The Difference $140 Makes

Guest Post by Faye Koehn
Faye is here with a group of four from Southwood.  They arrived on Wednesday June 22 and will be here until July 5.  They are working with all of our partnership projects and spending time teaching teachers at Uroki Secondary School.  Faye's heart is wrapped all the way around the children of Uswaa, you'll see that clearly in her writing.

Today at Uswaa we were able to interview 14 of the 18 students that Southwood sponsors at Uroki Secondary School. These students are members of our sister church at Uswaa and they are a part of the Huduma group there, which is a group for families affected by HIV/Aids. Our goal was to meet the students and encourage them in their studies – to ask them what we could do to help them succeed. I looked forward to our meeting.

Southwood supports these 18 students for $500 each, which covers tuition and board for 1 year of education. There is also the option to pay $640 per student. At this level they will get some of their school supplies as well as tuition and board. There are 18 students to support and the difference between $640 a year and $500 seemed like quite a bit. For us it felt like we were making a wise financial decision.

Today I learned what that extra $140 buys.

• Shoes
• Personal hygiene supplies – like “women’s products” for the girls. What do girls do without this product? They don’t go to school during that time in their cycle; which would be approximately 1/5 of their education time.
• School uniforms. When we asked one of the girls where she got the uniform she was wearing, she carefully explained each piece -- and who she had borrowed it from for the day.
• Notebooks, pens and pencils.

The girl who told us about her uniform was about 14 years old. As she was quietly answering our questions, I looked up from taking notes and saw a tear coming down the side of her face. I don’t know the reason for her tear, but I believe she found it difficult to tell us about her lack of necessities.

In my life experience, I cannot imagine going without something that would be generally accepted as a necessity – soap, shoes, a chair to sit on in my house, more than one shirt . . . It is difficult for me to even imagine that people actually exist in that type of situation, but I have seen it myself.

What does $140 A YEAR buy? In this case, it provides the very basic supplies needed for personal care and clothing; and it gives that child a sense of dignity and hope.

It now seems like a very small amount.