Money Supermarket Retail Royalty Challenge: Continuing to Support Retrak Charity Part One

This week I accepted another challenge from Money Supermarket (you can read my last Money Supermarket challenge ‘what’s in my handbag’ post HERE). This time it is a charity challenge where they have challenged bloggers to spend £30 on gifts or donations to a charity local to them.

Charity work is something I have always done for various different charities. A friend of mine died of cancer at the ridiculously young age of 28 and had suffered with Crohns disease her whole life so I ran the Wilmslow Half Marathon in her memory and raised money for Crohns and Colitis UK. Those who know me well will know this was quite some feat as I am not a natural runner. I don’t even enjoy running!

The biggest thing I have ever done for charity is raising £2000 for Retrak in 2011. A group of 11 of us had the opportunity to go out to Ethiopia and meet the street children this money would help whilst also renovating their emergency accommodation whilst there. Retrak are based in Cheadle Hulme so, whilst the money is spent on children in Africa, it is still a charity local to me. Whilst in Ethiopia a colleague and I kept a diary that was published on the Retrak website at the time. I really wanted to share with you all why I did this and why it is still so special to me before publishing my challenge post.

It is word heavy and a long post but I promise it is worth it!

Day One – Monday 21st November 

Today was mostly spent travelling to Addis Ababa via Frankfurt…  a very smooth journey and no baggage was lost in transit which, for this country, is a small miracle! We all piled aboard a mini bus not before our luggage was hauled on the roof of the bus by the driver. When we arrived at our accommodation for the trip, Shane didn’t hesitate to climb on top of the bus and retrieve our luggage. Our accommodation is basic, to say the least. Most of the bathrooms have a tub of water to use as a flush and a handheld shower to wash with.

We are all excited to meet the boys and do what we can to help the Retrak team out here in Ethiopia.

Day two – Tuesday 22^nd November

Whilst we waited for staff from Retrak to brief us this morning, we ventured out of the hotel where we were quickly surrounded by a group of teenage boys who were very chatty and asked if we were from Brixton! They asked Tracie if she was in a band as she has pink hair! We felt uncomfortable and very vulnerable being the only British people in the vicinity.

We were met for lunch by the Country Director Maggie and the Deputy Country Director Fekadu for a briefing on some of the basics including security, health and basic ‘do’s and don’ts’ such as not to pet the wild dogs due to rabies, not to go out in groups of less than three and also to include at least one male.
After lunch we drove to the drop in centre where we were shown the work that needed to be done over the course of our trip. Maggie and Fekadu then talked through the history of Retrak and how it started.

They told us the story of one boy, in particular, who was very angry when he arrived at Retrak and refused to speak to them at all. They believed he was around 12-13 years and as the first few days passed the staff worried about how they could get him to communicate with them. On day 4 he was asked to draw a picture of where he came from and Maggie showed us this drawing. He drew a house which illustrated himself chained up to the house and a black figure outside which we would portray as a black witch figure similar to what British children may draw at Halloween. When asked who the figure was he pointed and said, ‘Mum’. The street children here would never have had access to images of our ‘witches’ and this child drew the picture because that is how he felt towards his Mother. Over time he eventually built a trust with the staff at Retrak and opened up about his life story. Maggie showed us a 2^nd drawing where he drew his house, himself, his Mother (who was no longer a black ‘witch’ figure) and then another person. When asked who this other person was he  said it was his step father. In this picture the child was holding something in the air. When asked what this was he said á knife’, when asked why he had a knife he said ‘to kill my Step-Father’.

 Maggie explained that the majority of the street boys who come to the centre are mostly due to extreme poverty (approximately 60%). The rest are due to family breakdown and abuse. Family breakdown tends to be where the parents have split up or a parent has died and a step parent appears on the scene.  The child is either immediately pushed away from the family emotionally and/or physically or they are abused so severely that they feel they have no choice but to leave. This is what had happened to this child in question.

When Retrak staff tried to trace his family they showed photographs to people in the area where he had come from. They recognized him as ‘street child ’and that he had lived on the streets from the age of 5 and came to Addis Ababa at approximately 11 years of age.  The Retrak staff continued to work with him to deal with his anger and behavioural problems and, although he still has some problems, he has much improved. He is now at school and 2^nd best in his class.

