DUBAI // Staff from the emirate’s education regulator are walking a mile in the shoes of destitute orphans abroad.
Knowledge and Human Development Authority staff have been volunteering to work in poverty-stricken areas of three countries, in a philanthropic project that also shows orphans the value of schooling.
“The volunteer programme was established to provide colleagues in KHDA with a leadership development opportunity and to expose colleagues to less privileged areas in the world,” said Shadia Alhelo, a project manager with the KHDA.
“It started three years ago and we have visited three countries – Cambodia, Nepal and Indonesia.”
The past four trips have been to an orphanage in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, one of the areas worst hit by the tsunami almost 10 years ago.
Kinderhut was founded and is managed by an Indian family in Dubai and is home to about 125 children, many of whom lost their parents to the tsunami. The volunteers live in the same space as the orphans and eat the same food.
“There is, of course, no air conditioner, there is no heater,” said Hanan Alfardan, a researcher at the KHDA who was one of the last batch to stay at Kinderhut.
“It’s not a resort, it’s an orphanage.
You stay in the orphanage, you live where they live, you see what they wear, you see the daily life. You see everything that they do and how they interact with each other.”
Ms Alfardan said the week-long experience was “very eye-opening”.
“It changed our perspective,” she said. “I was really satisfied when I came back here because here, alhamdulillah, we have everything.
“Sometimes you take things for granted, you don’t appreciate life, but when you go there and come back you think, ‘I’m really lucky to be here in a safe country where I can find everything’.”
The partnership between KHDA and the orphanage began after one of the authority’s workers visited the children with his family – and donated a library.
Inspired by their colleague’s generosity, other employees followed suit and began visiting in groups of five.
Each visit builds on the work of the previous group, said Ms Alfardan, 28, who visited Kinderhut in August.
“The plan is to have a more sustainable project where we can have impact on these orphans.”
Her group of volunteers worked on sprucing up the library, and donated books, games and a television. They also donated first-aid kits and taught the staff how to use the medical supplies.
Although there was a bit of a language barrier, Ms Alfardan said the group found other ways to convey their messages.
“Sometimes you don’t need really a language to communicate,” she said. “The love is enough.”
Dr Rajini Abdulgafoor, the Indian dentist who started the orphanage in 2005 with the help of her doctor husband and support from friends, said KHDA’s volunteer work had helped to awaken children’s desire to learn.
“They are able to bring in that dream in the kids, that ‘we have to learn’,” said Dr Abdulgafoor. “Another positive point is the kids started seeing so many different nationalities and the only language volunteers used to talk to them was English.
“So before that, we had set up classes and everything and it was not working so well. But now they are self-motivated. They wanted to converse with these people, with the volunteers.
“Now all of them want to learn English.”
Ms Alfardan said the next batch of volunteers would focus on the children’s language skills.
“There is a plan to teach the older kids English because then they teach the younger kids English,” said Ms Alfardan. “At the end of the day, they want them to be independent.
“After they finish schooling, they have to go to university and they have options even from some sponsors to go to India and study in their universities as well.
“But because their English is weak, it’s a challenge. Now they want to have better English.”
rpennington@thenational.ae
