30 May 2021
We were sitting down with some of the older youth, all of whom are a part of the orphan care program we support, ready to teach them some good basic study skills. They are all in their final years of school and requested some study guidance. Within five minutes of talking about their study challenges, all of the items they brought up, were not ones we expected. Some of them included…
- They do not have any electricity, therefore it is a challenge to study at night. (Have you ever tried reading by candlelight? Eek, I feel sleepy and have tired eyes within minutes).
- They live in a small tin shack with multiple other family members…not a conducive environment to study.
- They live in a very dangerous part of the township, so they are not able to go out at night to study elsewhere.
- The library is closed before school lets out and most of the classrooms are overcrowded with little to no individual attention.
My long list of “study tips” quickly fell to the wayside. As many of their basic physiological needs were not being met, how could we expect them to rise above and study hard to pass Grade 12? We could not help them solve all their needs that day, but we could do one practical thing…provide them with some evening light! For $25 we were able to purchase some high-end solar-powered battery lights providing them with (up to 60 hours) light in the evenings…because sometimes showing God’s love looks like a battery/solar-powered light!
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