Reflections of a Kids First Traveler: Veronica Thibodeau

In February 2010, Veronica Thibodeau joined a group of Cultural Care staff and LCCs on a visit to our Kids First partner in Cape Town, South Africa, CHOSA. Here are some reflections from, in her words, a life altering experience:

Do you have children? Young siblings? Nephews, nieces that you love and care for? Friends’ kids that you adore, spoil and baby-sit for?

I am a mother of two children who live what I now consider a privileged life. They get a monthly toy. I drive them to school. They are healthy, socially and academically ahead of the curve. They have big dreams and goals, yet they are kids – playing safely in our neighborhood with their friends. Every day they have breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner. Sometimes dinner is looked at with disapproval: “Mom, I don’t like it, do I have to eat my veggies?” (Said with a whiny, complaining voice)

However, this is not about me, nor about my children. This piece is about the children I met in the harshest environment in shanty homes in the middle of the townships in Cape Town, South Africa.

During the Apartheid Era, blacks were evicted from properties that were in areas designated as “white only” and forced to move in to townships. As you drive down dusty roads in the scorching heat and look around you, you will see aluminum containers serving as homes for millions of people in the “suburbs” of Cape Town. We visited Khayelitsha, a home to 2 million people. The population is very young, fewer then 7% of its residents are over 50 years old and over 40% are under 19 years of age.

This is where I met them - the abandoned, orphaned and rejected children. Many of them sexually and physically abused. They had been dropped off to safe houses in hopes that someone would look after them. HIV and tuberculosis is more common than not. Material possessions are non-existent. A bed is a luxury; clothing is available to a bare minimum. Toys? A leftover tire…

One would think that this is where depression has it’s headquarter. It would make sense to see hopelessness, anger and despair. To my absolute surprise, I saw the opposite and that to me, was a life altering moment. It was very humbling to be greeted by children running with arms open wide embracing us without restriction or prejudice. Beautiful innocent eyes looked straight in to my eyes and even though I could not speak their language, I could still understand that those eyes reflected joy, strength, endurance, resilience and hope.

Yes, there was poverty. But is fortune was measured in hope, love and joy – then I spent time with billionaires! The kids were definitely materially broken, sick with HIV and tuberculosis, abused and abandoned but still had the most beautiful smiles.

I realized then, that the richest moments in life is when you give. We were able to give things that money can buy, in return we received gifts that were life altering. I have not been able to forget the smiles, the innocent eyes that sadly, have seen more tragedy already in life then I hopefully will never experience. These children are strong. What they need, we can provide. All our efforts of fund raising actually do help. Every donation made, will make a huge difference in one child’s life. One by one, we can help making this a better world.

Who cares for kids? Au pairs in Atlanta do!

This past weekend there was a great Kids First event in Atlanta—a really fun scavenger hunt! Ninety-three au pairs participated and raised almost $500 soon to be matched by Cultural Care! The au pairs really enjoyed running around and asking people for the things on their lists and were not shy at all asking people in the park for help. Believe it or not, the hardest thing for the groups to find was an Atlanta Brave’s Hat! Can you believe there were only two men in the whole park wearing a Brave’s Hat? One of the men was sleeping on a bench and the girls took a picture of it while he was napping.

Local Childcare Coordinator Laura Coy submitted a story about the event to the Atlanta Parenting Examiner.

Turn $10 into $20 into $4,000 for Children of South Africa

Our Kids First partner, CHOSA (Children of South Africa), is hoping you will consider making a small, $10 donation. Not $50 or $100, thank you, just $10. They have entered the March Goodness contest through the fundraising site, Razoo, and can win $4000 to help the children they serve if they get the most $10 individual donations. Last year, they came in 4th when they joined the contest just 96 hours before it was over — pretty impressive. This year, they have the whole month of March, but need our help! Visit the donation page to learn more about CHOSA and their projects that help children in need in South Africa. Check out our Kids First video to learn more about Cultural Care’s recent heartwarming visit to the CHOSA sites. Turn your $10 into $20  — when you make your donation, click on “add a designation” and enter Kids First. Cultural Care will match all donations with this designation! Thank you so much!

Thoughts from a Kids First-traveler

Katja Richter from our office in Berlin, Germany just returned from the Kids First trip to South Africa and sent us some thoughts.

