CES Canada with the CES Alumnus and ACCES have over the past two months completed three Jiggers campaigns in Navakholo sub-County of western Kenya. During a recent visit by Canadian volunteers Renee Rerup, Dennis White, Senem Ozkin and Michael Frederiksen, the team had the privilege of "lending a hand" at Lusumu Primary School. Photos tell the story; so too, the deep feelings felt by Senem where she writes:
"By all appearances, it was just another Wednesday on the school ground: the primary school students playing and chasing one another in the field, a trail of happy screams behind them; the secondary school students listening attentively to the teacher in their outdoor class despite the noise of their younger counterparts.
But it was not just any ordinary Wednesday. Shortly after the children's play was done, some of the boys and girls were asked to line up and register; the third jiggers campaign was ready to commence. And no amount of Google research could have prepared the Canadian delegation of CES visitors for this important event held on July 6, 2016.
Jiggers are a type of sand flea that burrow themselves in human skin, primarily in the feet (though they can also take residence in any part of the human body that is close to the ground, such as hands, if someone has no bed and has to sleep on the floor, for example). Jiggers are an especially significant issue in a particular part of Kenya - Navakholo - where the CES campaign took place.
Once the kids were registered, they took their seats on wooden benchers not unlike the bleachers at football games in North America. They were each given a piece of soap and asked to wait until a basin full of warm water could be brought to them so they could have their feet washed. They waited patiently and without a trace of anxiety about the painful procedure they were about to undergo.
Even when the time came for the sharp razorblades that would cut out the affected parts of their feet, it was rare to hear a cry or to even see a grimace of pain on the kids' faces. They sat without any sign that they were worried, scared, or angry for having to go through such an ordeal. It was as though they were sitting to have school pictures taken. For them, the jiggers making themselves a home in their feet was a natural part of life.
It is easy to take for granted all the rights and privileges we have as Canadians and it is also easy, in the face of those who struggle for a fraction of the freedoms we enjoy, to appreciate what we have...at least on a temporary basis. But witnessing what happened at the jiggers campaign went far beyond appreciating that we, in Canada, do not have such problems. The demeanour of these kids, their courage in the face of impending, certain pain (and knowledge that this would likely not be the first or only jiggers campaign they would have to resort to for help) signalled something far more tragic: a loss of innocence. It was as though they were resigned to the fact this was their fate.
The Constitution of Kenya guarantees children the right to basic education; whether that right is exercisable is a topic for another day. But what the Constitution does not speak to is the manner in which that education will be obtained. It says nothing about whether children are guaranteed to have their basic needs met - to have shoes on their feet, to be free of things like jiggers - so that they can focus solely and exclusively on their learning. It does not guarantee that they will be allowed to act like children, to run around carefree, to play with their mates, to complain and be coddled when they are feeling under the weather - let alone when they have fleas in their extremities.
After dozens of kids, ranging in age from approximately 12 months to 12 years old, went through the process of go being de-jiggered, their feet were soaked in sodium bicarbonate to close up their wounds, and on they went - many of them without shoes - to their homes. If only we had a pair of shoes or even flip-flops to ease the pain a little bit.
And so after 8 hours of concentrated work without a break the jiggers campaign came to a close. Facing the reality of leaving these kids behind and wondering how these brave little souls handled themselves in such a grown-up way was almost too much to comprehend. What could we do to give them back the innocence? So little really when compared to what they gave us."
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