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Thank you, Abu Dhabi

Early this year, Martina Venus, director of public relations at Sheraton Abu Dhabi Hotel and Resort, heard for the first time the story of Glorious Orphanage.

She heard how Alice and her husband Julius turned their house in a poor area of Arusha, Tanzania, into an orphanage so that parent-less or extremely poor children can get a basic education and a chance for a better life. She heard how touched by the stories of these children and of Alice herself, volunteers, sponsors and co-founders began to appear, including an anonymous Emirati donor who gave Dh60,000 for the orphanage, which allowed for the building of its first classroom. She heard it all from Lujan Mourad, the UAE-based director of the orphanage, who travels regularly to Arusha with the cash she rises here to help build a new classroom, a water well, a kitchen and lately, an office for the volunteering teachers, required by the Tanzanian government, in order for the orphanage’s school to be accredited.

Martina was so impressed by Glorious’ story, that she decided to share it with Sheraton’s top management and, in turn, the hotel decided to donate its funds raised for the past two years for a charity to this small, independent and very special orphanage. It was not just an easy matter of wiring the money, though. This time, a Sheraton team of three went on site with plenty of goody bags from Abu Dhabi and a fat purse to purchase food, cloths and gifts for the kids while in Arusha.

Thus, on February 19, Martina, accompanied by Yves ... and Zoe ... arrived at Arusha, a large city in the north of Tanzania, after nearly 12 hours of journey. What followed was a highly emotional week, full of joyful tears, touching surprises and life-changing experiences. Here is how Martina remembers it:

Monday, February 20

“After spending the first day in the surprisingly beautiful hotel and its green garden, sorting out the expenses for the week, we finally had our first day at the orphanage! Our taxi driver Valence picked us up at the hotel and we made our way through the quite busy streets of Arusha and the last bit through a muddy road in the slums,” she begins.

“When we arrived, Alice and Julius, the founders of the orphanage, welcomed us warmly and told us a thousand times how grateful they are that we are here and what the management team at Sheraton made possible. Sitting in their ‘living room’, a rough concrete wall, mud floors with one carpet and two sofas, we discussed our procedures for the next days and planned the expenses for a new veranda that has to be built.”

“Alice told us about the 81 children in the orphanage, who had absolutely nothing for themselves, and many of whom have fathers that got re-married after their moms died, and they were not accepted in the new family, ending up being used for the household chores and child care. This leaves them without education, quite a lack of affection and often beaten by older members of the family. This made Alice decide to set up an orphanage by herself.”

“There are some children in the orphanage who lost their parents to HIV, having been infected themselves. One child here lost his father — the provider of the family — because he was caught stealing and the village punished him by burning him alive. In fact, each child here has a harsh or sad story, and yet each one has so much love and smiles to give.”

“In 2003 Alice and her husband started with a small basic classroom, just a blackboard and a few wooden benches outside. There was no food, no water, no supplies, nothing. Volunteers started to come along, and so publicity increased. With the foundation of the Glorious Orphanage charity organization properly registered with the government, the fundraising could start.”

“In the beginning, many children were too sick to go to school, they came with bruises and other injuries and suffering from malnutrition. Alice herself walked to their homes and confronted the family threatening with police until the bruises stopped. Today, the kids have their daily meal at the orphanage, for many of them the only one for the day. Usually, it’s either beans or corn with a bit of vegetables and fruit. Once a week they get rice with meat.” “Every month, Glorious Orphanage Cooperation sends money for the food and salaries. Food only for one month is around two million Tanzanian Shillings, translating into $1,300. A Gucci bag starts at around $2,000 if it’s a small one — think!”

“When we entered the first class room, the kids, overly excited, greeted us with a ‘good morning teacher!’, since every volunteer or white person is seen as a teacher by them, and gave us their biggest smile!”

“In school, which consist of four newly built classrooms, they learn English, Swahili, Mathematics as the main subjects and a little bit of Science and Geography. They have five full-time teachers but a lot of the contribution is done by the Western volunteers that come and go at the orphanage.”

“Once school was finished and the kids had a break to wait for the lunch, we finally had a chance to properly meet them. This was quite an overwhelming experience, having them running all over the dusty school yard, playing soccer or just crawling up our laps wanting to be held and cuddled. We started to follow their orders of ‘teacher push me’ on the metal swing, which was big hit, or playing the ‘flying planes’ in our arms, making them dizzy and laughing. At one point, we found ourselves painting stars, hearts, numbers and letters in the sand with our bare hands, allowing them to show off their skills. Wherever we looked, they tried to impress us with standing on their hands, shooting the football up the roof, climbing on the building and jumping from it or simply attacking us from the back with a sudden cuddle.”

“I had two little girls playing with my hair while I was cuddling another one, and when I went inside to have a sip of water I found a professional dread lock standing from my head! They are little professionals over there! Zoe, on the other hand, was sitting with one of them on her lap in the classroom, eagerly learning how to copy the numbers she was writing for them! Yves, as the only white male ‘teacher’, found himself as a father figure for 81 kids, resolving conflicts and fights, wiping off tears and fixing bruises, getting pulled from one corner to the other to play the school yard police. We had so much fun!”

Tuesday, February 21

“Day two at the orphanage and what a nice surprise! When we arrived with our car full of suitcases with blankets bought in Abu Dhabi, we immediately noticed a change in the schoolyard — they started to build the veranda! They must have dug the foundation last night and we are so pleased to see the immediate difference we’ve made with our funds!”

