care of 7 children, three brothers and three sisters, their home is shared also with two couisins. He has also a grandmother who lives few blocks away. When ‘Hope’ was 8 years old (in 1994), his whole world collapsed! Tension between tribes Hutu and Tutsi begun way before and they were killing people silently already before. But on 6th of April 1994, a horrible day for Rwanda, a massive killing (genocide) occured in this country. For more information please check: LINK
‘Hope’ hides together with his mother and three brothers in a church where is already squeezed 7000 people from that village. There is just enough space for them to stand. On the 9th of April at 9 o’clock in the morning, Hutu army enters the church and in brutal killing finishes lives of all these people. Some of them were shot, others tortured before killed with cutting off their limbs, kids younger than 4 years were smashed against the wall, pregnant women were brought on the altar where they cutted their unborn babies out of their bellies, with no mercy or compassion. ‘Hope’ is squeezed inside the crowd together with his older brother and they are witnessing this horror. Brother has enough time to protect little ‘Hope’ and spreads blood all over his body and puts dead bodies on top of him. Soon after that ‘Hope’ witnesses also a cruel death of his brother. To keep himself alive ‘Hope’ needs to sleep in a puddle of blood. The army walks around the church and checks with a spear if everyone is really dead. ‘Hope’ must play dead when his leg is stabbed with a spear. He sleeps in the church full of blood for two days together with other seven survivals: two boys aged 6 and 12, an older man, older woman and another two girls aged 15 and 18.
After three days ‘Hope’ decides to leave the church to find himself some food and water. Few days he is hiding together with his friend in the hole in the ground. As the army still walks around and kills survivals, his friend is being killed in front of ‘Hope’s eyes while he was hiding in a hole, becouse he didn’t want to tell the army where is ‘Hope’ hiding. After 6 days he decides to go back to church to share his food, his sweet potatoes, with few other survivals. One of the kids that survived this massacre had to drink blood of others to survive.
After that horribly cruel time ‘Hope’ was living with his survived grandmother while the rest of the family was murdered. In the minds of people who had lost their dear families in genocide now boils a thought of revenge. Something like that cannot remain unpunished. People silently wait for another war when they will revenge their shed blood and will retaliate against Hutus. Six years of his life, before year 2000, ‘Hope’ lives in constant anger and numbness, thinking about revenge. He visits school which is payed by government as a helping hand after this huge mistake of genocide. Finally ‘Hope’ finds a good rwandese man from England who helps him on a daily basis with councelling. And this is a time when he learns that for his better future he needs to stop living in the past. This man changed his way of thinking and strengthen him with a hope for a better future. ‘Hope’ finishes high school as a constructionist which took him 5 years and after college he earns money with teaching others.
Two years ago, 13 years after a genocide, government invites him to work as a volunteer in a church where he experienced horror of a genocide. First he rejects the invitation, but government forces him in a way to do this job, otherwise they would think he is still full of hate and ideology of revenge. Government wants for everyone to reconciliate and forgive people who killed their beloved. But how can you look into eyes of a man and shake hands with someone who brutally slaughtered your sister, brother, mother or father, in front of your eyes?
‘Hope’ is now volunteering in that church already for two years, telling a horrible story over and over to random visitors. He cannot escape from this trauma from his childhood, tourists come to that church nearly every day. Where is his freedom of choice? Who decides about his future?
We want to help ‘Hope’ in realization of his long time dream, to start a new, better life, outside of his country. His wish is to study abroad, in Europe, United States or Oceania. As he was telling us his life story we felt his tremendous pain and we could not walk away without trying to help him as much as we can. He wants to get out of his country where he feels nothing but pain and anxiety, together with horrible memories on his mind on a daily basis. He wants a simple, happy and peaceful life, without pressures and constant pain. Unfortunatelly he will not find happiness in Rwanda.
That’s why we are asking you if there is anyone out there ready to help with information about studying abroad, finding host family where ‘Hope’ could for the beginning live a safe and peaceful life, adapt to new environment and get needed support. In this case please write to us:
simona@lifeisajourney.si
eva@lifeisajourney.si
You can also help financially:
IBAN: SI56 33000-0002982935 (opened especially for this project)
SWIFT: HAABSI22
Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank d.d., Dunajska cesta 117, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia, Europe.
