A Canadian 'mother' for six Ugandan kids
Originally Published: Friday, January 04, 2008, The Vancouver SunArticle By: Chantal EustaceIn the three months she had been living in the city of 1.3 million people, she had walked past these same children several times and noticed their torn clothing and dirty faces, hungry and forlorn. She had seen the 11-year-old carrying the toddler on her back while asking people for money and food. Each time she walked past them, she felt sad. But on this day she couldn't keep walking, especially when her arms were filled with groceries just purchased at a nearby market. So the recent Douglas College social work graduate stopped. She gave the group all of the fruit and vegetables she'd just bought. They accepted. And her life hasn't been the same since. Since that day last February, the six children have moved in with Travers. She has quit her job, which involved educating people in the area about HIV, to become the children's full-time caregiver and provider. "I've always been a vocal person for justice. Now I've found my spot," said Travers. "It's a personal way to help." But she can't do it alone. Now she's asking for public help in supporting her and the six children who call her "mommy." Asked parents for help After her first meeting with the children -- the same day she went home from the market empty-handed -- she knew she wanted to take care of them. "They were saying they were sent away," she says, recalling the initial encounter, when they told her they had no one to look after them. "It was then that it became very real. They had nothing and needed immediate care." She learned the six unrelated children had been living on the street, begging as a group for six months. Only one of them had a living parent, a mother whom Travers later helped locate, while the rest of them were alone. And she learned that the children didn't want to be separated, something they faced if they went to one of the shelters in the area. Figuring that action was urgently needed, Travers did what any normal, 20-something would do: She asked her parents for help. "I saw something needed to be done," said Travers. "I said, 'Would I be crazy if I was to take all these kids in?' I knew if I did it, it'd be a lifelong commitment." Her parents were supportive. They loaned her $3,000 to create an orphanage of sorts. She called it Abetavu, or Safe Haven in the Luganda language spoken in Uganda. By April, she had found a three-bedroom apartment outside Kampala for about $350 per month. Meanwhile, in Vancouver, her parents held a fundraiser to help their daughter's efforts, raising about $14,000 -- enough to cover costs for the year. After meeting the children, Travers immediately began visiting them daily, bringing food and getting to know each of them. Little by little they opened up to her about their lives, she says, adding she learned that their biggest desire was to attend school. When the apartment was furnished and ready in early April, she invited the group to come and see if they'd like to move in. "I said, 'Would you like to come as a family and stay?' That's when they got confused," she says, adding the older children were initially suspicious of her motives. But they trusted her enough to move in. She soon learned that the children weren't just sick and hungry; they were emotionally starved. One had been sexually abused. Another was afraid of noises and sudden movements. The children -- two-year-old Juliana, five-year-olds Benjamin and Vanessa, seven-year-old Martin, eight-year-old Godance and 11-year-old Christie -- adjusted. They learned how to sleep on beds with pillows and slowly, but surely, they relaxed. "I found them bathing in the toilets," Travers recalls. "They never had seen a TV before." The "turning point" came after a month at their new home. "Once I told them they'd been accepted into school, it was like Christmas. They were so happy." They started school in May. Acts of charity can be 'tricky' Jennifer Hyndman, associate professor of geography at Simon Fraser University and a former aid worker, says small-scale acts of charity are wonderful but they can also be "tricky." "It's a laudable effort," says Hyndman, after learning about Travers' actions. Hyndman, who has worked for aid groups in developing countries like Kenya and Somalia, says this sort of direct help is important. "They might be small-scale, but they are making a difference." But she warns that aid entrepreneurs, who decide to intervene on their own, should be cautious and make sure they are doing what is best for an individual in need. This means setting up a structure that will ensure a "sustainable" or long-term solution. And more than one person should be involved. "Creating a shared governance and responsibility is important so one person is not responsible for the fate of others," she says, adding that if a lone caregiver is injured or dies, the care would end. "Often our relief can be hands-on in the short-term, but in the long-term it should be about figuring out ways to support them in the long-term," says Hyndman. Travers says she has no intention of abandoning any of the six children she's taken in or returning to her home town of Vancouver. At the same time, she recognizes that her well-intentioned actions pose risks. She worries that someone could accuse her of kidnapping or take the children away from her, scenarios she says she