“One has to grow hard but without ever losing tenderness.”
Ernesto “Che” Guevara de la Serna
Today at Kisedet’s Drop-In center F., a kid we have been trying to take away from the street for several years, after an operator took from him the bottle of glue he was sniffing, totally lost control and grabbed a knife, threatening us (most of our staff is currently working from home). He began throwing stones, that luckily didn’t hit anything or anyone, then, with the blade always in his hands, he got caught. Our gentle giant Fulgence was not present, but thank God Konjani, a social assistant from the family department, was there and managed to stop the assaulter and take him away from the shelter home, with Edwin’s help.
About one hour later, while I was working on a computer, someone knocked at the door, and there was F. I wasn’t scared: l have known this guy for at least eight years and I know for a fact he would never really hurt anyone. Once I read, in a book dedicated to street children, that, even though they will always hit the road, they will always be ready to stand up for the people that did the same for them, and their gratitude will be life-long, because they know these people have never abandoned them, even in the toughest time.
He sat in front of me, asking for forgiveness, but then my colleague Konjani came in and, in English (so F. could not understand) asked me: “Is everything OK?”. I answered everything was right, spent some time alone with F. and then called Konjani back in, and we both told him this is the last chance he is going to get from us. F. was a guest in both of our boarding houses, the short-term and the long-term, and escaped from both. We took him to Arusha, with the same result. If he still wants KISEDET to help him, the condition is that he first goes to a rehab facility (one month at the Sober house costs about 80 euro and he would have to stay at least 3 months), otherwise there’s nothing more we can do for him. We told him to get back on Friday with an answer.
That’s the reason for my quote of Che at the beginning because our job is being at these children’s service and that’s why we have to “grow hard but without ever losing tenderness”.
Photo by: Romina Remigio ©