For the purpose write HOPE
With collected money we will cover the cost of airline ticket and use it to begin his life abroad and for his studies.
When we showed him a map of the world, he didn’t know where exactly he would like to go as Rwanda is so far the only world he knows. He said that we can decide instead of him, that he trusts us. We told him that the world is in his hands and that he can just show the place with his finger and strongly believe that this is possible and that dreams will sooner or later become reality. His smile was really wide, we could just feel his inner peace, happiness and hope for a brighter and better future.
We will all be very greateful for any kind of help. So if there are any good people willing to help in any kind of way, thank you in advance!
‘Hope’ is now already every day in that church among bloody clothes and skulls and bones telling tourists his sad story. He doesn’t feel good doing this every day, his psychical condition is getting worse, he is under a lot of pressure. After a month and a half we came back to Rwanda to visit ‘Hope’ again. He was really happy to meet us again and we found good people who are willing to support him, stand by his side in these tough times. We got few really good friends in Rwanda that we trust and they already help ‘Hope’ in a time of his waiting for his hardly waited departure from his country.
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SAVE CHILDREN SAVE LIFE ORGANIZATION, Lake Bunyonyi, UGANDA
In Kabale, Uganda we visited Amazing Glory Nursery School which is a part of Save Children Save Life Organization. We spent a day with children from age 3 to 6 in their nursery school. Teacher and director of organization, John Bosco, showed us their facilities and surrounding with a magnificent view on the lake Bunyonyi and town Kabale. Little ones have their lessons in a very cold church without any school material. But what has really touched us was that they were poorly dressed and barefoot for such a cold and rainy weather. That’s why we decided to buy them 34 pairs of sandals and few jumpers for the ones who didn’t have them, in amount of 30 EUR. They were really happy to receive them, some of them had little problems to do the first steps in their first shoes.
If you are interested to do a voluntary work within this organization you can contact us on our email for further information:
More information you can find under Voluntary work: LINK.
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GODWIN, Kabale, UGANDA
is a 16 year old boy who lives with his two brothers (8 and 12). They are orphans. Their parents died of AIDS 3 years ago. They live alone in a small house without electricity and water. Godwin is a very caring boy. There have been many times he could just have given up on life and have joined the street kids who live their careless life out on the streets without any rules. But he is very determined and believes in better future; that’s why he visits school every day and tries to pay the fees for school all by himself. Some of the money for his school fees also comes from his uncle, but for other things such as food, clothes, notebooks for school for him and his brothers, he has to pay for himself. He is trying to earn some money by selling old steel. He earns 200 Ush (0,08 EUR) per kilo of steel. He is also doing loundry at different households in his village. For a piece of washed cloth he earns 1000 Ush (0,04 EUR). He is trying to get some money (small amount) by taking garbage away from houses and restaurants, where he can also find some wasted food for him to eat.
We met Godwin on the streets of Kabale, Uganda where he was spending his afternoons with street kids. He helped us buying things for street kids for a reasonable price. He was always very kind, smiling and he never wanted anything from ‘mzungus’ as many others did. When we got to know him better and when he started to trust us, he told us his sad story in tears. We hugged him and the next day we went to his home and bought some food at the nearby store. Matoke, potato, posho, beans, charcoal for fire. All this cost us 6000 Ush (aprox. 2,5 EUR). Godwin and his two brothers will have this food for 2 weeks, counting 1 meal per day. Godwin also allowed us to make a short movie on his story.
We decided to give 10 EUR on Jana’s account each month. With this money she should buy the needed food for those 3 kids. Jana will stay in Kabale until September and we hope that afterwards she will find someone who will provide this money to Godwin’s hands. But we know for sure that by the end of September Godwin and his two brothers won’t need to be hungry or try to look for food in the garbage.
