BECA Travels: The Children of HardtHaven

The Children of HardtHaven

Today, we finally met the children of HardtHaven! The children’s home celebrated its fifth birthday as an organization. Although the actual anniversary was last week, due to weather, they delayed the celebration until today.  We helped Jessie, Edem’s wife, blow up and string balloons. There was a huge carrot cake. The children came over from HardtHaven after school  - after 3:00 PM – and we all celebrated.  There were new toys for the children – balls, bubbles to blow, and at least one yo-yo.  We all played and ate cake, and the children drank sodas.  Collin brought out his guitar and some of the children were dancing!  Collin also made friends with his namesake, “Collins,” a child of about five.

Actually, it is hard to tell how old the children are.  Due to their size – they are much smaller and shorter than U.S. kids, they look a lot younger than they actually are.  They range in age from about 3 to about 15. We know that some of them are HIV positive, but we don’t know which ones. There is also a young girl of 18, sponsored, though not housed, by HardtHaven, who is 18 and has sickle cell.  She looks about 12 – at just the beginning of adolescence.  Efforts are being made for her to be able to continue school.

The children who are junior-high age or younger go to school here in the community, and the older ones attend a boarding school.

After the party, all of us followed the children back to HardtHaven, or rather, to the place the children are living now. (We are staying at the future home of HardtHaven, built on land owned by Edem’s family.  The children will move into this facility in the near future, after some construction is completed.) It is a rented facility that has the children housed in bunk beds in rooms separated by gender.  There is a kitchen, a dining room, a toy room, and an office, as well as a fenced in play area.  Two women – “matrons” – stay overnight with the children, and yet another person cooks, although children help with the cooking.  All of the children have jobs, and they begin early to contribute to the community.

Granted, we first met the children at a party, but most look healthy and happy.  There are a couple of sorrowful faces on the older girls, but the younger children look like normal children anywhere.