Kids These Days

Slide show from El Hogar de los Ninos website.

One of Maya’s electives this year is a class called Teens Around the World, in which they learn a bit about geography, but mainly about the issues that face children and teenagers all around the world. Sort of like a class I took in High School, Global Studies, but also different.  They study issues like immigration, hunger, child labor, and what they as children and teens can do to help.  The teacher is on the board of directors for an organization called El Hogar de los Ninos, which works to help very poor children in Managua, Nicaragua.  From their website:

In 2007 we were fortunate enough to join forces with the organization CANTERA, which has been working in Nicaragua since 1988. With their help we were able to use our resources to save a school that was otherwise headed towards closure, and funded the education of all 145 of their students for another year.

Currently we are solely responsible for the education of 194 students who live in a barrio dubbed by many as the worst in the city. The children range in age from three to eight. Without our help they would have no educational opportunities whatsoever. Education in Nicaragua is not free. Added to the impoverished circumstances, children are left to languish in ignorance and, worst of all, are subject to a violent drug culture and child prostitution.

Some parts of Managua are as progressive as any city in the United States. In most parts, however, the poverty and human degradation is rampant. Over the years we have been able to make small inroads in lessening the severe suffering. Nevertheless we are filled with hope in spite of the formidable odds. Our hearts are filled with gratitude at the growing numbers of us, magnifying the goodness that began in very small ways ten years ago.

El Hogar de los Ninos has a fundraiser in San Francisco every year to raise money to fund these students, which is a dinner, dance, and auction.   This fundraiser was held in a lovely church on Saturday night, and some of the children from Maya’s class volunteered to work the fundraiser, by setting tables, serving food, selling raffle tickets, pouring beverages, and clearing tables after dinner.  As I’m sure you guessed by now, Maya was one of the children that volunteered for this event, and she worked hard part of the time, danced and had fun part of the time, and came out of it feeling pretty good.

She made one comment that several elderly people came over to tell them what good kids they were, and to thank them for donating their time and effort to such a good cause.  For some reason, this amused Maya.  I thought about it, and I think that so often, kids get a bad rap.  Adults look at them and say, “kids these days are lazy, have everything given to them, don’t need to work, don’t understand giving and caring”, all of that.  I think the adults saying these things don’t remember having the same things said about them, don’t remember that when they were kids, people tsk tskd and talked about the how the culture is falling apart because of the lack of character and integrity in our youth.  I suspect it’s been this way for quite awhile, and that as our culture speeds up, as things change ever faster,the differences between the life experiences of one generation are less recognizable to the generations that proceed and follow them.  So, when an adult, who may have been thinking about how the world is going to hell in a hand basket, sees a group of tweens and teens who have given up their Saturday night in order to work a fundraiser, and are helping to make a difference in the world…they appreciate it.  They are thankful, and so, they say “Thank you.  You’re good kids.”  Know what?  They are good kids.  I’m proud of them, and thankful for their efforts as well.