Early this year, while preparing for my final exams, my friend (Jummie) and I decided to give out a few things to charity; we chose Valentine’s Day, the perfect time to share love. At first, we didn’t know how to go about it; we didn’t have access to these needy people, so we decided to give stuff to the indigenes – tailors, hawkers, and market women – around us, but somehow we just knew that these people weren’t ‘needy enough’. We’d never really done this before, and we had just two weeks to plan everything out, but God took over.
On February 14, we – Jummie, myself and about 5 very unsure volunteers – hired a cab filled with loads of clothes, and some food items, and drove to the school of the blind [in the same town]. First of all, I was surprised that we were driving hundreds of kilometers to some very dusty remote area; these children were supposed to be blind, not lepers. We eventually got there just as they were about to have lunch, and their Co-ordinator (who was expecting us) had to put that on hold, but of course they didn’t mind, they were excited to have visitors.
Jumoke spoke brilliantly, telling them how much we loved them and believed in them (not without citing examples like Cobhams etc). I told them we wanted to meet them, so they had to stand up one after the other, telling us their names, and what they hoped to become in future. Amazingly, as they shared their dreams with us, they laughed. It was almost as though they didn’t believe they could amount to anything. You really couldn’t blame them; blind children, in a blind school that had nothing; no Braille, no pianos, no fans, no electricity, no life, no HOPE whatsoever! I was sad. I’d gone in really naïve…
After presenting half of everything we brought along, we left with a promise to come back. Our next venue was a catholic-run orphanage situated within town. The contrast was a bit too obvious; neat sisters taking care of the kids, a white female who was head, well-fed orphans who strolled a few blocks [within the compound] to get to school. Everything was so organized, we were scared they’d snob our not-so-new clothes, and few food items, but thank God! It wasn’t so. The head asked us a couple of questions – who we were, why we were doing this and how we’d heard bout them – before finally opening up and saying that she really appreciated the fact that students could come together to do this. She went ahead to tell us how most of the kids were strays, and how there barely had enough support to run the place. By the time we left I was exhausted but tremendously fulfilled. Jeez! I felt like a super hero who’d just saved the entire planet, and to think that we’d done very little. It was at that point I decided I would definitely do more.
p.s; Jummie and I said big thank yous to our volunteers. They really did a good job and seemed genuinely happy to be involved in our project. After that, we both went back to my room and talked excitedly about other things we wanted to do for these blind children. My personal faves were Blessing, Monsurudeen and Kemi. Blessing simply because she was my name sake and while everyone else wanted to become either a musician or a pastor, she wanted to be a ‘journalist’ [which coincidently is what I am]. Monsurudeen on the other hand, stood and immediately he spoke, impressed us; he had that rich, very confident radio voice - Jummie and I talked about him non-stop. Kemi, was simply the youngest (and really cute too), she didn’t even seem blind. I know we haven’t gone back since then, but that’s because after wrapping up our exams and projects, everything just seemed to happen so fast. However, it’s the tail end of the year and something’s come up again. Jummie and I have just 3weeks to plan for this and we need all the support we can get.
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