The visits would also include the distribution of basic food items to help alleviate the food shortages and associated hunger in the area. The country is one that has a high reliance on agriculture and subsistence farming, but with the recent civil war the poverty is exacerbated with a need to recover. Recovery is needed for both production and the access to funds that may be realized from the sale of agricultural goods. This is an ongoing issue which one is constantly aware of when handing out food, knowing it is a short-term solution to a long-term problem. However other projects do exist which are seeking to address this issues.
The visits also involve medical checks, with doctors and healthcare workers visiting people in their homes to help with medical issues to carry out checks and to give advice. This was also a learning experience, seeing the range of medical issues which are directly associated with poverty and the living conditions, and the lack of knowledge which is the direct result of a poor level of education.
Three days of every week were spent working at a Mother Theresa of Calcutta orphanage. This was the most emotional experience, as all the children had different stories concerning their presence at the orphanage. Children has lost parents due to the civil war and later fighting, to illnesses where they witnessed slow and painful deaths, and some who had been lost or abandoned and it was not known if their parents were still alive. This was a sad place, children had seen as felt things that one would not wish on any child, and an environment where all those...
The conditions were shocking and work undertaken included cleaning the orphanage, helping with feeding the children and playing with them. The ability to help create moments of light in the difficult and sad childhood of many children, helping them, to realize that there were still people who cared for them. This was also an emotional experience, and left one with a harsh realization of the difficulties and challenges faced by the next generation in the area.
The entire experience was humbling; when faced with such difficulties and challenges the last thing considered is ones own needs and concerns. However, in hindsight it is possible to see how the placement has resulted in significant personal growth. This has included an increased appreciation and empathy for the plight and perspective of others, a lessening of a self centric approach to life, as well as apperception of the benefits taken for granted by those living in the west. There has been the discovery of the joy of giving and sharing, and the realization that even small acts by individuals can make a difference. Social awareness, communications and language skills, world view and an appreciation of the short- and long-term problems associated with economic development have all been gained as a result of that placement. These are skills and knowledge which will also be beneficial in the future which I feel a duty to utilize throughout the rest of my life including while taking advantage of the education opportunities in the developed world.
