3/21/2005 - Tragedy and recovery by the banks of the Nile: Amanda’s AFS Community Service:
When Amanda Sadleir, a 20 year-old native of Calgary, Canada, signed up for a six-month AFS Community Service program, she knew she was going to be challenged. What she did not know was how much the challenge would test her as she faced the joy and the tragedy of her work with Egypt’s street children.
The AFS Community Service Program is designed for young adults 18 years of age or older who want to volunteer with local organizations that address community needs. There is a wide spectrum of local needs in the more than 50 countries served by AFS. The most advanced industrialized nations, countries that fall under the denomination of Third World countries, and most countries that would fit into some intermediate category, all share some things in common. Among these things is the existence of marginalized populations that for social, economic, political and other reasons are in desperate need of assistance to break away from the cycle of poverty and alienation. See more information about AFS Community Service Programs, please follow the link below:
For Amanda, the plight of Egypt’s street children, and her response to that plight, changed her life in a very personal and ultimately rewarding way. AFS placed Amanda with the Tofulty Foundation a local organization which provides children in Helwan, a community in Cairo, with literacy education, vocational training, medical services, and counseling. The ultimate goal of the Foundation is to enable the children to gain a support network through their own efforts and with the help others. Amanda described her work saying, “We get kids off the streets and bring them to live in the Foundation which is set up like a house. We put them through school, teach them different hobbies such as drawing, painting, crafts, building and designing with wood and iron, and eventually, we try to get them a job. We work with two social workers, professionals who live with the children and become like parents to them, as well as with other workers that come in during the day.”
First impressions: “I was very scared about starting my job” continued Amanda, “because I knew there would be a language barrier, and I didn’t know how to deal with street children. I didn’t know how they would react to having me with them every day, especially because of the culture; I thought that having a foreign girl around them all of the time might not be a good thing.” But to Amanda’s continued amazement, she found that, “from the first day I arrived at work, I felt like I was with my family. The kids had amazing personalities, great sense of humor, respect, and were very bright. They welcomed me with open arms, and on that first day, I fell in love with every single one of them.”
“During my time there, I mostly taught the boys English—and they taught me a lot of Arabic—I helped them with homework, reading, writing, drawing, and with their computer skills.
I will never forget the day on which I decided to surprise the children, so I took all of them on a trip to Magicland, a local amusement park. I will always remember how happy and excited they all were, and how much fun we had that day, of course none of them had ever done anything like that before!”
Amanda was particularly proud of two of the boys at the Foundation, Ahmed and Mamduah. These two boys had recently participated in a conference held at the National Council of Childhood and Motherhood Development, an Egyptian organization that works towards improving the lot of the nation’s impoverished children. Both Ahmed and Mamduah spoke to the audience gathered for the conference about their experiences on the street.
“They were very successful” said Amanda, “Everyone loved them and couldn’t believe that they were actually street boys from the way they looked and spoke. They both were so proud of themselves.”
Ahmed’s accident: The day after the conference, as Amanda walked into the Foundation’s office she learned that the boys had been in an accident. “Two minutes after leaving the conference,” Amanda said, “there was a terrible accident. My supervisor, Randa, and two children were crossing the street. A car came very fast and struck them, first hitting Randa, but just pushing her out of the way without inflicting injuries. Mamduah was knocked down and the car ran over his leg. The car caught Ahmed on the windshield, continued careening down the street, until Ahmed was thrown off the car, hitting his head hard on the ground.”
“After almost two hours of waiting for a public ambulance to come,” said Amanda, “the two boys were taken to a very expensive private hospital, the closest facility to the site of the accident. Mamduah was going to be OK, but he had serious damage to his leg and had to go in for surgery. The one we worried about was Ahmed. He had lapsed into a coma.”
“Raised in a family with 16 other children, Ahmed had lived a very difficult life;” Amanda continued, “when he arrived at the Foundation, he became known as sweet, kind and caring boy. He had the most innocent and beautiful little face. He was obviously extremely intelligent. Everyone that knew him loved him, except for, apparently, his parents, who having heard about his accident, were indifferent to the news.”
