Sandals for Christmas

I am very grateful for all the support we have received in setting up Cece School, providing running expenses and being enabled to cook a sustaining and healthy meal of thick millet porridge mixed with sesame paste each day.  All this is for children who have never had the chance to attend school before due to the inability of their families to pay the costs of sending children to school, such as school fees, uniforms, shoes and stationery.  All the children at Cece School come from families who are ‘living’ with HIV/AIDS.  For ‘living’ read ‘surviving by the skin of their teeth’.

Here in South Sudan there is a tradition that everyone should have new clothes for Christmas.  Unlike western countries where Christmas presents can take many forms, here in Nimule new clothes are the only present. There is a lot of social pressure, as this custom shows all too clearly the gap between the better-off and the extremely poor.  Those who have no new clothing on Christmas Day are blatantly poverty-stricken.  I am told that they often feel too humiliated to go to Church that day; a sad reflection when we consider that God specifically sent Jesus to live in a poor family.

Some of the Cece pupils in their usual
variety of clothing

At Cece School, some children wear their Sunday best in an effort to look ‘smart’ for school.  Others very occasionally change their clothes and wear flip-flops (known locally as slippers).  Others wear the same ragged clothes day in, day out and come to school with bare feet.

Yesterday, at the end of school there was an argument between a boy and girl which ended in the boy weeping silently.  Pascalina and I went to sort out the problem.  The girl complained that the boy had put on her slippers.  The boy in question, named Benjamin, is one of the neediest children in the school.  He is skeletally thin.  He has worn the same filthy tee-shirt and badly torn shorts since the school started in June, and comes to school barefoot.  His younger brother is in the same state.  Both their parents died of AIDS and the brothers are cared for by their grandmother who I am told is unable to even feed the boys properly, let alone clothe them.  They often resort to begging for food from their neighbours.  Educationally both brothers are at the bottom of the class, which I believe is due to the effects of starvation on their brains.  I am sure that when Benjamin tried on the girl’s flip-flops he was living a fantasy of owning a pair himself.  It was heart-breaking to witness.

Benjamin

This incident has given me the idea to give all the children at Cece School a present of sandals for Christmas.  This will fulfil a real need and also boost the children’s morale. 

There is a US based company which makes the ideal sandals.  They are practical and cost-effective as they are designed to grow with the children.    

I have created a donations page which I am hoping you can contribute to and also circulate far and wide.  I am hoping to raise $2000 which will buy sandals for all children registered at the school and also for children at Cornerstone Children’s Home, where there is also a serious need for sandals.  Last year there was not enough money to provide Christmas clothing for the Cornerstone children which caused great unhappiness.  Worse still, the children there are often sent home from school if they have no shoes which affects their education.

The sandals come in bags containing 50 or 100.  $2000 pays for 100 pairs.  As there are 60 children at Cece School, 50 pairs would not be enough.  I would therefore like to buy 100.  The additional 40 pairs of sandals would not be wasted as it is a good number for Cornerstone Children’s Home.

To donate please click on this link.  I have set a deadline for 30 September to allow time for the sandals to arrive in time for Christmas.

In an ideal world I would also like to provide uniform (I envisage a tee-shirt with the school name on it), but I think shoes are a higher priority at the moment.

This would be a wonderful Christmas present and make a lot of children very happy indeed.  As you will see from the Shoe that Grows website, it will also help the children health-wise.