Gift of Drinking Water, for One Week (Digital download)
This gift provides drinking water for the boys and girls living on the streets who attend the Laughter Africa Mobile project. Every day we have approximately 100 children who come to the girls and boys' mobile projects. We also purchase water for the children living in the ICC too.
We will email you a digital version of the gift certificate and provide the gift to a child living, or formerly living, on the streets in Sierra Leone.
How your gift has helped Laughter Africa children in the past
We provide drinking water in the Interim Care Centre (ICC)- usually 70 bundles per week.
One of the girls who lived at the Interim Care Centre was Kadiatu. Kadiatu’s kindness shines out from her. One example of this is when she fetched 20 buckets of water from the river to help set up an epic water balloon fight – just so her new friends could enjoy themselves.
Kadiatu has albinism and has been cast to the sidelines by most people. She grew up with her aunt, who only paid for her own children’s education; instead of going to school Kadiatu was made to sell food on the streets. In her 14 years of life, Kadiatu has never been to school.
Her confidence has been completely destroyed by the cruel taunts of others. People refer to her as ‘Jus’, a very derogatory term. Kadiatu spoke of her life, ”When I try to play with other girls, their parents stop them. They are scared that I’ll pass sickness to their children so I normally just stay by myself. They call me ‘eye bend’ since I can’t see properly, or ‘smelly,’ or ‘body rough.’ People tell me not to go near them, so I sit and cry by myself. Even my family treat me as if I am not important. The most painful thing is when people see me and they start to laugh.”
Kadiatu spent five weeks with us at the Interim Care Centre (ICC). Since she has been with us, she has quietly grown in confidence. We took her to a local albinism support group, where she learnt about protecting her skin from the sun. They gave her a pair of sunglasses and a hat and she loves to strike a pose to show them off. For the first time in her life she sees herself as beautiful.
Also for the first time in her life she has friends –Kadiatu and the other girls staying at the ICC are inseparable. Whilst there were lots of tears when they left us to be reunified with their community, we are comforted that now when Kadiatu faces the world, she does it knowing there are people who have her back. She is no longer alone and has a new life goal of going to school which she achieved in September 2022.
Kadiatu would always be the first volunteer to collect the drinking water. She would also carry the most bundles of water. Most of the girls would only carry one bundle- but she always carried two. She would always go out of the way for her new friends.
Even as she was leaving us a young boy yelled out “Jus”. We were not letting that pass, so we responded, “Don’t call her that, call her by her name; Kadiatu.”
We also provide drinking water at mobile. Every week we buy 50 bundles of water. Sadly on the 19th May 2023, one of our girls from mobile died. Her name was Blessing and she was 17 years old. She was from Lungi and her parents died from Ebola. No cause of death is known but she told her friends on 18th May that she was not feeling well. When they returned the following morning they found her laying lifeless.
The street children all helped with the funeral arrangements. The boys living on the streets in Grafton dug her grave while the girls living on the streets provided all the food for a small reception afterwards while Laughter Africa carried out all the legalities such as burial permits and informing the police. She is now buried in Grafton cemetery. My heart swelled with pride when I heard how the street children had pulled together for Blessing to give her the send off she deserved. They wouldn’t accept any money from us at all as they wanted to do it for themselves. However, they did let us provide ten bundles of water for the reception.
We managed to find out where her remaining family lived so the staff from mobile and some of her best friends on the streets informed Blessing's aunt about her passing. They took Blessing’s cousin to her grave to pay her final respects.
The Aunt was so grateful for what we did for Blessing. The last time Blessing saw her aunt she told her all about Laughter Africa and how we would be reunifying her soon and paying vocational school for her. She was so full of hope for the future. She would have been reunified in just 10 days time before she died.
Rest in Power Blessing! You will be missed!