Fear of the Unknown Healed
Three year old Labawa has a big burn wound on his face. He is still running around with the other 55 children at Violets pre-school here in South Africa, however the wound looks fresh and uncared for.
I asked Violet what happened to him and she said hot boiling water fell on him at his auntie’s house over the weekend. I asked Violet to get the 1st aid kit that Project COLORS donated to her several weeks ago. I showed her the burn gel in the kit, and asked if Labawa could come over so we could take a closer look at his wound.
All the kids also wanted to be a part of seeing what was happening, so suddenly we had everyone circling as I opened the 1st aid kit. I noticed all the kids looked disturbed, wondering what on earth was in this mysterious bag.
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We took Labawa aside, cleaned and put burn gel on his wound. I gave him a big sticker afterwards which seemed to cheer him up immensely. I looked around and noticed all the children were quiet and seemed a little shocked.
Violet said `` ah mama they are scared of the 1st aid kit. They don’t know this magic thing``.
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| Oh man! We always spent so much time training the teachers in the townships how to use the kit and why it was important, but never thought about how the children would react to it. I asked Violet for the kids book we gave them about 1st aid care. She proudly brought the book out. We sat the children around and I showed the story of ‘Goody Glove and the 1st aid kit’, highlighting how the kit helped the little boy in the story who hurt his knee during a soccer game. Violet and I put plastic gloves on, showed our real 1st aid kit and acted out parts of the book as we told the story. Violet translated my English into Xhiosa. The kids all cheered and laughed. |
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They realized the 1st aid kit was their friend and not something to be scared of.
They then started showing me all their little cuts and scrapes. I put on the plastic gloves and used our '1st aid in a bottle' spray on many of their infections, followed by a bandaid.
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But that was not enough…now they all wanted a sticker too like Labawa!
Days like these always remind me how important our work is in the community. These kits are often the 1st point of care these children receive. The training of the teachers and kids help make our donations an important part of their basic health and wellbeing. |
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COLORS hopes to expand the 1st aid kit project with the help of local partners and global donors.
$30 provides a small preschool or orphanage with a kit and $100 helps provide teachers and students with the 1st aid kit training, an imperative part of the program. |
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An educational program for the children, as highlighted in the story above, is also needed and will be developed further. Hundreds of children, just like Labawa have been helped with COLORS 1st aid kits, however, we can help so many more with each donation.
Your contributions make a big difference helping us increase the capacity of each small child care centre so they can help themselves.
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| Thank you for supporting Project COLORS International with your continued interest and donations. Please circulate this email to help promote our global aid projects. |
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