Lucy Leaves TBEC

September 29th, 2006

Lucy Smith’s Journey to Light In Africa, Tanzania

On Boxing Day 2004 I was with my family watching the after effects of the Indian Ocean earthquake. I found myself sitting there with tears in my eyes, feeling so useless to the people whose lives had been destroyed, just watching from the security of my living room in my nice quiet town away from devastation. I’d always been aware of the difficulties in the world and been very grateful for my life and all that I have. Seeing these images made me very determined to get out there and give my time and efforts to help others in any way possible. I wanted to volunteer my services to help in the areas hit by the Tsunami, however as I did not have any building skills I wasn’t going to be much use to the operation and I was advised against going.

I wasn’t going to let that deter me from volunteering but I decided to go elsewhere. My mum knew of a local family that had moved to Tanzania, East Africa, and were running a children’s home just outside Moshi. As a trainee Primary School teacher this was something I instantly knew I had the skills with which to volunteer. I spent days reading every piece of information and looking at every picture on the Light In Africa Childrens Home website, www.lightinafrica.com. I e-mailed the contact address asking if I could volunteer at the children’s home and was welcomed with open arms. The granddaughter of the founder of Light In Africa, Gemma Sutcliffe, is a former pupil of Tollbar Business and Enterprise College. Gemma’s grandmother, Mama Lynn Elliot, opened the orphanage five years ago with her son; Gemma’s mother, Laura Elliot, followed with her three children a year later to give their support to Mama Lynn.

I was so determined to travel to Tanzania after my first year at St John College, York, that I worked hard at my studies whilst doing a part-time job at JJB sports to raise funds to pay for my trip and to make a difference to the children’s lives when I got there. I was intent on travelling alone, however being a female there was a strong family influence to find a travel partner. One evening my Mum called me to say that she had read an article in the Grimsby Evening Telegraph about a young man from the Grimsby area called Chris, who was raising funds to volunteer at Light In Africa for the summer. I thought that he would be a great person to contact and travel with so I called him straightaway asking if he would be interested in travelling together. He was delighted as he was apprehensive about travelling there on his own. Chris and I had an amazing time travelling and working together at Light In Africa. We were able to put our money together to buy materials to build desks, chairs, and blackboards, decorate the walls and resources to equip the pre-school classroom ready to inspire children’s minds. It was a long process as everything in Africa takes a lot longer than here in Europe. It’s very similar to the Caribbean. Everyone is so chilled! I learnt that if anyone told me they’d be with me in a an hour to ask if that was African time or ‘Western time’ - in ‘western time’ it would be an hour but in ‘African time’ it could be a day or two, or even three! I learnt a great deal about patience during my two months in Africa.

I have thought about the people I met in Tanzania every single day since my return. Each person has a special place in my heart which will never be lost. The children at Light In Africa are beautiful with such selfless and caring natures. The adults working for Light In Africa are philanthropic characters invaluable to the children’s lives. It takes great strength of character to care for people, let alone children who have experienced things well beyond your wildest nightmares! Even now I’m sitting here writing my account of the journey with tears in my eyes just thinking of some of the children’s life stories.

Here are two testimonies from Light In Africa and Lighthouse Faith School written by Mama Lynn Elliott, the founder of Light In Africa.

Saved Children

It had been an exhausting day, as we started to put away our makeshift dispensary, which had been held 6,000 feet up on the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro. The porters who had accompanied me to distribute much needed rice and meat to some extremely poor families and unsupported elderly people were already saying Kwaherie (goodbyes) to the last of the small children, who went happily down the mountain with much prized sweets in their hands. Suddenly a man running and catching his breath came to use and asked us to take food to some starving children. The porters enquired where these children lived and quickly said “No,” shaking their heads. Through an interpreter I learned that these children lived a further hour’s journey up to the mountain, which would have meant we would still be on the mountain in the dark, and the porters were having none of it. I tried to explain that if we left it until the next day a child might die, as 12 hours in the life of a starving child were crucial. Reluctantly they agreed and we started our climb again.

