Wednesday, June 19, 2013
A Mother's Joy
Don and Jen Knebel
A trip to a Christel House school outside the United States
usually includes an opportunity to visit the homes of students. So, when we visited the Christel House in
Mexico City we went to the home of a student located about 45 minutes from the
school. The home for the student and her
mother was a single room about the size of an American walk in closet, with a
light bulb hanging from the ceiling.
Light (and who knows what else) came into the room from large cracks between
the walls and the roof. Clothes, dishes
and the other necessities of life were neatly stacked around the room.
Later in
the day, the Christel House students put on a program celebrating the 10th
anniversary of the school in Mexico City.
Among the participants was the young girl from the tiny home we had
visited. Unbeknownst to us at the time,
her mother was also in the audience as she sang and danced and just stood
quietly in line with the other children in her neatly pressed uniform. At the end of the program, the mother whom we
had met in the morning came forward to say thank you to Christel and the school’s
principal. The thank you was expressed most
sincerely by the tears of joy and pride that came after seeing what Christel
House was doing for her child.
Christel
House brings into its programs children who live on the very bottom rungs of
their societies – children who live in a single room with a single light bulb
and a mother struggling just to survive.
What comes out of those programs is a young person able to break away
from that struggle and to help others to do the same. That is why we support Christel House.
Labels: child development, child nutrition, child poverty, Christel DeHaan, Christel House, Christel House Mexico, Don Knebel, Jen Knebel, mother, poverty, student
Thursday, March 21, 2013
The Transformative Power of Christel House
By Jan Keucher - Christel House Volunteer
What would it be like to be a
child of the townships and come to a private school for the first time? Our
children at Christel House South Africa come from the most extreme
circumstances of poverty. Many, if not the majority, live in tiny shacks
made of corrugated tin with usually several people occupying the same meager
space inside. In some of these areas, the shacks stretch as far as the
eye can see. Most have no inside plumbing or electricity. Their
families are often abusers of drugs and alcohol. Their neighborhoods are
filled with violent gangs. What our children learn in their communities
is survival. They learn early in life that fighting is how they
handle the everyday struggles within the family and in their
neighborhoods. For so many, there is no parental structure of any
kind. Often a sibling must step in for the non-present parent. Too many
of our children lose their parents to gang violence, and sometimes even our
children are lost to the same brutality.
Now it is time for
this same child to enter school. Few of our children have gone to
crèche (pre-school). Most have not had the opportunity to look at a
book or hold a pencil. Christel House South Africa is a private
English-speaking school, but most of our children speak Xhosa or
Afrikaans. Now they must learn English. Fortunately for them (and
for us), we have an interpreter who is able to translate for them/us in the
beginning days, weeks, and months. The children must come to school
wearing clean uniforms, and we ask too that they themselves are clean.
Since most have no running water, being clean hasn’t been high on their list of
priorities before. Their school days are quite long, and they fight to
stay awake. Many get practically no sleep at night due to the harsh
conditions in their homes. The children struggle to get along with
their classmates, they struggle to cooperate with us, and they struggle against
the very structure of a classroom setting. Of course this is no easy task
for the teacher either! It is exhausting work. Yet, as the days
roll on and progress is beginning to be seen, the teachers know that
the arduous task of slowly transforming their lives into something much better
is so worth the energy and effort it takes. In spite of all the
challenges each child faces both at home and at school, their huge smiles
never cease to amaze. Surely this is a positive sign that they feel
good just being at the school surrounded by the love of their teachers and
knowing for those hours of each day, they are safe.
Labels: Cape Town, child development, child nutrition, child poverty, children, Christel House South Africa, student, students
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Forever transformed by Christel House
By: Laura D., Grants and Communications Manager, Christel
House
People get a very quizzical look on their faces when I tell
them I have thousands of “bosses” around the world. The children and young people of Christel
House—all 3,600+ of them—are the reasons I do what I do every day. Although I will never meet most of them, I
did have the chance to visit some of my international “bosses” at Christel
House India in Bangalore.
I am humbled by the memories of our children's precious
faces, their innocent hugs and kisses, their welcoming spirits, their zeal for
learning, and their sheer determination.
The sweet memories of the positive, nurturing Christel House environment
are tempered by the cruel reality of what our children face when they go home
every day--cramped family living quarters, no running water or private
restrooms, limited meals, stray dogs roaming the streets, and enormous trash
piles everywhere.
No matter how you slice it, regardless of where you are in
the world, poverty is a thief, robbing children and families of their dignity
and potential, stealing hope and diminishing the human spirit. So the magnitude of what Christel House
offers—true life transformation—is overwhelming.
I am honored to work for an organization that is releasing
poverty’s grip by attacking its root causes—illiteracy, malnutrition, disease
and lack of opportunity. Around the
world, Christel House is opening doors for thousands of children through
education, nutrition, and comprehensive health care services. We are helping families through parent and
community outreach programs. And even
after graduation, we continue to provide guidance until our alumni are
gainfully employed.
I am forever (and continually) transformed by Christel House
because I see how my efforts make a positive difference for others. And I am resolved to give my “bosses” my very
best…every day.
Labels: child nutrition, child poverty, Christel House, community outreach, education, healthcare, parental assistance