Day 3 – Wednesday 23^rd November

We were driven to the drop in centre where 3 of the team, were taken to the new night shelter to build a chicken coop as Retrak staff had discovered that 1 volunteer used to be a builder. It was later discovered that another keeps chickens and the eggs had been sold to raise money for the charity. 

This has become a long standing joke amongst the team as this project initially started as Dan being asked to build a shed for the chickens. It developed into John sitting in his room with a head torch on at 3am drawing blue prints. The chicken coop is no longer a shed, it now has a run, nesting area and gates to keep out the wild dogs!!

This joke continued long into Wednesday when 3 volunteers ran a session with the street boys and asked them to draw pictures of chickens. They also distributed white caps for them to decorate whilst Terry educated them in the ways of Manchester United. Many of the street boys now have ’10 Runey’ on their hats… as well as chickens!! We were very sensitive about taking photographs so asked the boys permission. To say they were keen and avid posers, is an understatement!

The game of Frisbee was organized mayhem and so much fun.  Aside to this two hour session much painting was completed, the main classroom was painted which had uneven, textured stone walls and high ceilings. The shack where the guard for the centre lives, the front gate (drawing lots of attention from the other children in the area) and the basketball hoop were all painted by Kev and Shane. This painting was all done whilst wearing CSI protective suits in an  attempt to stay clean! We ate lunch with the boys and after this; they left the centre to spend some time out on the streets in an attempt to earn some money and to keep some of their independence. They then have to be at the night shelter for 7pm where they sleep on plastic mats with a thin blanket in rows on the floor of a large room.

Day 4 – Thursday 24^th November

Another trip to the centre where we continued our painting including touching up the classroom, painting the new storage and kitchen areas, the clinic and the staff toilet block. The kids had a session with a group of us where they played games and enjoyed a dance session with Q including Michael Jackson hip moves! One of the children, Able, showed phenomenal moves and put Q to shame! For this, he was awarded a packet of Haribo sweets which he adamantly shared with Keeley refusing to take no for an answer.

Maggie and Ann (Learning and Development Director) took us on a ride around Addis Ababa to give us a firsthand look at how the children live on the streets of the city. We were shocked to see a large amount of females of varying ages also on the street. We were told that they are all sex workers either working independently to get through their education or working for a pimp after they had been dragged from the street where they were living. They dressed conservatively, not a short skirt in sight, and you would never believe that they were selling themselves for money. The reason we know they are sex workers is due to the fact that no female would be out on the street after 9.30pm as no public transport is available at this time.

Groups of children sleep in a huddle under thin blankets to keep warm, many sleeping near open sewers and decaying skips due to the heat of the fermenting waste. There are currently around 11,000 children sleeping on the streets of Addis Ababa. This, amongst the figure of 30,000 adults, is a huge number and the streets appear crowded with bodies.

We then drove to the old night shelter owned by Retrak where we saw the boys we had eaten and played with during our trip asleep on the floor, 1 of which, was hard at work with a torch catching up on his homework. This brought a tear to most of the team due to the bond we have now created with these kids. The old shelter is in one of the poorest areas of the city and the smell is indescribable. We had to physically jump over the open sewer to enter the building.

Day 5 – Friday 25^th November

Back to the drop in centre this morning for more painting and renovation. We are making great progress and managed to finish the staff toilet, large meeting room, server room and 3 offices as well as varnishing partition cladded walls. We also managed to get the metal doors and bars on windows painted. A group of us did a session with the kids today which included music, juggling and badminton. The kids loved learning to play badminton and there were some real stars when it came to the juggling taking to the skill like a duck to water. Maggie explained that the kids are starting a circus programme soon so this fit perfectly with their development plans.

                        The team were given an early finish (around 3pm) and were taken up Entoto Mountain for some amazing views of the city and surrounding areas. On the dangerous drive up the mountain we witnessed older women walking down the mountain carrying huge bundles of wood on their backs measuring approximately 12 foot wide. These cause them to hunch their backs to support the weight. Q offered to take the load off one of these women to experience the weight and could only manage a few steps carrying the wood! We stopped at a small market at the foot of the mountain for some haggling on local goods such as clay coffee pots, scarves and traditional childrens outfits. It’s a shame we can’t haggle like that in this country!