We stood on the brow of a hill and looked down on a mud and stick building. Outside the door three small children were playing in the mud. An African team member first approached the children and we saw him take out his handkerchief and mop his eyes. He beckoned for us to come down to him. As a white person I am always careful to be aware that some people on the mountain have never seen a European and so for the children I always carry a pocketful of sweets. I cautiously reached the children and squatted down and held out some sweets to them; they started towards me using their knees and elbows. It wasn’t until they reached out for the sweets that I noticed that the ends of their fingers and their toes had been eaten away by a parasite known as “chiggers”. An old lady slowly came down the path, and her feet too, were full of these very painful parasites which are most active at night as they burrows and eat the skin. We left our remaining food and asked that on our return the following day, the village chairman should be present. The youngest child of 3 years we were told was not expected to survive and a grave had already been dug!

The following day, we trekked the mountain with two teams, and having verified the situation, we brought these children to our centres – all five of them. When we removed their clothes, we were shocked at the state of their emaciation.

The following day we took the children, first to see the local social worker, who decided as I had transport I could go and pick up a further 4 small children, and we then continued to the hospital where the nails and the parasites were removed. After 4 weeks at our home I asked the oldest child whom we will call Donald if he would like to go to school. He said he had had little schooling but would like to go with our children. For the following two weeks, each time the children returned home I would hear that Donald had been beaten at school. A letter to the school followed in which I clearly explained that we have a NO BEATING Policy and would they cease to do this as this child has suffered enough. The next day the children ran in to tell me that Donald had dug a hole in the school play ground and buried his books. When he arrived home, I gently asked him why he had buried his books; he said, “I would rather be beaten for not having my school books, than for not understanding what is written on the blackboard.”

Thus Donald was the first African child to join my 3 grandchildren and another child on our ACE programme.

Lighthouse Faith School is a mission school “freely” educating the children at Light In Africa children’s home on the Accelerated Christian Education PACEs, which are given to use second-hand. This means an immense job of rubbing and doctoring the PACEs to allow other children to use these books. In December 2004, Donald was thrilled to have achieved the highest PACE average overall, and in May of this year, I sat through another celebration and watched his younger brother, who had been doomed to die, stride majestically across the room to also receive the award with an average of 97.4%. Each day in our school we see lives being changed.

Genuine’s Story

As I walked across the courtyard with an armful of dirty clothes, I spotted a young man peering through our very large gates. I greeted him, and invited him to enter the compound. I quickly dropped off all the washing and asked the young man if he was hungry. He said he was so over a cup of tea and some bread he asked me if he could come and live at our home. He told me he had been living with his grand parents, but they had so little food for themselves that they told him to go to live on the streets. This he had been doing until he saw our children returning to the centre and he thought they looked clean and well fed so he followed them home. I asked the nervous child if he was a good boy. He told me that he was and that he had not been in trouble with the police. I said he could live with me for 5 days, after which time I would make a decision. As a parting question, I asked him if he had any ambitions for his future, and he told me he would like to be a doctor!!!!!

It was soon very clear that this young man had a lot of integrity and I paid for him to enter primary school again, as he had to abandon any form of education, as his grandparents were unable to pay his school fees. Most nights I would go into his room after I had locked up to tell him to stop studying and switch the light off. He was so determined to catch up as much as he could with his peers. We then moved off the mountain and he attended a different primary school, where, after 5 days attendance, he was made a monitor.

At age 16 years he took his Secondary School exams and his results showed that he had become one of the top students of Tanzania and was entitled to attend the best Government school there was in Dar el Salaam. We were all so thrilled as we waved him off to his new life at a boarding school, which had produced two Presidents. But 8 months later I received a letter asking me to travel 500 kilometres to see him at his school. He said he had been very poorly with malaria and that he desperately wanted to come back home and do the ACE programme with the rest of our children because he believed he could knock 4 years of study if he joined our Lighthouse Faith Academy. Already Genuine is streaming ahead, as the ACE programme allows him to set his own goals and I sincerely believe that this extraordinary young man, who has worked so diligently, will reach his heart’s desire to become a doctor……

Home | Privacy Policy | Site Map | Text Only