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STREET KIDS, Kabale, UGANDA
Hungry kids are searching for food in the garbage on the street. Looking for food soon turns into violent struggle to get that piece of banana. We freeze. Kids are screaming: “Mzunguuu, I’m hungry!”. Words like these, that we hear every day, make us feel sad, but we cannot feed all the kids of Africa. At the same time they are pointing fingers at a kid with a huge wound on his leg. “Richard is my name,” said the voice silently. Now we really cannot blind ourseves anymore. We grab Richard by his hand and take him to the doctor. The doctor and the nurses are looking strangely at us, as what we were doing. Because of the wrong colour of our skin, we pay an enormous amount of money for medical treatment for Richard. Special prices for special people. Welcome to Africa! We just don’t get it, how people don’t have an affection (simpathy) for their own people, especially kids. What Richard needs now is a special care. He comes to our current home three times per day, so that we give him food and medication. And today we found out that he also has malaria.
The organization that is supposed to take care after kids just doesn’t do anything. As many other organizations, they are just earning money with having kids just as an excuse. When that organization saw we were helping the street kids, they sent us the letter saying they are going to sue us.
On the streets of Kabale we daily meet about 30 street kids (age 6 to 17), who start looking for food in the early morning hours already. They search through garbage, beg for money or take away leftovers (garbage) from the restaurants for little money. Local people don’t help them as much as they could - kids have to pay some money for the leftovers. People in Kabale see them as bad boys because they fight a lot, they steal from people, they inhale glue, they sleep on the streets, don’t go to school, they wear worn and dirty clothes, they are barefeet and they walk around Kabale streets all days long. Some of them don’t have a home to go to, maybe because their parents died, others may have them, but because of domestic circumstances (physical and emotional abuse) they are forced to live their life on the streets. There are also few of them, who could live a normal life and go to school, but they gave it up because it is easier to live on the streets, where they can be free and live without rules.
We visited Richard at his home later and we brought him medications for his wounded leg which we gave to his mother. We were very serious about taking medicine, we told his mother that he must take them, otherwise his leg could be amputated. His mother started to laugh and replied very carelessly, that she has many other people in her village that make her much happier than her son. That’s why we think Richard is one of the broken kids who choosed street life over family life with his parents. The next day he surprised us and came to see us. He was very clean and well dressed. We took him to the doctor for the last time, we fed him and cut his hair and then we didn’t see him on the streets of Kabale anymore.
A week passed by. Richard wasn’t on the streets anymore. We were asking other street kids how Richard was, where was he and they said he is living at home now, that he is healthy and helping to his mother. The last day before our departure we went to check on Richard. We saw him and he was somehow different. He had a smiling face and in his eyes we saw a desire to live a better life. We are aware Richard may stay at home just for some time and then go back to the streets - we never know that.
One moment of your life can make a life change in another. Maybe we have made a difference in Richard’s life but he certainly affected ours.
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THE BATWA TRIBE (PYGMIES)
There were 320 Euros raised all together for the Batwa people (donators were Mojca P., Aleksander, Irena and Petra T.). We thank you so much for donating the money. Along the way of helping the Batwas, another few people joined to help them. First Barton Brooks, then Jana Dular and locals in Kabale, later on another two Americans and a couple from Canada. They have and still are contributing in a financial and physical way. In the time of raising the money, things changed. In our opinion, the Batwas already received a lot of help and at the time of speaking people are still working with them. That’s why together with your agreement we decided not to spend the money on them, but to use it wherever we will feel is more necessary. You can read on our subpage OUR WORK who will receive our help and at the link we will also try to describe the stories that touched our hearts.
BATWA TRIBE- PYGMIES - Lake Bunyonyi, Kabale, UGANDA
In Kabale, at the home of Edirisa, we met a Slovenian girl, Jana Dular. She has joined a team of volunteers led by the main force, Barton Brooks from USA, who want to help the Batwa tribe known as Pygmies. Ten years ago this tribe was thrown out of their natural habitat by the government who claimed their land for a National park where tourists can see gorillas. The government earns a lot of money out of it and at the same time forgets about these indigenous people. They were exiled to the nearest hill, where they cannot cultivate the land because it is not theirs and they cannot cross the woods because they will be arrested. Nearby is a small village where they don’t want to go because the locals don’t treat them equally. Pygmies are very small and this is why they are treated as a subspecies. Not so long ago it was believed that if you ate Pygmiean meat, you would get magic powers. These people live without anything. The men used to be hunters and the women used to be collectors in the forests. As they cannot use their skills in that habitat anymore, they need new knowledge to survive in their new environment (planting, cattle feeding and breeding, education of kids etc…)
Barton Brooks comes from New York, USA. He is traveling around the world, helping different kinds of communities. You can read about his mission at: www.guerrillaaid.com. We arrived just in a time as Barton had a terrible accident on his motorbike. He is currently in a hospital in Kampala, but due to his injuries he will soon be transferred to USA. The Pygmies are really sad and cry for this wonderful man who wants to give them what they always wanted. Jana has taken over the project and we have joined her without hesitation. Nearby live 5 tribes who need help, with approximately 150 people per tribe. For now we will focus on helping one community.
