The Work of the Bana Trust

Christmas Eve –

The boys are packed into the back of a pick up and driven to their homes by the Girl Guides.  Some of the boys, who desperately don’t want to go home, run off and spent Christmas Eve night sleeping on the streets.

Selebeli is one of these boys.  He tells me he does not want to go home as his family are insisting he be circumcised.  He is 19 years old and living on the streets is the only way he can have control over what happens to his own body.

Tsebang also does not want to go home.  He is beaten at home by his older brother, and although his mother cries when he arrives home, he is quickly back on the streets.  Tsebang feels safer living on the streets than he does living at home with his mother.  He is 13 years old.

Only six of the boys are left on Christmas Eve night on the streets of Maseru.  The Girl Guides is locked.

Christmas Day –

Twenty five boys, dressed in their Christmas best, turn up for a barbeque provided by the Bana Trust. 

The boys came from far and wide to share in a Christmas meal with us. 

We played games, and Palesa made new friends.

The only complaint we had was that they were feeling too full!

December 28th

I went today to town to give some fruit to the boys.  They nearly fell over themselves in their rush to get to me, and snatched the fruit from me as if they were starving.  It makes me wonder whether they have had any food since Christmas Day other than the fruit I have been taking them. 

Into January 2009

It has been good to spend some time getting to know the boys so that they trust me and speak to me without asking for things.  They are beginning to know that I am helping them and it is interesting that the nickname they have given me is “Light”.

I intend to spend the first weeks in January talking with boys, finding out their hopes and ambitions and formulating a plan for our involvement.

3rd December 2008

Yesterday I picked the boys up and took them to the church for food and football.  It was a great opportunity to get to know them a little better, to begin to build relationships between them and the church, and for them to have a bit of fun. 

Eighteen boys in total came.                         

The heavens opened and it poured with rain, but the boys still wanted to play football in spite of the ground being soaking.  Boys are the same the world over!

Robyn

1st December 2008

Have had an interesting and varied couple of weeks.  I have been very busy working to find out what support the boys are currently getting and what programmes are in place to help them, and I have found out some thought-provoking things.    More about this later, once I have prayed some more!  Don’t want to rush past God in my haste to get things going…

I also have been looking at gaps in the provision for the boys.  I have been networking with other groups working here in Lesotho and finding out what they do.  I spent some time on Friday talking with a representative from Sentabale (the Princes’ Trust), exploring where she felt the gaps in provision for street boys were.

I have arranged for the boys to come to the church for Bible Study and football followed by a snack twice a week.  We will see how this goes.  I am hoping that through this, the boys will build a relationship with the church and vice versa.  I also am going to the street to talk with the boys regularly, although the language barrier does affect this.  Most have only broken English, and my Sesotho is even worse!

My original ideas might be changing, but I see this as a good thing.  I believe that this means that God is showing me what He wants us to do, and that through being here I am developing a better understanding of need.  Please pray that I see Jesus shining as the lamp to my feet and to my path and to our work.

Robyn

19th November 2008

Went to town today to give the boys some fruit – they recognised me and came to me before I even saw them.    I also had a long chat with a remarkable man called Solomon who has been using his own money (the little he has – he is out of work) to buy food for the boys and clothe them.  He has a heart for street boys, having found himself on the streets for very different reason.  I am going with him on Friday to visit the Girl Guides (where some of the boys have been sleeping in a small toilet room) and to meet the boys properly with him.  Please pray that this goes well and the relationships that we start to build are positive.

Robyn

In liaison with the local church, I am busy looking at the two sides to the centre –

• building relationships and meeting the needs of the boys as they (the boys) see it
• discussing and agreeing the practical and physical aspects of the centre

This results in the following actions –

1.  I am currently in the process of discussing the action plan with Pastor David and Pastor Lebona and I am designing an updated plan from that which I will then discuss with the Bana Trust trustees.
2. We are meeting tomorrow to talk about the boys that we should target.  One of the church members, Solomon, has been building relationships with the boys and watching out for them, so we will talk with him tomorrow and think of ways that we can support the boys even before the centre is completed.
3. On Friday I will visit the Girl Guides and Sentabale (the Princes’ Trust) to see what work they are doing and the involvement I have heard that they have with the boys. 
4. We are also discussing the property we should get and where it should be, and looking into that.

Hopefully, hands on work will start by the new year, but I think it is important to have the plan as right as it can be beforehand. 

Robyn