“I think maybe if you have fun with what you do it becomes easier to pick up your work and really grow with it.”
-Yussef, a
The more that I work at and become involved with Sarakasi Trust, the more I find out what an amazing organization it is in all its different aspects. One of these programs is the Hospital Project. I have become involved with the hospital project on many levels [I redesigned the logo, and I am going to write a grant for it (more on that to come later in this post,)] but I had not seen it in action until today. This program goes to the different hospitals around Nairobi and entertains the children through clown and slapstick comedy skits, playing guitar with sing-along, and drawing and painting, and initiates the concept that laughter is the best medicine (just like the message in the Robin Williams movie Patch Adams), which this project reminds me of. The children in the hospital are either sick or injured, or their mothers are admitted are just staying in the hospital with their families.
Walking into the hospital today I did not know really what to expect, other than that this would be a fun and eye-opening experience. To be perfectly honest I do not believe I had been in a hospital in ten years, so I just being in a hospital was different for me. When I opened the door to the children’s play room, I was instantly mobbed by ten or so small children ages 4-7 or so. They seemed so happy and curious to see a mwazungu (white person) and I was being pulled in every different direction by the kids and everyone wanted to shake my hand. It instantly put a smile on my face with all the fun happiness in the room. I helped set up/hang the curtains that served as the stage for the puppet shows and the changing room for the clowns, and then sat back and watched as one of the workers began strumming a guitar and leading the kids in a funny kids song in Swahili. I made my way into the group of kids to sit down, and immediately I had two kids sitting in my lap and another two pulling my arms over and around them. They seemed so excited to have a visitor and it was quite the experience. It really is amazing the power that little kids seem to have to lighten the atmosphere, even in a serious setting like a hospital. The performers helped out with this as they were dressed in ridiculous clown costumes and did slapstick skits that had every kid and their parents who watched from outside laughing hysterically. The puppet shows continued the fun and laughing, and the kids got to have some creative fun as paint and coloured pencils and paper were dispersed for their drawings.
While the scene in the children’s play room was certainly touching, I had a more profound impact on what Sarakasi does as I went around with one of the Hospital Project performers to the different wards in the children’s wing to interact with the children who are not well enough to make it to the play room. We brought papers and clipboards and crayons to people in these wards, where they could draw and we made jokes and danced around, and did what we could to brighten their moods.
It is amazing what a simple joke or warm engagement and paper and colours can do, and it really showed. Some of these kids have major potential with their artistic abilities as well.
The Sarakasi Hospital Project is one of the amazing different parts of Sarakasi Trust, and I am going to try my best to help them expand. One of the biggest parts of my AU Abroad Program grade is that I have to write a grant proposal for the organization that I work for. After seeing this program in action and talking with the hospital project director, I have decided that my grant proposal is going to go towards attempting to get the project a minibus so that they can take their entertaining and performing for the sick and hurt kids beyond
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