FROM GOURIA, CAMEROON
NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER 2010
This summer Anna Reilly (a Cambridge House Year 2 teacher and long-term member of The Malima Project), together with her 16-year-old daughter Luisa, visited Malima Primary School in the village of Gouria, in the Far North of Cameroon, West Africa. This is Luisa’s initial report:
Waking up to Two Realities
When you finally get back home, after being in the village of Gouria, you ask yourself if the village still exists. It feels more like a dream than a memory. When you wake up in the morning and see the rays of sunlight coming through your window, you wonder if it is under those same powerful rays that so many people in the village are working non-stop for an average of 8 or 9 hours in their fields. When you finally sit down to watch the television at night, you wonder if the villagers you met and lived with are really already asleep, surrounded by darkness, since most of the village doesn’t have mains electricity.
When you return to your normal life, it’s difficult to comprehend that most people in rural Africa (especially the women) have to work so hard all day, just to survive. During the dry season, the majority of girls or women have to make a daily trek to bring home water. In Gouria, this starts before dawn and can end around midday. It’s a task that, for us, is as easy as turning a tap on and off.
What do we consider to be essential in the life of a child here in Europe? We consider the right to an education, to hygiene, to health-care, to a balanced diet as the basics. So what happens when a place exists where children don’t have these same rights? This is the reason behind The Malima Project. Malima Primary School is a place where children can learn and forget about their daily hardships. The school is now in it’s 10th year and is a successful, accepted part of community life. You, as sponsors, are providing the children with a positive education, not only changing their lives in the present but also preparing them for a better and brighter future. It really is a dream coming true.
Copyright (c) 2010 Luisa Reilly
NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER 2010
This summer Anna Reilly (a Cambridge House Year 2 teacher and long-term member of The Malima Project), together with her 16-year-old daughter Luisa, visited Malima Primary School in the village of Gouria, in the Far North of Cameroon, West Africa. This is Luisa’s initial report:
Waking up to Two Realities
When you finally get back home, after being in the village of Gouria, you ask yourself if the village still exists. It feels more like a dream than a memory. When you wake up in the morning and see the rays of sunlight coming through your window, you wonder if it is under those same powerful rays that so many people in the village are working non-stop for an average of 8 or 9 hours in their fields. When you finally sit down to watch the television at night, you wonder if the villagers you met and lived with are really already asleep, surrounded by darkness, since most of the village doesn’t have mains electricity.
When you return to your normal life, it’s difficult to comprehend that most people in rural Africa (especially the women) have to work so hard all day, just to survive. During the dry season, the majority of girls or women have to make a daily trek to bring home water. In Gouria, this starts before dawn and can end around midday. It’s a task that, for us, is as easy as turning a tap on and off.
What do we consider to be essential in the life of a child here in Europe? We consider the right to an education, to hygiene, to health-care, to a balanced diet as the basics. So what happens when a place exists where children don’t have these same rights? This is the reason behind The Malima Project. Malima Primary School is a place where children can learn and forget about their daily hardships. The school is now in it’s 10th year and is a successful, accepted part of community life. You, as sponsors, are providing the children with a positive education, not only changing their lives in the present but also preparing them for a better and brighter future. It really is a dream coming true.
Copyright (c) 2010 Luisa Reilly
Eugene Carmichael
