Outreach programme

Hey everyone,

First of all: thank you for all the nice reactions!!! That was so good to read! My parents might have to read them again for all the food tips :p though I don't have a freezer or a fridge, so no items can be brought which need constant coolness. the cheese is still ok, because its pretty cold in the houses :)
And luis, I'm staying till the 31st of October :)

So today I want to talk to you about the outreach programmes I've been doing the last weeks.

first of all we did blanket distribution and school money distribution (we went all the way to the Zambian boarder (even crossed it!!)). both are for children who are underpriviliged and mostly they are orphans. They are chosen by the chiefs of the villages. When we were distributing the schoolmoney Francis asked me to give them some words of encouragement. first I asked them what they wanted to be when they were grown up (different answers) and then I honestly told them that I never liked to study and I never liked school. I just liked it because of my friends. But I was always taught to make the best out of everything, so I can be proud of myself, so I did :) I would study for an A (10) and if I would get a B (8) or a bad grade, I could still be proud of myself. Beacause, I told them: if you are not proud of yourself, nobody else will be. But if you are a proud men or woman, the world will follow. So, whatever you do... do it with pride and when you want to be a doctor, but you become a nurse, be the best nurse you can be and be proud of what you have achieved!
Now, it felt a bit difficult for me to tell them all this, because I'm not the best student there is... I like fun more then studying, but I hoped it helped them a little bit...

Then I also join the homeopath Arjan, who is here when he goes on his outreach programme. Last saturday we were in Kamphenda and at the end of the day, when I was watching a local soccer match, 2 boys came to me and asked me how they can get a scholarship for the Netherlands. One of them wanted to be a politician (the first president of the north without regional preferences. here they say the south and central is treated better, because the presidents come from there. And the schools are better there!) and the second wanted to be a scientist. I said that I don't know much about scholarships, but I do know that they have to be more special then any other African applying to that scholarship. Now for the scientist I found it hard how he can do that, but the politician to be I told that he should show his leadership skills. By for example starting a student group who can tell the director of the school what they need. For everything I sad he had a but.. So I told him first of all you need to stop with the but and start to say maybe (in so many years) and if you get a no, try to turn it into a yes... Example: he said he cannot do anything with politics, because they live in a dictatorship (true), so I told him: start a homework class, clean your village... owh, yes... he said. but a homework class, my friend asked the school if he could help with extra math classes, because it wasn't taught (no money) and the school said no. I asked: did your friend invite the students to come sit outside with him after school and teach them.... or invite them to his house... owh... that's a good idea. And we continued some more.
At the end I told him: How can you expect that people will vote for you if you doubt everything. Trust yourself, be proud of yourself and then the rest will follow. Talk to everyone if you don't know the answer and there are so many smart people who can help you!
For me he can namely say: owh that muzungu (white person), she has a lot of money, its easy for her. So I told him to look for rolemodels in his own society.
We did exchange adresses (my email their home adress) an I send them a card to remind them. Hopefully it will help and I'll hear something from them.
If anyone has an idea for a scholarship or exchange programme let me know!
This was btw also difficult for me, because I am a but person... but I always discuss everything with everyone which makes it easier for me to find the yeses to my buts!

And I have to thank the book: Life Safari: De reis van je leven, because it has a very positive influence on how to achieve your goals!!! And I used the tips in their to tell to the boys!!

lastly, due to all this, I have some plans which I want to do these comming 4 months. Firstly to bring the role models to the childrens attention, but that will be difficult and secondly, I want to give some classes on their goals... don't know how that will work out.
Lastly, I am thinking of starting a small library, which has 2 purposes: firstly it will keep them away from bad behaviour (alcohol/sex. they have sex here from 13!! And there are also early marriages (14/15/16) and early pragnancies) and secondly it will teach them something. Now I am going to work on this with the youth club and will keep you updated on the progress!!

I want to do this, because I cannot understand that 12 year olds drop out of school and just hang around for atleast 2/3 months a year, because there is nothing to do (maybe a little bit of sports) and they have no goals in life.... it just pains me!!!

love nienke

p.s. I still don't have a phone, but hope to buy one today.... If I have, hopefully my parents can put the number on this blog for all of you to see!