HELPING PLAN:
- purchase of school benches (so that kids won’t sit on the cold floor)
- purchase blackboard
- purchase of basic school materials
- purchase of animals.
- hen (5 EUR), so that every kid can get one egg per day, this will help combat the serious health problems they have due to lack of protein.
In every community we want to build a hen-house for 100 hens; food for hens (30EUR/per half a year)
- goat (35 EUR); at least 2 goats per tribe
- cow (200 EUR); a few cows per tribe
- pig (10 EUR) and we also want to build a pig-sty
- purchase of Irish potato seeds (35 EUR/100 kg) and beans (50 EUR/100 kg)
- purchase of mosquito nets (4 EUR)
- purchase of sheets and blankets (5 EUR)
- purchase of second hand clothes (bala cca. 40 EUR)
We really want to be a part of this project and that’s why we wish and hope that with joint forces we can help these already forgotten people and give them new hope for a better future. Let’s leave our trace in this community, and with our contribution grant them further independent lives. In their hearts let’s be remembered as good people from afar, unlike their own government who abandoned and forgot about them.
If you could skip just a coffee, a juice or a beer and give that money to the Pygmiean tribe your contribution to them will be very appreciated. We will show you their gratitude through pictures and short movies.
If you decide to contribute, you can remit funds to the transaction account:
IBAN: SI56 33000-0002982935 (opened especially for this project)
SWIFT: HAABSI22
Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank d.d., Dunajska cesta 117, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia, Europe.
For the purpose write Batwa tribe.
We already give you a big thanks in advance and will let you know about our progress.
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CANA COMMUNITY - HIV/AIDS Programme, Mukuru slum, Nairobi, KENYA
In the suburb of Nairobi city is a slum called Mukuru where people live in conditions we cannot even imagine: without water, electricity, garbage removal and they live in barracks made out of wood and steel. They struggle each day for their survival. This community is led by an older couple, Mary and Joseph. Ten years ago they started with a clinic, in time they also established a rescue home for abused girls, Cana primary school and an Evangelical church. In the clinic they take care of people who are HIV/AIDS positive, help to deliver babies, offer medical care to newborns and vaccinate children against child diseases. They struggle every day for the lives of people in the slum who cannot afford medical care. In Cana primary school there are 200 children. They come from very poor families, if they have one at all, but most of them are orphans. Their parents died mostly because of HIV/AIDS, even some of the kids are infected with HIV. Their study environment is very poor as they lack basic school materials. In the rescue home live 20 girls who were saved from people, mostly relatives, who abused them, physically and emotionally. Besides giving them a safe haven, they give them psychological treatment for their later independent life. However the main problem they are facing every day is a lack of food and medicine.
For this community we have done a lot of work. Besides teaching in a school, together with our family and friends, we raised 610 EUR. As we also wanted to contribute in a material way, we bought books for seventh and eighth class, many notebooks and 2 leather balls. The rest of the money will be used for basics such as food and medicine.
We also managed to collect and bring some medical materials for the clinic, and some notebooks, pencils, crayons and toys for the school.
The community was very grateful of our help, in the childrens’ eyes we could see immense happiness. How little is needed to make someone really happy.
The work we have done for this community is just the beginning of our journey and it gave us a lot of energy and determination to continue our mission. Along the way we want to act and help where people need us. Where the end is we don’t know, it depends on us, the people on the way and you, who are supporting us on our way.
Big thanks to everyone who have helped us and this community in any kind of way.
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