Home » Sudan » Khartoum to Addis Ababa (7 April 2002)

"Apologies for my failure to think of a suitably cheesy yet inspirational opening quote. Can you help?" �<br/> Alastair Humphreys<br/>
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Sudan continued: Khartoum to Ethiopia. March.

Khartoum to Addis Ababa (7 April 2002)

Roundtheworldbybike
2005-11-18 10:59:12

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the valuable work that Hope and Homes for Children are doing in the Sudan (www.hopeandhomes.org). Please don�t be as uninformed as me; Sudan is a wonderful, wonderful country and it deserves our support.

The work of Hope and Homes for Children in Sudan

The world is a beautiful place

to be born into

if you don�t mind some people

dying

all the time

or maybe only starving

some of the time

which isn�t half so bad

if it isn�t you.

- Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Giggling and shielding faces behind freshly scrubbed hands six small boys stand in a group and sing a song. The boys are a family, hence the embarrassment of performance, the clean faces, enforced best behaviour and uncomfortable Sunday clothes. But these irritations are trivial in their lives because they have a family now. Their singing is to welcome me on a visit to their home.

A year ago each of these children was alone. Their lives up until then had been horrifying. They were either surviving as best as they could on the cruel streets or else they had been rounded up and dumped in government camps. The camps are for children orphaned by the endless war in the south of Sudan, their parents just another two of the two million people who have disappeared or been killed in the brutal conflict. Alone in the World the children have received scant education, inadequate food and shelter and little love or personal attention for most of their short lives.

Hope and Homes for Children (www.hopeandhomes.org) works in Sudan to take some children from the government camps and to place them in homes within the ordinary Khartoum community. They can then live in a simple but comfortable home, attend a local school (plus receiving extra assistance to help them catch up with other children of their age) and visit youth groups where they learn useful trades (building, car mechanics etc.) in order that they will be more employable when they are older. The home I visited had six orphans, now happily living together as brothers in the care of a permanent mother and father. Everything possible is done to try and provide the children with as normal an upbringing as possible. It is nothing fancy or extravagant, it is just a childhood.

An important aspect is that the children are relying on each other and on their new parents. They are not just feeling dependent on cash from rich, white England. They are helping themselves. That is an extremely important point.

Children do not need much from life: education, food, shelter, love and laughter. It does not even cost very much which means that we all have the potential to make a difference if we only choose to do so.

The singing brothers shook my hand as I left and as I looked into the eyes of each of them I felt an amazing gratitude to them. The gaze of those small boys showed me so much about courage, hardship, guts, overcoming adversity and deep appreciation for renewed hope and laughter. May the wind be always at your back, boys. You deserve it.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

In the children�s homes are plaques acting as tokens of thanks to people around the globe who have made a genuine difference to the lives of the orphans. If you have enjoyed following the progress of my journey please consider showing your support by helping these children. Perhaps you could fundraise in your school or office and raise enough money to have a plaque presented. It is not hard to do, but having shaken hands with those boys I believe that it is hard not to want to help more kids like them, children herded into indecent camps with only fleeting memories of their dead parents to sustain them. You really can change the life of a child.