Day 6 – Saturday 26^th November

The group split this morning with some going to paint the Country Director’s office, the guys building the chicken coop went to finish this off and the rest of the team went to the new night shelter for a ‘scrapbooking’ session with the older boys. They all attend school and have memory books that contain artwork they have drawn as well as education certificates. They use this as a way to communicate and to remember key events. Many of the books contained photographs of their families and photographs of themselves. We had taken lots of craft items thanks to kind donations including glitter glue (which was an instant hit!), magazines and sequins. Most of the team found it highly rewarding that the kids cut out Manchester United pictures from old Manchester City programmes to stick into their books and, whilst most could speak little English, they could easily point out ‘Rooney’, ‘Giggs’ and ‘Ronaldo’. The boys had great fun putting the colourful feathers from the craft kits into their hair and taking photographs of each other with our cameras.

In the afternoon the group came together to finish painting the Country Director’s office and three other admin offices as well as move the furniture back to where it had come from.

Day 7 – Sunday 27^th November

Today is the most exciting day of the year for the boys, it is the Great Ethiopian Run! We arrived at the drop in centre early to meet up and to say the boys were excited is an understatement! The 10km run here is different to those in the UK in the fact that t shirts are issued prior to the start of the race so 40,000 people take to the streets wearing the same colours.

The T shirts this year were bright red with purple sleeves (a fashion trend waiting to emerge perhaps?) and we found it difficult to stay together. The atmosphere of the race was amazing with chanting, singing and dancing along the way and locals spraying us with water to cool us down. Shane ran with a group of the boys from the centre and managed to finish in under 1 hour. Some of us chose to walk due to the altitude and heat on the day. Some of the boys also walked with us refusing to run on and compete for a good time. The organisation when it came to getting medals was dangerous due to a larger number of runners than anticipated and some getting more than one. After the run it was back to the drop in centre for a feast consisting of minced beef (the boys only enjoy meat twice a year) and cake. Maggie gave an inspirational speech which was translated into Amharic and English about how everyone was a winner and has the power to change their own future. The boys enjoyed some dancing with the team and sang along happily to Justin Bieber’s ‘Baby Baby’ song. Amazing that they have so little but still know who he is!

Day 8 – Monday 28^th November

Today was the last full day at the drop in centre so we finished off painting the 2 remaining offices and John painted the Retrak logo onto a once tired looking iron gate.

In the afternoon we were invited to listen to the stories of three of the boys to find out how they arrived at Retrak. One of the boys, aged 13 but looked 9, who we had all grown close to told us his parents both died and he went to live with his sister. When his sister married, her new husband told the boy that he couldn’t stay any longer so he left for the streets of Addis. He was on the streets for three months before a friend referred him to Retrak. When he arrived at the centre he had severe conjunctivitis and a skin infection on his face. He has now been with Retrak for three months and his eyes have cleared up. His skin is still scarred but a lot better and he receives regular medication for it. He asked us questions about why we had come to the centre and thanked us for all our hard work. He went on to say that he wants to do similar and help people in the future.

The second boy also aged 13 but looked 8-9 with the brightest eyes and cutest dimples you can imagine. He told us his story, that his father had died and when his mother remarried, her new husband, an alcoholic, abused him to the point that he felt he had no choice but to leave for the streets. This is a common story amongst the boys.

The third boy was 17 and explained that his parents had died and he had gone to live with his aunt and uncle. Whilst living with them there had been a misunderstanding at school and a window got smashed. This caused so much friction that he had to leave for the streets and lived in his home town for a short time. He became known as ‘the street boy’ and felt this brought great shame to his family so he left for Addis. He later found Retrak and is now learning to be a joiner.

Day 9 – Tuesday 29^th November

The day we leave and whilst we are all tired and ready to come home, it will be hard to leave the boys. We went back to the drop in centre to do some last minute painting, tidying and cleaning up. We presented the boys with footballs shirts that had been kindly donated by local teams as well as sweets and stationary. They then gave us a small local gift with a hand drawn card. It was touching and we will treasure the cards forever. We stopped off on the way back to see the finished chicken coop at the new night shelter. It is huge in comparison to the old one and the chickens are no longer cramped. The journey back was a lot more sombre than that arriving, we all had a lot to think about and remember. I don’t think any of us will forget the experience or the kids we met in Ethiopia.