“The blankets will be added to the other supplies that will be given to each child’s guardian. This consists of two kilos of rice, two kilos of beans, two litres of oil, two kilos of flour, two kilos of sugar, two soaps and two packs of washing detergent.”

“We gave the money to the orphanage for the shopping, and while we were waiting for the supplies to arrive, we got to spend some more time with the children.”

“We’ve noticed that their clothes and shoes were in a very bad shape. Some shoes had no soles at all, the socks had missing heels or toes, pullovers were hanging in threads and many buttons missing on the blouses. The three of us gathered for a little ‘meeting’ and broke down our remaining budget for the trip. From the savings we’ve made in the blankets, the flights and the cheap accommodation, we’ve had a considerable amount left. Therefore, we’ve decided to fulfil a big wish of Alice and announced that we’ll buy 85 track suits not only for the pupils but also for the little neighbour kids that are hanging out at the orphanage a lot.”

“Before we left for the day, we had a small surprise — balloons! Initially, the children were very quiet when we handed them over and we thought they don’t like them. We were told by one of the teachers though, they must behave and be quiet if they wish to keep their gifts. As soon as they got the chance, all of them burst into screams of joy!”

Wednesday, February 22

“We went early, at 7.30am to the orphanage and got a nice surprise — the children were all lined up in the school yard for their ‘morning ritual’ of singing, dancing and stretching. This went on for a little while all children arrived at school, some of them walking by themselves from as far as two hours away.”

“We spent most of the day weighing, measuring and sorting out all the individual bags for each child’s guardian. Towards the end of the packing — which took us around five hours—we were running out of plastic bottles for the oil re-fill, so we had to drink two litres of water each and on the spot to get some more empty bottles.”

“At noon the guardians began to arrive — mostly women in their beautifully coloured dresses — and lined up in front of the door staring at the food bags. The expression on their faces was so happy, excited and grateful! Some of them talked to us in Swahili but the only word we understood was ‘asante’ — meaning ‘thank you’.”

“They wrapped a scarf into a small ring and put it on their heads, tied up the bags which were about 14 kilos heavy and placed them on their heads! This is the way they walked out of the orphanage, with a big smile on their faces and some of them even dancing!”

Thursday, February 23

“When we arrived at the orphanage today, we were very happy to see that not only the running shoes had arrived but also the track suits for all kids, so we started another couple of hours of packing 81 individual bags with the shoes, suits, the socks from Abu Dhabi and two pieces of underwear for each one. We are so excited to see the children’s faces tomorrow when receiving the bags!”

“We then went to town for another shopping trip - white boards for the classrooms, stationary such as pencils, markers, school books and pencil sharpeners. On the way back we stopped at a supermarket and bought some more items — plastic jugs, buckets, car toy for every child and balloons.”

Friday, February 24

“Today was the last and most amazing day at the orphanage. Once arrived, we started to get the bags ready for each classroom. One by one the children were called out of the class and directed to the office construction site where they received their bag and helped by us into their new track suit, socks, underwear shoes and caps that were donated by the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority. The excitement in the classrooms grew by the second, children’s eyes glued from the window to the newly dressed kids outside.”

“When removing their old clothes we often noticed that they had no socks or underwear at all and in nearly all the children’s pockets we could find the little toy car we gave them yesterday. Some even still had their balloons suggesting that they carry all their ‘precious’ items with them at all times. A few children did not know how to put on socks — they never had any. A small boy was very shy to undress until we found out he had no underwear. Showing him the two new panties in the bag for him, he got tears in his eyes — and us too.”

“The shoes seemed nevertheless to be the most popular items in the bag. When seeing them they could not wait to get rid of the old ones, kicking them impatiently in a corner. Even if they were the wrong size, way too big or too small, they said ‘it’s ok teacher’, fearing that we might take them away. We’ve changed them later on into the right sizes.”

“When demonstrating how to wear the tights we’ve brought over, the girls went ecstatic, never having seen tights in their lives and always wearing heavy trousers underneath their school skirts!”

“While Zoe and I were changing the children, Yves was in the kitchen, peeling eggs and helping out with a special lunch that we arranged for the children. It may not sound like much to us, but a piece of fried chicken with cooked vegetables, a roasted potato, a boiled egg, a samosa and a fruit juice was truly a rare feast for them.”

“When food began to arrive in the classroom, they were all sitting again with a finger on their mouth, meaning they have to behave and be quiet otherwise there is no treat. Everyone had to wait until the last person had the dish served, then they could eat. Staring at the plates, we noticed some of them secretly licking the edge of the plate, not being able to wait!”

“With our project coming to an end, we said our farewells, left some more money for another food supply round to the families and received beautiful African dresses. Alice could not have better spoken our minds and feelings by saying “this was a truly beautiful day”. We left surrounded by the kids, glowing of pride in their new clothes and running after our car until we were gone.”

Back in Abu Dhabi, Martina, Zoe and Yves are still surrounded by colleagues and friends, eager to know more stories. Perhaps nobody is more proud of their work then the Sheraton’s general manager and area manager of Starwood Hotels, Thomas van Opstal.

For donations to the orphanage, contact lujan.mourad@gloriousorphanage.com.

silvia@khaleejtimes.com