As published in the Stratford Beacon Herald: Monday, March 14, 2011.
Mike Beitz
Staff reporter, The Beacon Herald
So many faces.
Shy ones. Silly ones. Thoughtful ones. Proud ones.
There are young ones with smooth, unblemished skin, and older ones with wrinkles etched deeply into their weather-worn foreheads.
Almost all of them are smiling, with big, expressive eyes.
They look genuinely happy, despite the poverty that surrounds them every day.
Sue Orr captured hundreds of faces with her camera during a recent two-week mission to India with Sleeping Children Around the World, and that’s one of the things that stood out the most for her.
“They’re such vibrant people, and very, very gracious,” said Orr, who was part of a seven-member team that helped distribute 4,000 donated bedkits to children in some of the poorest regions in and around Belgaum, in southwestern India last month.
The $35 kits, which include things like a sleeping mat, blanket, clothing, mosquito net, school supplies, and a metal plate, cup and bowl, are delivered by volunteers in underdeveloped and developing nations like India, Africa, Nicaragua and the Philippines to fulfil one simple goal — to give needy children the opportunity for a good night’s sleep.
A simple goal, but a worthwhile one, said Orr, who has participated in three excursions with Sleeping Children Around the World now. The first was in Kenya in 2007, and then in Bangladesh in 2009.
Each trip convinces her of the importance of reaching out to the world’s most underprivileged.
“People’s lives are changed by these kits,” she said. “It’s like they’ve won the 6-49.”
At each of the nine locations where the bedkits were distributed, hundreds of eager children and their parents lined up, many walking long distances to do so.
They were happy, excited and overwhelmingly grateful to receive the modest gift, said Orr.
“I had women coming up to me, putting their hands together in prayer and saying ‘namaste’ (a respectful Indian greeting),” she said. “They were very appreciative.”
Some even kneeled and kissed her feet, which at first made her uncomfortable until the team’s translator explained that it was their way of saying thank you.
“Some days it would just bring me to tears,” she said of the experience.
Helping those who have very little — some of the people she met worked for 70 cents a day — was “very humbling,” and gave her an important sense of perspective that many people in prosperous countries like Canada seem to lack, said Orr.
“We just take things for granted here. We worry about the stupidest things,” she said. “They’re thinking about, ‘what are we going to do to get through the next day.’”
“But for them, they wake up and it’s a good day. They appreciate it.”
The hundreds of photos Orr took on the excursion — what she calls Faces of India — illustrate that spirit, and it’s something she keen on sharing.
In fact, it part of the Sleeping Children Around the World model.
A photo is taken of each child who receives a kit, with a card showing the donor’s name and sometimes a personal message. Those photos are then sent back to the donors to show how their $35 contribution has made a difference.
The organization’s website also features a blog with regular updates on the bedkit distributions written by the volunteers themselves.
And Orr chronicled the trip, with comments and photos, on her own Facebook page.
Her last entry: “Arrived home safe and sound ... 40 hour trip door to door ... Can't wait to do it again!”
More information about Sleeping Children Around the World can be found at www.scaw.org.
mbeitz@bowesnet.com
