Challenges all over

Being a NGO means making choices all day. When you just visit Kiandutu Slum or government Primary Schools you see everywhere challenges. Struggles for individual children, struggles of teachers, struggles of the school. Some examples; there is a lack of classrooms, books, desks but also there is no water in schools. When there is no water, there is no hygiene and children have to carry water from ‘ home’ that means, they have to walk far to collect (dirty) water out of a river or anywhere where they can find water. Also some children in government schools don’t get breakfast or hardly something to eat. Macheo helps 20 government schools with all kind of interventions to bring them (back) to school and let them finish school. Providing porridge to all children in the morning is 1 of the interventions and for the most vulnerable children having a feeding program. Also for these activities (clean) water is needed. Government schools are mostly struggling with a lack of money for basic things. Somehow there must be money for things but in the end the conditions are very poor.  Sometimes there are ways the government or well-wishers who can invest in things like water harvesting, building a classroom but its very rare and also never enough to supply the whole school. Also parents are trying to assist on things but they are already fighting to get all the things paid to keep all children in school. The basics in life are not common for many children. Like the way we are used to running clean water , electricity in the house are not available for many families. Even not all my colleagues who work for Macheo have running water in the house or a toilet or shower. They have to share these facilities with many people who are living in their compound or community. Also access to internet or wifi is totally not common in the whole area where Macheo is working. Even for me its not that easy to get somewhere wifi or internet. At Macheo we have internet but there are (almost) daily power cutoffs or problems with internet. Im so used to all of these things, you have to be inventive to work here. Not everything can be planned that tight.

Macheo makes a difference for so many children and their families. Only because of donors from all over the world.  Anything it doesn’t matter what, it will always help somebody.

Greetz Maaike