It's always great to spend some time with orphans and street kids and try to bring them some joy and entertainment, even if it is only for a couple of hours. On Friday, I organized an orphan event with kids aged 3 to 8 in Virlanie Foundation. (I organized a similar event for my department in Virlanie last year, but for kids aged 9 to 14).
We were planning to start at 1pm but settling down and volunteer arrival took some time so it was almost 2pm when we started. As expected, I hosted the event LOL, and I realized when we got there that it was a bit of a mistake for us not to have brought a microphone! Thankfully my booming voice was big enough to ensure everyone there could hear me. :) I kicked things off with a game of 'Bring me'. With only a few prizes though, it became a bit difficult to explain to some kids that they just had to try again in the next round or the next game to win something. So after a few rounds or 'Bring me', I switch to a simple relay. We split the kids into four groups, and the members of the winning group all won a prize (at least 7 winners was better than 1 or 2 per 'Bring me' round). We were supposed to have one more game - longest breath - but since we were an hour late, I decided to jump straight to our last game of pass the ball.
My idea for 'pass the ball' was that we'd have the kids pass a ball around while music was playing and when the music stopped, whoever was holding the ball would be eliminated. But as I explained the rules, I suddenly felt horrible since each round, one kid would be very disappointed (it was tough enough to tell kids in previous games that they had no prizes, much less to eliminate kids one at a time). I then realized this would be the perfect opportunity to distribute the loot bags under the guise of a prize. As each kid was eliminated, we'd hand them their loot bag. It was a really good move as some of the kids actually wanted to be eliminated so they could get their "prize".
Once the game was done, we distributed the food (pasta and barbecue) and juice drinks. I also played my "Kung Fu Panda" DVD so the kids could watch it while eating. I made sure that the prizes from the games would either be interactive toys (such as kiddie badminton sets or jack stones) or creative stuff (I found a cool Toy Story whiteboard which came with its own whiteboard marker and eraser). The loot bags contained a lot of creative stuff too - educational coloring books, crayons, modeling clay, pencils, an eraser and sharpener, a drawing book, and a small toy (I also included a Hello wafer bar and a small container of Stik-o).
As it turns out, the choice of prizes and loot bag contents seemed to be perfect since half of the kids there who didn't want to watch the movie started playing with their prizes or using the contents of their loot bags. This also provided a lot more opportunities for interaction between the adults and kids - you could see so many of the kids and adults sprawled on the floor either coloring their coloring books or designing lots of cute and clever things with their clay or playing jack stones. It was really great to see!
We wrapped up about 10 minutes past 4pm (which was around the time the movie finished) and. while it was difficult to part with the kids, we left with a feeling of joy. Two hours with these kids from Virlanie is nowhere near enough, but it's definitely better than nothing. I do hope that we were able to leave the kids not only with items that can help them socialize with other kids and develop their creativity and imagination, but also with memories from a really fun and fulfilling afternoon. I know that the volunteers will all have great memories of this wonderful afternoon.
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