Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Day 15: 9 December - Time Flies

I cannot believe it is day 15! Time has flown so quickly!!! At the same time, when i look back to the first days, they seem like ages ago! I have cherished each and every second of this experience, both good and bad. I must say i feel a strange sense of sadness, but I know for me, this 16 Days will not be the end of my fight. I have already fought for 8 years and i will continue on! But maybe this is actually the start of the strategic part of my battle. Now that many of you are "aware" of the situation, i pray and hope that you won't leave it at that. I hope that you will allow the emotions you have felt, when you have read these different experiences, to drive you to do something; join me in my ongoing fight to see justice for these children...put structures in place to allow them to be children again!

Many people have asked me what i hope to "achieve" through spending 16 days on the streets. At the very least, i would like to create an awareness and start a dialogue. A productive dialogue amongst the NGO's involved, and no more politics and meetings with the same talk, no action. A dialogue between the NGO's and government about real, and achievable goals to help get these children off the streets, but with their best interests in mind! A dialogue amongst ALL the role players, including the general public itself, to try and find solutions for these children, instead of seeing them as the "problem"! I would hope that this, and further, awareness would begin to work against the reality that society has accepted children living on the streets as a "norm". I would hope that we would begin to see how strangely wrong, even wicked, it is to allow children to live on the streets. I would hope that the mass majority of people would merely get the revelation that something needs to be done, even if they don't know what that "something" is. And with THAT foundation of awareness, and disdain for the situation, we will have a strong foundation to build up support structure for these children. Until we gain that awareness amongst the masses, there will continue to be cracks in our structures, as their attitudes and actions enable this social ill to continue on and on and on and on and on and on and on and...

So, I am asking anybody and everybody to join me on my last night. We are going to all spend one night on the streets together, to stand together against the fact that children are ALLOWED to live on the streets! Even if you can't stay the entire evening you can still come out and show your support for a moment. Bring friends, family, kids, strangers, and come out tonight and show your support! We are meeting at 20:00 at the bottom of Buitengracht Street in the grassy median just in front of the entrance to the Waterfront (across from the International Convention Centre). Please come out and show your support and try and be there right at 20:00 in case we get chased away. But bring your blankets and be prepared to sleep there! I hope to see you there!!!

2 comments:

anita said...

I am so disappointed that i am only reading this entry now and seeing about your plans for tonight as i would definitely have joined it! I hope that you had a good turnout and that some notice has been taken and despite missing out tonightt i would really like to get involved in any future plans!
thank you for this blog and for giving us an insight to better understand the lives of these kids -we can only hope this is just the beginning of the bigger story where the necessary changes begin to happen.

Christina G said...

i have been so enthralled w/ your entries & wish I could have spread the word even more....but I know your message is being heard loud & clear by people who will pass it along...a ripple can become a huge wave, I think.

best of luck in the last night...
-christina