“Our children are our greatest treasure. They are our future” Nelson Mandela

I was honored to be part of the wonderful team that was fortunate to visit South Africa. I was truly amazed by meeting and getting to know everyone we met on our trip. At one point, it made me sad seeing the poverty, the illness and the poor circumstances the people have to deal with every day. On the other hand, it made me happy and thankful to see smiling faces that greeted us, people waving at us while passing their homes or talking with them. Those people have more in life than we ever can think about – they have joy, hope and love for each other.

They care about their neighbors and help each other when help is needed. They are thankful and use every day taking the best out of it. We saw amazing women who don’t have much material luxuries in their life but still give so much and love the children in need. They have their own sadness in life but want to give those children a better future.

This trip showed us the beauty of South Africa but also how much there is still to do. The people we talked to, like Mama Pumla, Rosemary and Hazel, told us their stories and intensions why they are doing all this, and it made me feel very grateful and thankful to get to know these special women. They have shown us that everybody can make a change and help other people in need.

It is very hard to express all of my feelings I had during our trip but it will be a lifetime memory and made me think in a different way about my own life. Things that we complain about are nothing compared to things and situations people have to deal with in South Africa.

I truly remember one little boy, he was called the future president because he looks like the one! He was so eager to get in my arms to get held and to get my sunglasses on his face even not knowing who I was. He was one of Mama Rosemarie’s boys and even though we did not stay very long he remembered me and jumped right into my arms when we came back to hand out the gifts. It was a very special moment.

Thanks for those moments! We need more people like Mama Pumla, Mama Rosemary, Hazel and all the other great people that work for CHOSA and give their support and help everyday. Let me finish with Nelson Mandela’s words, that I found on a postcard in Cape Town;

“Our children are our greatest treasure. They are our future”!

Thank you from Katja Richter Regional Manager at Cultural Care Au Pair, Berlin, Germany

Introduction to Kids First

Through Cultural Care Au Pair’s Kids First program, host families, au pairs, local coordinators and Cultural Care staff worldwide make a difference in the lives of children in the U.S. and overseas. Kids First provides children’s organizations with monetary contributions and necessary supplies to benefit children in need worldwide.

Funds are raised through local events across the U.S., activities in many of our au pair recruitment countries, and through national campaigns organized by Cultural Care staff. 100% of all donations and funds raised go directly to children in need and are matched by Cultural Care.

Our partners include: Orphanage #63, a Russian orphanage outside Moscow that is home to 56 children with little hope for adoption; Ubuhle Babantwana is a daycare center that cares for over 150 of the neediest children in a poverty-stricken township outside Cape Town, South Africa; Casa do Zezinho, in an area known as “the death triangle” in Sao Paolo, Brazil, is an after-school center that offers arts and culture programs to 1,200 at-risk children and teenagers; St. Mary’s Academy, located in the heart of New Orleans, opened its doors after Hurricane Katrina to children of all ages and means and is working on building an elementary collection for their school library.

Kids First Book Drive

Cara, daughter of LCC Carol Anne Matina in New York, was inspired by Kids First.  She decided that for her Silver Award project for Girl Scouts to ask her community of Garden City, NY to spring clean and clear out some children’s books.  She wrote letters to her school district and letters went out to hundreds of children.  In April she stayed at the collection site for seven hours and collected books.  Just when we thought we had enough, the books were being dropped off at her house for the next 3 weeks.  We sorted through 1500 books if not more.  We started with over 35 boxes and then called in the troops—Au pairs in our group came over and we spent many hours sorting through the books.  Books were donated to surrounding schools in need and 10 heavy boxes are now finding their way to St. Mary’s Academy in New Orleans.   She is very proud to have put her time and effort into such a memorable and worthwhile cause.

Kids First Garage Sale

On May 10th, 2008 au-pairs and host families from the Millburn New Jersey area in northern New Jersey hosted a very successful yard sale to raise money for Kids First.  Knowing that everyone’s time, effort, and the money raised was going to a great cause was plenty of motivation to contribute to this fund raising effort.  Au-pairs and host families donated toys, clothes, books, and all kinds of different things for us to put up for the sale.  Our au-pairs helped with setting up the garage sale and then selling the goods all while having a great time outside socializing with everyone who came. Some au pairs also enthusiastically put up flyers around town announcing the sale. They were very excited about the things their families had donated and played with all the kids visiting with the families.

We brought in almost $200, all of which goes to our Kids First charity!  Everyone involved was extremely pleased with themselves and the effort committed to this event from all around!!