Empowering little children in the rural areas

Few weeks ago we completed a church function which was tagged Children's Service. It is a yearly program where children are given a few days to go to a children's camp free of charge. There they are fed and are taught how to live as children, basic skills, games and they display varieties of performances. At the end of the event, they go home with gifts such as writing material for the new academic session.

Unfortunately, this year the camp couldn't hold because of inadequate finances. Rather than dash the hopes of the kids completely, the church council decided that the Children's service should be held at each church's local branch. It was just for a Sunday this time around. We started preparing three weeks to the actual day.

My dad, who is a preacher, was posted to a rural area. The kids have a hard time understanding and speaking the English language. Most of them cannot read so it was really hard work teaching them varieties of things to present. Some days they showed up for the rehearsal and other days they didn't. At some points I considered cancelling the event for our branch but it was a compulsory program so I had to keep on.

After all the preparations, the day finally arrived. The kids all showed up and the service went well. Their presentations were lovely too but some of them forgot their presentations on the stage and it was embarrassing to them. At the end of it, I gave out writing materials to all the kids that took part in the program. The kids who showed up earlier than other kids and those who showed up for rehearsal more consistently compared to others also received more gifts compared to others. There was a little refreshment for everyone.

I had some special kids, two of them who came for summer vacation and I invited them to church. They came and took part in the program. I was so excited about their attendance and they performed excellently. They were really smart kids and we're able to read perfectly. They also received extra gifts from me as special guests. It was a really amazing day.

A particular girl cried because she was one of the eldest children there but she forgot her presentation. I told her not to cry and encouraged her to do better next year.

One major advantage of this program is the enlightenment it gives the children. These little children learnt a great deal in the bible in just few weeks. They learnt to read and make public presentations, they learnt how to introduce themselves to people. Even though these are basic things, they didn't know this before so it was a great accomplishment for them.

I felt good about being able to be a big part of this year's children's service. I was once in their position and my mum used to tell me "do for others what was done for you" and I did. I'm looking forward to next year's service, I hope it will be much better.

^{All images used in this post are mine.}