Recently I visited 3 orphanages/homes for children in Lahore. All have some support from the community. The children go to school during the day and then do homework in the evening before free time. Most of the orphanages have people that live with them and help them become responsible adults.
The reason why I visited these places was because I teach a leadership class and one of their end of the year experiments/projects is to be a leader in their own community. They had to pick an organization to go to and either organize an activity, run a game or a craft, or teach them something. I had 3 very different experiences.
The first place I visited was an Orphanage for Girls. I only went with female students from my class. My students brought chips and ice cream for the girls. Even though they didn't have a specific activity organized, they talked to the girls and heard them sing. All of the girls rushed over to me and started asking me questions. 'Where are you from? What is your name? Are these you friends?' Of course I answered, 'no they are not my friends. I am their teacher.' They looked so shocked! Obviously I look exactly the same age as my seniors. The questions continued. 'Why do you live in Pakistan? Are you Muslim?' I was amazed at how well they spoke English. Better than me! Haha. When I answered 'I am not Muslim.' They seemed so confused. They had trouble understanding that I was from Canada but living in Pakistan and not 'Muslim.' Being from somewhere but living somewhere else. Of course the next question was 'Are you Christian?' I said 'No, I respect all religions. I like Muslim, I like Christian, I like Hindu.' And their reply was 'We like you.' How adorable.
These children do get jobs after school. They do eventually move out of the orphanage and live on their own with successful jobs. I asked them, 'will you get married?' They said 'after we get jobs.' That I believe is exactly what this country needs. It needs more educated females. So many women are shut out of society and kept at home. It is great to see that there are females becoming educated and can hopefully benefit their community.
So can you imagine what their question was back? 'Kim, are you married?' I said 'no.' They said 'do you have a boyfriend?' I said 'yes.' 'Is he Muslim?' I said 'no. He is also from Canada. We went to school together.' There was a pause. And then one innocent looking girl asked so politely, 'I have a question to ask. If you don't mind me saying, is it ok if I ask the name of you boyfriend?' I just thought that was the sweetest thing. She didn't want to intrude and it's not like this was a very personal question. I said 'Ryan.' And they all giggled. 'Kim and Ryan. Very nice.'
A few girls were really good at singing and they sang Punjabi love songs. I asked them to translate. Beautiful lyrics.
Then it was time to dance. The girls said 'Ammara is a very good dancer, you stand here and follow her.' At this time, everyone else was sitting on the carpet like this was a concert or something and I was put on the spot light. The music started playing. This girl was dancing pretty fast and I looked like the awkward person trying to keep up. All the little ones were laughing at me and my arms and legs were frantically moving around. It was pretty funny. At the end of the dance everyone clapped. They asked for western moves. I did the good ol' mashed potatoes, sprinkler and twist. Haha. We had a dance party in the middle of their house! It was like we were at a sleep over and we heard a good song and jumped up and started moving around the room. It was such a neat experience, one that I won't forget.
I also visited a place called Miracle School. This is the same school that my class organized a Field Day for. Water, target, running and throwing events were just some examples of activities the kids participated in. They loved it! So some students decided to visit their school. Of course their school is one building a large house turned into a school. In every room there is a different class. Around every corner there are more desks. This school has 400 children packed inside. We were toured through the school and every classroom that we visited, all the students stood up and began to clap as we entered. It felt very strange to be applauded for and all we were doing was playing some games with them. By the 10th class, I was saying 'no please sit down. its ok.' My students decided to play indoor games with them such as pictionary and guessing games. The ladies running the school are amazing. Two sisters and their aunt take care of these children. It is shocking how this crowded building functions so well. The two sisters always keep asking me to come for dinner. We joke around and they completely love the idea of my students working with them by interacting with the children and teaching them new things. They are happy for anyone to come and volunteer. After a while of me shuffling through the different classrooms, the ladies asked me into their office and presented me with a gift. I said 'what is this? I am supposed to be giving you gifts, and helping you out!' They looked at me and said 'We are so happy that you visited us and just so blessed that you will work with us. The children love it.' I felt appreciated. I felt warmth in my heart. I tried on their new shalwar kameez that they gave me. It was beautiful and handmade. I really hope to work with them more next year and provide more field days and more field trips with their school. We brought some snacks and juice with us as they usually don't eat throughout the day. These children don't have anything but are in a free education service to learn. They want to be there.
