Wrap a Child in something warm this Winter

Just the word ‘Africa’ makes one think of heat and clear blue skies – but in our area, at the southern tip of Africa, right now there is frost on the ground in the mornings, snow on the mountains and the night temperatures have plummeted to below freezing!

Cold like this brings real misery to rural children living in poverty in our valley. We worry about them because it’s so difficult for them to stay warm – and stay healthy! And if they get sick, because they are poorly nourished, they really battle to recover. The result is that they miss out on school and lose ground once again, making it more and more difficult for us to keep them from dropping out.

KEEPING CHILDREN IN SCHOOL is the core business of the Path out of Poverty programme. All over the world research done confirms that staying in school and getting a decent education is the first step to a brighter future.

Last week I went to visit the farm where Peter Nero, aged 6, and his sister Veronica, aged 10, live with their grandmother. Their father died two years ago in an accident and their mother started to drink and abandoned them. Peter is in our POP pre-school and he had been absent the whole of last week. I wanted to check what was going on. The granny told me that Peter wouldn’t get out of bed in the morning because he was cold and I could really see why.

In their desperately poor little cottage the two children sleep in a small bed, with their grandmother. Between them they had only one thin blanket and, although Veronica had her school uniform, neither of the children had warm clothing. No vests, socks, jumpers or jackets.

I could really sympathise with little Peter. I also grew up in a very poor family where we slept in the same bed to keep warm and I remember so clearly just wanting to snuggle down in the cold winter mornings and not get up for school. Fortunately we girls had a tough mother who knew the value of education who drove us out of bed in winter when we didn’t want to go to school. She was very determined that we should stay in school. And we did – so I am living proof that education (and a tough-minded Mum) is the key to the way out of poverty.

But my heart ached for little Peter…and all the others like him who don’t want to be cold. I sat on the bed and told him how much we missed him at school and how next year he had to go to Junior School and couldn’t afford to miss out on his work. He promised that he would get out of bed in the mornings and come back next week. So I can’t let him down!!

There are so many children who are in the same boat. Waking up cold, getting wet on their way to school, and staying damp all day with no chance of drying their clothes out because they don’t have any heating at home. By donating £14 you will be wrapping children like Peter in warmth and love, but more than this you will be giving this little chap the drive to get out of bed in the morning and the HOPE that life can be different.

Yours gratefully,

P.S. Our nursing sister Marieta is keen to get some of the mothers knitting, so with some of the money we are going to teach them how to knit for their children themselves.