Last Saturday we went to visitors day at Amazing Love School – it was great to see 38 children there in such good spirits. After a somewhat staid start to the afternoon as we handed out bananas, cakes and sodas the shy barriers soon came down and everyone had a party, ending with an impressive dancing display from the children and the visitors.
During the afternoon I explained the backgrounds of a few of the sponsored children (all of them come from deprived backgrounds and some have a truly horrific history) to some of our group. Kerri, who is enjoying her first African adventure, commented that it was such a shame that such beautiful children are defined by their backgrounds. The truth of this stopped me in my tracks – if one didn’t know their histories this room full of laughing, dancing children would seem no different to any other group of children. These, and all children, are deserving of our unconditional love; irrespective of history, background, religion, sex or any other artificial differentiator that we as a society put in place.
If only the world could love each and every individual child, and reach out to all those around us in the same way, this would be a better place to live and organisations like Alongside Africa and so many others would not be necessary.
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