Sarah Axelson donated bedkits to thousands of children
... from The Mirror, Toronto, July 12, 2007
BY JUSTIN SKINNER
Sarah Axelson recently travelled to Nairobi, Kenya with the group Sleeping Children Around the World, to distribute bedkits to children in need.
After completing her education, Sarah Axelson wanted to do a little travelling. Unlike many in her situation who wind up touring Europe or taking long road trips, she also wanted to make a sizeable difference in the lives of others.
Axelson joined Sleeping Children Around the World (SCAW), a not-for-profit organization that delivers bedding, clothing and other much-needed supplies to children in developing nations. She said she was drawn to the organization not only because of the work it does, but also because SCAW promises that every cent invested in the charity reaches those who the charity helps.
"The volunteers pay their own way to get over there and every piece of every donation winds up over there," she said. "It was really important to me that 100 per cent of donations went toward children and not toward administrative costs."
She and a team of fellow volunteers went to Kenya in the spring, where they handed out 4,000 bedkits in Nairobi, Kenya. The Mount Pleasant Road and Davisville Avenue area resident said her arrival in the poverty-stricken country came as a huge shock.
"I was really not prepared to see that kind of abject poverty," she said. "In the slum areas, there's no infrastructure at all - no running water, no electricity, none of the things we take for granted."
The volunteers spent their time not only dispensing bedkits but also interacting with the Nairobian children, an experience that made the trip as inspiring as it was rewarding.
"The best part of the whole trip was that when you got there, you remembered that wherever you are around the world, kids are kids," Axelson said. "They were dancing, singing, playing, and it was a lot of fun playing games and singing with them."
She added that the volunteers and children enjoyed their time together so much that the children were actually shocked when they were handed their bedkits, each of which contained a mattress, blanket, sheet, pillow and pillowcase, towel, clothing and mosquito netting.
"They were so happy just to have people to play with, they really didn't expect anything more out of it," she said.
An added benefit to the SCAW's work is that everything in the bedkits is purchased in the country where the volunteers are handing out the packages. That way, not only are local children getting invaluable supplies, but businesses get a boost as well.
Of all the items in the SCAW bedkits, the insecticide-treated mosquito netting is the most expensive, but by far the most needed. Every 30 seconds, an African child under the age of five dies of malaria.
Axelson was so moved by her experience with SCAW that she has already signed up with the organization again. She is currently on a waiting list for a trip in 2009.
For more information on Sleeping Children Around the World, visit www.scaw.org.