Amanda began what became a long vigil alongside Ahmed, which included a move to a second hospital (a public hospital this time) and endless hours of waiting for some positive change in the boy’s condition. After some weeks had passed, Ahmed showed a little improvement. Amanda, encouraged and concerned about the boy’s continued recuperation, arranged to bring Randa and Ahmed’s friends from the Foundation, for a short visit.
“On the morning of our visit, we all packed lunch and even convinced Ahmed’s mother and his little sister to come with us” Amanda remembers. “Even Mamduah, with his broken leg, managed to come; he so much wanted to see his friend again.”
“When we got to the hospital, Randa spoke with the hospital staff. It was all in Arabic, so I didn’t know what was being said. But suddenly, I noticed that our little group was turning around and heading for the exit. My boss said that Ahmed was very sick and it wasn’t a good day for everyone to go and see him. She asked me, however, to stay at the hospital with her. When everyone else in our little group had left, she turned to me and said; ‘Ahmed mette’…Ahmed is dead.”
“At first I didn’t understand”, continued Amanda. “It was as if my brain had stopped working. I burst into tears; it felt like I had lost my very own child. I could not leave that hospital until I saw him one last time. When we finally saw him, I didn’t even think he was there, his body was so small. I just hugged him and kissed him and held his hand. I could not let him go. I talked to him and repeated some words from the Quran, which people say when someone has died. My tears were falling on his face as I kissed him. I couldn’t leave so Randa had to physically drag me out of there.”
Rising to the challenge: “After this terrible experience I realized that I wanted to do whatever I could to help the Foundation have the resources to deal with future challenges and with the care of Helwan’s street children.” Amanda said. “I started a letter writing campaign describing my job at the Foundation, what we were doing to improve the children’s’ lives and about Ahmed’s experience and sent it along with pictures and information about the Foundation to all of the foreign embassies and consulates in Egypt.”
“Soon after, I received a call from the Canadian ambassador, inviting me to discuss my work with the Foundation. We also received a lot of attention from the German, Australian and Italian embassies and from the European Union. Just before I returned home we had received substantial monetary donations from both Australia and Italy. I was so happy to have been able to mobilize such support and Randa has said that more funding will be probably coming!”
“I stayed at the Foundation two months beyond my six month assignment, but finally, it was time for me to leave. For my going away celebration, the children wrote me letters in the best English that they could manage and made me a big poster with their pictures and drawings. They gave me some wonderful gifts; it was a very beautiful goodbye party. Before I left for good, I went to visit Ahmed’s grave and also said my goodbyes to him. Tears were streaming down my eyes; I will never be able to forget his beautiful smile.”
Looking back and moving forward: Amanda’s stay was not all about her work. She described some of her adventures in Egypt saying that “Aside from the many wonderful and some sad memories from my community service, my stay was unforgettable. I made many wonderful friends that I will cherish forever. I was also very lucky to travel all throughout Egypt with my friends from AFS. I went on a cruise from Luxor to Aswan and went for my vacation to both the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to travel to the desert twice for safari camping trips with the Bedouins. I actually spent a weekend in the desert over New Year’s Eve. The sand was so soft that we would walk around bare-footed. I never slept that whole trip because I would stay up and climb mountains to see the sunset and sunrise…it was amazing, like a completely different world! Aside from traveling I celebrated Ramadan, which is a beautiful time, and I attended 11 weddings! I was actually in 10 magazines and newspapers with being at the weddings, and talking about my job, about AFS, and about the letters that I had written to the embassies.
I used to walk to the Metro station beside the Nile River to go to work everyday, which was amazing! I managed to gain a lot of weight from all of the wonderful food because everyone made me eat so much. I can now speak conversational Arabic. My experience was an unforgettable one and that’s why I have signed up to volunteer with AFS, so I can help make someone else’s experience as good as mine was.”
We wanted to express our admiration and gratitude for Amanda’s work in Egypt by publishing her story. She is a true example of what can be accomplished with determination and the desire to get involved and work towards a better life for those in need.
In the photo: Amanda Sadleir and an unidentified child at the Foundation
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