The Kids Helping Kids ACTIVITIES

ACTIVITY REPORT FOR MAY AND JUNE 2012

“Glory be to God on High and in Earth Peace, Good will towards men” The month of May had its peculiarity with the fact that Kelly and Lisa were still around and had decided to have that a good time with the kids before their final departure for Canada. They had as well brought some gifts of tooth brushes and past for these little ones.  
The month of May is also a busy one as many of the kids prepare for the final exams for the year.  More over the national day celebrations are prepared within the same month thus give the kids a very busy schedule.

During the assembly for that month Kelly, Lisa and her mother had prepared to say goodbye to the kids and brought them gifts of toothbrushes and toothpaste which we believe just came in time after receiving the same articles in February before the departure of Pastor Jack and Mama Valerie. They also received crosses to put on the neck from Lisa’s mother. The significance of these crosses can never be under estimated. Within this meeting, planning for the Day of the African Child started and it was an opportunity to review the activities of the past year and to see which ones could be improved on. There was a talk on the importance of doing what the parents normally ask children to do. Madame Fanta was very bent on the fact each and everyone should concentrate on her/ her studies so that they can move to the next class after the evaluation. She reiterated that the school year ends on the last closing date and it is important that all are there to get their report and present them to us so that planning for the next academic year begins. 63 children were present out of which 47 were those officially registered with the program.

    June is usually the month in which the kids come along with their report booklets for the end of year results. It is also always a special month during which the International Day of the African Child is celebrated and there is always an excitement.

   The usual monthly assembly held on the 3^rd June 2012 during which we collected some of the report booklets from the school children who were already on holiday and we also planned for the International Day of the African child. During the planning it was agreed that there will be human investment activities to be carried out by the kids a day before the D-day. At the end of the assembly the kids moved to the container where they were handed their food items. They received rice, maize, groundnuts, milk, domestic soap and cooking oil. We found a new brand of plastic bags in the market which are bio-degradable as we are fighting against environmental preservation. A new brand of rice (football rice) was our choice. A total 46 registered children were present. Some forget bringing their pails and Fanta was bound to hold back their milk until they brought them to the office.

    On Friday 15^th June, the kids came with material and cleaned the surroundings of the OSEELC Office after which the major boys brought out all the remaining 4 bags of groundnuts, sieved out the dust, selected the bad nuts and dried the good ones. We lost close to one bag after this work.

     On the day itself they assembled at the little chapel as agreed and were divided in groups. The girls were to help in the cooking committee headed by Fanta and the menu was jelloff rice, doughnuts and fuleri drink, pop-corn and roasted groundnut were to be taken home as evening snacks. The boys keep the chapel clean while the little ones played around with the indoor games.

When all was ready, the small hospital chapel became the center for attraction from the early hours of the afternoon as the children started singing and cracking jokes amongst themselves. A word of prayer was said by two of the kids followed by an elaboration of the theme of the year which was “Promoting the rights of the Handicap Children in the Society”. After which the cooked rice, doughnuts and local drink were served to the kids. It was easy to see the joy of sharing in a common meal through the faces of these happy kids.  After the eating and drinking, it was now time for sketches and dancing in which then closed the feast at about  17:35. This time we asked the kids to come with friends and neighbours.

 Helpers

putting our pails & bags together...

A letter from Fanta...

Hi happy to write you in the peace of the Lord  - Jack and mama Valerie.

It’s since I did not wrote you because my children were sick but now they are better. So, how are you doing and the other members of your family?

Here in the hospital we are passing bad moments because we don’t have many patients, and we are challenged by many hospital and medical center in town. William was absent about two weeks he came back today, you are supposed to have a activities and financial report of the month of June, if not let me know because it is William who was in charge of sending the two reports although we worked together. About the list of children we moved eight of them away because the OS-EELC will take care of them, we are about to replace them with the new children. We will communicate you their names and photos when we will have all the information about them two of them informed us that they are not sure to be in Ngaoundere next school year; we provide also two places to replace them.

Otherwise we carried many activities of the month of June:

-The monthly meeting on the third, there sang two new songs, we prayed for cases of illness for holidays for those who will go on journey and for you.

-We cleaned the whole hospital on Saturday second.

-The children played many games: football, jumping ropes, running, crafts, puzzles and drawing.

  

ACTIVITY REPORT FOR JULY AND AUGUST 2012

"Unless we are converted and become as little children, we will by no means enter the Kingdom of Heaven"   (Matthew 18:3). Humility was the watch word of our July assembly where we tried to look into those aspects of life that make feel proud of ourselves instead of being proud of our Lord and master Jesus Christ. The kids were urged to be humble at all times to their parents and help in the growth of the family. 

The kids brain-stormed  on what humbleness was and in most of the responses it is; showing respect for someone elderly. Others said it is the act of being submissive and taking orders form our parents, teachers and seniors. This were all good answers based on the general aspect and as stated in the bible that "whoever humbles himself will be lifted and made greater in the eyes of God". 

After this brief lesson, we did the evaluation of the International Day of the African child feast. It was remarked that we did not have as many kids as expected, some of the kids did not show during human investments and the morning activities. Nonetheless, those who were there did a remarkable job which was also appreciated by the OSEELC and HPN authorities. They suggested that we should involve many more kids in the next celebration (2013)and most possibly involving the children of hospital staff to compete in a football tournament  for the boys and the girls play basket ball. 43 of the registered kids were present during this July assembly.

"Have you noticed that the childlike faith of a little girl or boy has so often shown to older folks how to know salvation's joy?" August month started on a good footing though with the absence of Fanta who took some days off as part of her annual leave. After the purchases, Zebazé Thomas and Mpokia Dieudonné came on Friday 3rd to help in the parceling. I concentrated on the milk while they embarked on the g'nuts, maize, beans and rice.

On Sunday the 5th, we all assembled at the usual point and talked on the method of approach and passing out information with due respect. In this case we tried to make a clear-cut difference between humbleness and respect which are quite similar. Respect in relation to our context is being obedient, polite and taking instructions from our parents, teachers, the elderly and even from the younger ones,  and respect should always be reciprocal and mutual. We also emphasized that when we intend to give out an information or ask for something from anyone, it should be done with much respect and following the normal procedure; i.e greetings, drawing attention and speaking calmly.

After this we all moved to the container for the distributions with the bigger boys helping in the process as usual. There were 41 registered kids present. Five kids who travelled for holidays commissioned their brothers or sisters to collect their packages and we found that OK for now while expecting to see them back in September before school resumption. We also agreed that we will finalized the information on school needs only in the next meeting when even the new kids would have been present.

September get together 

We continue to thank William and Fanta for their dedication to this program - helping us in the MNO Synod help the children.    We look forward to their reports to keep us in touch with what and how the children are doing.  Photos have been difficult to send of late - perhaps the rainy season has hampered the communication problems even more so. 

Children in our area and in Selkirk say 'thank you' to the 'Kids' 

for their wonderful greeting cards.

 Redeemer Lutheran, Whitemouth Confirmation Class

 St Paul Lutheran, River Hills Sunday School

Church of the Cross, Lac du Bonnet 

We also want to thank our dear friends, the Fomgbami family - especially Pastor Etienne for his continuing help for us personally. We cherish their friendship, it has been 13 years of many great memories.

I am also sharing some of our youngest grands with our friends in Cameroon... Off to school they go - how fast they grow.

                Nick & Laine - Josie from frowns to grins - Hunter & Ty

 7yr & 5yr birthdays come at start of school also 

Until next time - see y'all soon,   Jack & Val