A famous African proverb says “It takes a village to raise a child.” In my 30 years working with children and their families, as a teacher, administrator, and therapist, in the US, Africa, and Asia, I have seen how true and profound that is. But I would modernize it to say “It takes a World to raise a child.” In the twenty first century, the world has truly become one village.
The child or the parent in a Nairobi slum, a Rio favelo, or a Syrian refugee camp – is my daughter or son, my brother or sister, my aunt or uncle. They are all my family, and yours.
It is from a deep sense of connectedness and blessing that I began Slum School Solutions in 2016. That sense of connectedness began as a child, reading National Geographics, watching news from around the world, and having friends from other cultures. It deepened as I worked with refugees coming to the U.S., helped manage a homeless shelter, and taught in schools where children came from over 70 different countries. More recently I have been privileged to spend lots of time in some of the world’s largest slums in Africa and Asia. They welcome me as a family member. And I now see how deeply connected we all are. Whether we’re aware of it or not, we are all family.
And I just don’t want to see my family, my children, growing up without even getting a chance to finish a decent basic education, without a chance to move beyond extreme poverty.
So I’ve spend a couple of years researching problems and solutions. I’ve spent time in urban and remote areas and schools, time with parents and children in slums, talks with government and non-profit officials, and endless hours of reading. Though the needs sometimes seem overwhelming, I have seen first hand how in the last decade people from slums are finding ways to educate their children. They’re not waiting on their governments or non-profits. They treat every child as if their own. They do the best they can with what little they have.
But what little they have isn’t yet enough to give the education their children, our children, need and deserve. The cost to give these existing local schools that extra bit they need is quite small for us, but unreachable for them.
The world has lots of problems, and solutions to many of them sometimes seem impossible. But giving ALL our children a basic education isn’t one of those. Local schools and parents are already doing the work themselves. By helping them, we CAN help all our family, all our children, all over the world, get the basic education we already give to our children in our own homes and villages.
It takes a WORLD to raise a child!