Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
For the past decade, former Yellowknife Montessori teacher Sharmala Buell has educated children in Mbeya, Tanzania. Buell is executive director of the Hope for the Future Foundation, a Christian initiative that offers advocacy, recreation, nutrition, and bible instruction to impoverished children in the inner city.

Former Yellowknife Montessori School teacher Sharmala Buell shares hugs and smiles with Victor, 3, an orphan she cares for at the Hope for the Future Foundation in Mbeya, Tanzania. - photo courtesy of Sharmala Buell

During a return visit to Yellowknife this week, Buell spoke to students at Ecole Alain St. Cyr, Sissons School, and William McDonald School about what it's like to grow up as a poor or abandoned child on the streets of Mbeya.

"A lot of the children were shocked," Buell said.

Children in Buell's care have known malnutrition, disease, and abuse. Most eat once a day, but some only manage to find food every other day, she said. Often children have only one set of clothes, which is worn until threadbare.

It costs $3.20 to enrol a child in school, which is a sum beyond reach for many children. It costs about $30 to send a child to school for one year. Many young people end up incarcerated in the remand centre, or worse.

Buell, who co-founded the SideDoor Youth Centre, decided to embark on her calling as an international missionary after working with at-risk young people in Yellowknife. She came to Canada from Sri Lanka in 1983 to flee civil war. She called Yellowknife home from 1986 to 2000.

"I knew that God was calling me to be a missionary as far back as 1999," she said. "It took me awhile to agree."

In the last 10 years, Buell has established a twice-weekly after school program and a breakfast program as part of her missionary work in Mbeya. This year, she is collecting money and donations to provide children with a few modest luxuries, such as soccer balls, writing pencils, a TV set and funding to pay for school uniforms.

"The children don't need sympathy," Buell said. "What they need is empathy."

Yellowknife students felt empathy for the children of Mbeya as Buell shared photographs and stories in their classrooms earlier this week.

"It was an eye-opener to our students as they saw children their own age abandoned and living on the streets without any means of supporting themselves," said Grade 3 Sissons teacher Heidi Boudreau. "Now the children want to know what they can do about it."

Grade 5 student Robert Paddock, 10, asked Buell if child labour exists in Africa during the presentation at Sissons on Monday morning. Buell informed him that, yes, many African boys and girls are engaged in child labour when orphans are adopted into a family that puts them to work as indentured servants.

"It is sad that there are people who are poor like that," Paddock said, adding he wants to donate his birthday money to the after school program.

Paddock's classmate, Sonalia Sivakumar, 10, felt similarly inspired to act.

"I think fundraising would be an excellent idea to do at our school," she said. "We should be happy with what we have and not wish for more and more and more and be greedy."

Boudreau said her students and school staff plan to collaborate with other schools to raise money to assist children in Tanzania.

"The students are talking about it and thinking about it and they want to take action," Boudreau said. "In the next few days we will be discussing this with other schools and hopefully we can make a plan of action together."

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.