I had a very different experience at SOS Village, another orphanage/school. They are well known in Lahore and have other orphanages around Pakistan as well. For these projects, it is the students job to call and confirm timings of when they are coming. I book the vehicle and get the administrations approval. I had a completely different vision in my mind when we arrived. This place looked amazing. They had a school, houses, small fields, and playgrounds. Each house has 7-8 children living in it with a widow or single woman who cooks and cleans and puts them to bed. During the day, the children attend school. We were supposed to arrive at a time when the children were out of school, however, that was miscommunicated. Instead of us arriving to lead an activity with the children, the head of SOS proceeded to give us a tour of the whole place. It was great to see the houses and the facility, but where were the children? We wanted to play with them. We had already waited for 30 minutes in a room with a fan and some chairs just to meet the head of SOS. As we were touring through the houses, we saw some boys that were hanging out, not in school. I told my students 'let's just ask them if they want to play since the older kids are in school still.' It took a while for my students to 'lead' and start organizing their cricket game but eventually they did. Some refereed, some played and bowled. The children had a great time especially when they caught one of my students hits into the outfield! They were so excited. After the match, the kids crowded around asking questions to my students. High fives were given out and we proceeded to tell the director we were leaving. She came out and started talking in Urdu to my students. It seemed aggressive. Bits and pieces of her lecture came out in English. I heard 'you should know better....this is our culture.' After she was finished, I looked at her and said 'Well, thank you very much for letting us come. It is a learning experience for my students to do a project like this.' (I had already explained the leadership project to her.) She looked at me and replied, 'I was just telling your students when we have visitors, it is expected that they bring gifts for the children. You don't show up at someone else's house and not bring a gift. I don't know what it is in your culture but in ours we do this. They should know better for coming here without anything and touring around.' I just said 'I'm sorry about that, I still think the children had a great time playing cricket and that will be an experience for them to remember.' I walked away. My students and I reflected in the van on the way back to the school and they were kind of shocked by her response. They understood what she meant but obviously that was not our intention when we arrived. I said maybe we should stick to places that need our help more.
First of all, we didn't want a tour. We wanted to engage and interact with the children. Second of all, my students had called multiple times to prepare this date and time which she blamed on them. Third of all, isn't coming with bats, wickets, cricket balls and an organized plan to play with children enough?? Won't the children remember that experience, rather than getting a bunch of stuff? How are we supposed to make our students become community helpers and leaders when organizations rely on material goods instead? I understand that SOS receives a lot of donations and material goods and if that is how they want to run, that is fine. Giving back to the community to me means volunteering and interacting with the children that are in need. I believe in making those connections with the children. It doesn't mean sending a bunch of money to a place and calling it a day. That sad thing is, we have so many food drives, clothing drives and book drives at our school that our students participate in.What is their role? It is bringing a bag of goods to the school and dropping it in the bin. That is how we associate and interact with the community in need. Even though we want more contact and volunteering in the community, some organizations know they can get money and goods from our students. So how do we change this? These already established guidelines for contributing to the community.
I know that 2 places I visited appreciated us coming and I hope to keep working with them in the future. But so much support comes from having fundraisers which are also important. What can we do to make it more meaningful for the children?
The reason why I visited these places was because I teach a leadership class and one of their end of the year experiments/projects is to be a leader in their own community. They had to pick an organization to go to and either organize an activity, run a game or a craft, or teach them something. I had 3 very different experiences.
The first place I visited was an Orphanage for Girls. I only went with female students from my class. My students brought chips and ice cream for the girls. Even though they didn't have a specific activity organized, they talked to the girls and heard them sing. All of the girls rushed over to me and started asking me questions. 'Where are you from? What is your name? Are these you friends?' Of course I answered, 'no they are not my friends. I am their teacher.' They looked so shocked! Obviously I look exactly the same age as my seniors. The questions continued. 'Why do you live in Pakistan? Are you Muslim?' I was amazed at how well they spoke English. Better than me! Haha. When I answered 'I am not Muslim.' They seemed so confused. They had trouble understanding that I was from Canada but living in Pakistan and not 'Muslim.' Being from somewhere but living somewhere else. Of course the next question was 'Are you Christian?' I said 'No, I respect all religions. I like Muslim, I like Christian, I like Hindu.' And their reply was 'We like you.' How adorable.
These children do get jobs after school. They do eventually move out of the orphanage and live on their own with successful jobs. I asked them, 'will you get married?' They said 'after we get jobs.' That I believe is exactly what this country needs. It needs more educated females. So many women are shut out of society and kept at home. It is great to see that there are females becoming educated and can hopefully benefit their community.
So can you imagine what their question was back? 'Kim, are you married?' I said 'no.' They said 'do you have a boyfriend?' I said 'yes.' 'Is he Muslim?' I said 'no. He is also from Canada. We went to school together.' There was a pause. And then one innocent looking girl asked so politely, 'I have a question to ask. If you don't mind me saying, is it ok if I ask the name of you boyfriend?' I just thought that was the sweetest thing. She didn't want to intrude and it's not like this was a very personal question. I said 'Ryan.' And they all giggled. 'Kim and Ryan. Very nice.'
A few girls were really good at singing and they sang Punjabi love songs. I asked them to translate. Beautiful lyrics.
