Teach the street children to dream!
I've always avoided "poverty" as a topic as if I knew so much about it. But it was only this year, now that I'm 55, that I really understood what it is all about. How can I be so naive about it, easily judging those street children about their lifestyles when I didn't know everything about them? I'm just glad that on this day, October 15, which is the "Blog Action Day" focusing on poverty for 2008, I will have the opportunity to express my feelings (mostly guilt).
"Don't give them a single cent because they'll just buy rugby to sniff, with the money you'll give", I would tell myself when street children come to me to ask for alms. The sight of street children sniffing rugby was a dreadful sight, I felt hatred for their parents and the older children the younger ones would emulate.
It broke my heart to learn just very recently that the rugby the street children sniff will help them forget their hunger for two days. And their parents would even teach them to do it so they will stop complaining about their hunger.
What's more heartbreaking is when you hear those children talk about their dreams. They don't want to study, they just want to follow the footsteps of their father or mother. Who will teach these children to dream bigger? If nobody will teach them, poverty will never be solved, instead it will even proliferate and will be willingly accepted by the affected population.
Let's teach those street children to dream! Mr. Fernando Sena, Philippines' Father of Art Workshop has done his share of teaching those children. What can the rest of us do?
"Don't give them a single cent because they'll just buy rugby to sniff, with the money you'll give", I would tell myself when street children come to me to ask for alms. The sight of street children sniffing rugby was a dreadful sight, I felt hatred for their parents and the older children the younger ones would emulate.
It broke my heart to learn just very recently that the rugby the street children sniff will help them forget their hunger for two days. And their parents would even teach them to do it so they will stop complaining about their hunger.
What's more heartbreaking is when you hear those children talk about their dreams. They don't want to study, they just want to follow the footsteps of their father or mother. Who will teach these children to dream bigger? If nobody will teach them, poverty will never be solved, instead it will even proliferate and will be willingly accepted by the affected population.
Let's teach those street children to dream! Mr. Fernando Sena, Philippines' Father of Art Workshop has done his share of teaching those children. What can the rest of us do?
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Hi Maria Luisa,
You are so right and I believe education is the key to rise above poverty. A learned man will always have more options in life.
When I finally met my sponsored child through Worldvision, I asked her what her dreams. She has big dreams. I was so happy and then reminded her to focus on her studies to achieve those dreams.
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