Monday, July 19, 2010

Today we went to Gigi’s Place. Gigi’s is a feeding station for street orphans in Manzini, the largest city in Swaziland. Although we have been to Gigi’s every time we have been in Swaziland, I tend to forget just how impacted these kids are and each visit opens my eyes anew to their vulnerabilities. The children range in age from toddlers to eight to ten years old. The children either live on the street or with whomever they can find refuge and come into Gigi’s each morning for instruction and their only meal for the day. They are the most vulnerable of the children with whom we come in contact, for their world outside the barbed wire fences of Gigi’s is one filled with predators and adult victims of poverty and homelessness with whom they must compete for food and shelter.
The children were expecting us and seemed so excited at our arrival. We had games, crafts, kazoos, suckers and the like, but it became apparent that what these children were starved for was the human touch. In reflecting on our day, Janice Wilson our team captain, so eloquently pointed out the huge difference our presence made in the lives of these children. Did we change the world today? Probably not, but for a time on this day these children knew the safe and loving care of adults. Fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters who really had nothing more to offer than to hold little ones in their arms; to play, to sing, to be silly, to care.