Then it was time to dance. The girls said 'Ammara is a very good dancer, you stand here and follow her.' At this time, everyone else was sitting on the carpet like this was a concert or something and I was put on the spot light. The music started playing. This girl was dancing pretty fast and I looked like the awkward person trying to keep up. All the little ones were laughing at me and my arms and legs were frantically moving around. It was pretty funny. At the end of the dance everyone clapped. They asked for western moves. I did the good ol' mashed potatoes, sprinkler and twist. Haha. We had a dance party in the middle of their house! It was like we were at a sleep over and we heard a good song and jumped up and started moving around the room. It was such a neat experience, one that I won't forget.
I also visited a place called Miracle School. This is the same school that my class organized a Field Day for. Water, target, running and throwing events were just some examples of activities the kids participated in. They loved it! So some students decided to visit their school. Of course their school is one building a large house turned into a school. In every room there is a different class. Around every corner there are more desks. This school has 400 children packed inside. We were toured through the school and every classroom that we visited, all the students stood up and began to clap as we entered. It felt very strange to be applauded for and all we were doing was playing some games with them. By the 10th class, I was saying 'no please sit down. its ok.' My students decided to play indoor games with them such as pictionary and guessing games. The ladies running the school are amazing. Two sisters and their aunt take care of these children. It is shocking how this crowded building functions so well. The two sisters always keep asking me to come for dinner. We joke around and they completely love the idea of my students working with them by interacting with the children and teaching them new things. They are happy for anyone to come and volunteer. After a while of me shuffling through the different classrooms, the ladies asked me into their office and presented me with a gift. I said 'what is this? I am supposed to be giving you gifts, and helping you out!' They looked at me and said 'We are so happy that you visited us and just so blessed that you will work with us. The children love it.' I felt appreciated. I felt warmth in my heart. I tried on their new shalwar kameez that they gave me. It was beautiful and handmade. I really hope to work with them more next year and provide more field days and more field trips with their school. We brought some snacks and juice with us as they usually don't eat throughout the day. These children don't have anything but are in a free education service to learn. They want to be there.
I had a very different experience at SOS Village, another orphanage/school. They are well known in Lahore and have other orphanages around Pakistan as well. For these projects, it is the students job to call and confirm timings of when they are coming. I book the vehicle and get the administrations approval. I had a completely different vision in my mind when we arrived. This place looked amazing. They had a school, houses, small fields, and playgrounds. Each house has 7-8 children living in it with a widow or single woman who cooks and cleans and puts them to bed. During the day, the children attend school. We were supposed to arrive at a time when the children were out of school, however, that was miscommunicated. Instead of us arriving to lead an activity with the children, the head of SOS proceeded to give us a tour of the whole place. It was great to see the houses and the facility, but where were the children? We wanted to play with them. We had already waited for 30 minutes in a room with a fan and some chairs just to meet the head of SOS. As we were touring through the houses, we saw some boys that were hanging out, not in school. I told my students 'let's just ask them if they want to play since the older kids are in school still.' It took a while for my students to 'lead' and start organizing their cricket game but eventually they did. Some refereed, some played and bowled. The children had a great time especially when they caught one of my students hits into the outfield! They were so excited. After the match, the kids crowded around asking questions to my students. High fives were given out and we proceeded to tell the director we were leaving. She came out and started talking in Urdu to my students. It seemed aggressive. Bits and pieces of her lecture came out in English. I heard 'you should know better....this is our culture.' After she was finished, I looked at her and said 'Well, thank you very much for letting us come. It is a learning experience for my students to do a project like this.' (I had already explained the leadership project to her.) She looked at me and replied, 'I was just telling your students when we have visitors, it is expected that they bring gifts for the children. You don't show up at someone else's house and not bring a gift. I don't know what it is in your culture but in ours we do this. They should know better for coming here without anything and touring around.' I just said 'I'm sorry about that, I still think the children had a great time playing cricket and that will be an experience for them to remember.' I walked away. My students and I reflected in the van on the way back to the school and they were kind of shocked by her response. They understood what she meant but obviously that was not our intention when we arrived. I said maybe we should stick to places that need our help more.
First of all, we didn't want a tour. We wanted to engage and interact with the children. Second of all, my students had called multiple times to prepare this date and time which she blamed on them. Third of all, isn't coming with bats, wickets, cricket balls and an organized plan to play with children enough?? Won't the children remember that experience, rather than getting a bunch of stuff? How are we supposed to make our students become community helpers and leaders when organizations rely on material goods instead? I understand that SOS receives a lot of donations and material goods and if that is how they want to run, that is fine. Giving back to the community to me means volunteering and interacting with the children that are in need. I believe in making those connections with the children. It doesn't mean sending a bunch of money to a place and calling it a day. That sad thing is, we have so many food drives, clothing drives and book drives at our school that our students participate in.What is their role? It is bringing a bag of goods to the school and dropping it in the bin. That is how we associate and interact with the community in need. Even though we want more contact and volunteering in the community, some organizations know they can get money and goods from our students. So how do we change this? These already established guidelines for contributing to the community.
I know that 2 places I visited appreciated us coming and I hope to keep working with them in the future. But so much support comes from having fundraisers which are also important. What can we do to make it more meaningful for the children?
