Kirsten's Updates about the H.C.C. in Kenya

Glencoe High School students learn about the life of Happy Children's Centre orphans and about HIV/AIDS issues in Kenya.


At the end of January, before I left for three weeks in India (a different blog!) I was asked to speak to 89 ninth graders at Glencoe High School, my sons' alma mater in Hillsboro. The ninth grade class had read a novel about apartheid in South Africa, but most of the students didn't know much about the current reality of discrimination and social injustices that surround HIV/AIDS, particularly how those injustices play out for women and children.


To make the program more interesting and more real to the Glencoe students, I created "profiles" for them of AIDS orphans and of children from the "Privileged North". Most of the students were given the name, photograph, family history, interests and a daily meal log for a real AIDS orphan from the Happy Children's Centre. A few "lucky ones" were given the same information about someone from the U.S. or Europe. Neither the teacher or I knew who would be an "orphan" and who would receive a "Privileged North" identity, but once the students opened their identity papers, they were asked to sit in different sections of the lecture area. The "Privileged North" students sat in chairs and they were allowed to keep their shoes on. The "orphans" had to sit on the floor with no shoes. It soon became an uncomfortable experience for the Glencoe "orphans", but of course most of the HCC orphans live without furniture or shoes so I wanted to give our Glencoe students a viseral sense of what that life must be like as an AIDS orphan.


After my PowerPoint presentation entitled "AIDS, Orphans and Art: Spreading Hope in Africa" all of the students made cards for the HCC orphans, some of which were absolutely wonderful. It was clear that they had listened attentively and were very touched to learn about the struggles of orphans from 10,000 miles away. I sent all of their cards off to Kenya right before I left for India, and Sophie and Zablon on working on sending back a response from the HCC orphans.

Before my presentation ended at Glencoe, we gave the "Privileged North" students a granola bar and juice, but the "orphans" got nothing. The "Privileged North" students had the opportunity to share with those who didn't get a snack, but most did not share. However, many of the Glencoe students and staff bought my cards made with the HCC orphans' art, so further fundraising occurred through this contact, much to my delight!


January was a busy month in which I did several different presentations for a wide range of groups about the HCC and through those presentations I was able to speak to audiences I had not reached before. With these fund raising efforts I am hoping to provide the HCC with propane gas cookers since their current method of cooking with firewood is neither sustainable nor healthy for the cooks or the children. We need able $100 more for the cost of the cookers, which run about $690. We hope the Italians will complete the rest of the buildings by April, as they told Jim in January.


Current kitchen for Happy Children's Centre orphanage. Note this is a small shack where the food is cooked on an open flame with firewood. This method is both dangerous and unhygienic, but it the most common method of cooking in Kenya (I cooked like this myself while there in 2005!)