To Volunteer

Fulfilling a lifelong dream and spending two months volunteering in Mombasa Kenya, this is a collection of images of my daily life teaching. “Grandsons of Abraham Rescue Center” is run by nuns from the Catholic Church. The boys that live there are aged 4-14 and a lot of them are addicted to glue as a means to suppress their hunger caused by the extreme poverty existing in Kenya. At least half of Kenya's street children are said to be addicted to glue, according to a study by a Kenyan group rehabilitating street children. Glue-sniffing puts these children at serious risk of brain damage, respiratory infections and other problems. There is such a misconception in the western world of the “art of giving back” and “volunteering” and anyone who has taken the time to go to any third world country and really try to make a difference will attest to that. You arrive there truly believing that you can make a difference but very soon you realize that it’s impossible to do so. It’s not just 20 boys in an orphanage that need your help, it’s a country of millions that need help and this realization is daunting to say the least. The only thing one can hope to achieve is offer as much of their self and their money as they can in the present moment that they are there as it all fades away as soon as you board the plane to leave to go back to your life. The main question that still remains is “Do we really do this for these kids? Or do we do it for ourselves?