tries not to contemplate. In December, six French charity workers were sentenced to eight years in jail, charged with kidnapping 103 African children who they claimed were orphans. An investigation found that most of the children had family who said they were tricked into giving up the children. But Travers is being careful to look for family members. Several times she visited the village where the six children were born, searching for familial ties. So far, she's helped Christine to connect with her mother and seven siblings and Martin to visit his grandmother. And she's worked to piece together some sort of history for each child. No one she has met has wanted to take the children in, she says. She has also contacted the local city council to let them know she's housing the six, she says, and so far no one has raised any concerns. "I'm not too worried," says Travers. "I'd make myself sick about it if I thought of this." Self-sufficient charity Instead of worrying about "what-ifs?" she's working to become a self-sufficient charity in a more official sense. Her main obstacle is funding. Right now she spends about $600 per year for school. It costs another $650 each month for food and rent. Medical bills for the children have also been costly, she says. Once she raises enough money, she plans to buy two cars and start up a taxi operation to make money to support her new family. She'd also like to buy a plot of land within a year to build a larger, permanent residence so she can help more children. "Eventually I'd like to take care of at least 30 kids," says Travers, adding there aren't enough shelters for all the children who need help. More than 12 million children have been orphaned by AIDS in Africa according to the United Nations. Many others lose parents to poverty, conflict or illness. Travers says she has been inspired by her parents, Ron and Carole, who taught her about the importance of helping people in need. On Christmas Day, the family hands out gifts in Vancouver's troubled Downtown Eastside. And Carole, who is a nurse, encouraged Travers and her sister to volunteer at a camp for people with disabilities. In turn, they both say they support their daughter's decision to start up an orphanage in Africa. "I think she's significantly impacted the lives of these children," says her dad, adding he is proud of his daughter's resolve. He doesn't worry about whether she will regret taking on such a big responsibility at such a young age: "When Carli sets her mind to doing something, we support her 100 per cent." Travers, who showed her activist side early by running twice for the Green party at ages 20 and 21, both federally and provincially, says she believes helping children in East Africa is what she was meant to do with her life -- one child at a time. "Overnight, it made me into a mother," she says. "And it made me realize that people can do things if they try." To learn more about Travers' work, e-mail her at ctravers@ctravers.com. Juliana The youngest child in the group, two-year-old Juliana, needed care immediately. Sick with pneumonia and syphilis, she was also severely malnourished. "I took her to a hospital. They said she was close to death," says Travers, who took Juliana into her care immediately, even before she had moved to a larger apartment. "To her, I'm her mother. That's all she knows." When she turns 25 years old, Travers will be old enough to legally adopt Juliana under Ugandan law, she says, something that is important to her. At the same time, she doesn't know what happened to Juliana's birth mother. "I knew her mother was a prostitute," she says. "[Juliana] was left outside the house when she would go to work." Benjamin Both of five-year-old Benjamin's parents died of AIDS, leaving him alone to fend for himself. When Travers first met him, he was covered in sores and coughed constantly. But he tested negative for the virus, as have all the children, Travers says. He's changed a lot over the past year, from being "almost babyish" to stubborn and mischievous. "He's always getting into trouble." Vanessa The mystery child, little is known about five-year-old Vanessa, though she seems to have been through some traumatic experiences. "For the first four months she'd wake up yelling every night for a man to get off of her," says Travers. "I really notice there was sexual abuse that occurred." But eventually the screaming fits and sleepless nights subsided. Her entire manner has changed, says Travers. "Now she feels safe. There's no tension in her face. You can hear her laugh now." Martin The other kids use Martin as a scapegoat. The seven-year-old doesn't seem to mind, says Travers. "He's the carefree kid," she says, adding that despite a difficult childhood, he has become a very well-adjusted and loving person. He was like an "abused puppy" when she first met him, scared of noises or sudden movements. Both his parents died of AIDS, leaving him to support his grandmother by selling meat on the streets. Instead, he would get beaten and mugged, Travers says, something that left him traumatized. "He was the most confused initially," says Travers. "He's had a lot of abuse." Godance A child of two Rwandan refugees, eight-year-old Godance's parents died of extreme poverty, says Travers. Godance has a difficult time relaxing and playing like the other children. Instead, Travers says, she tries to mother the children, cook or clean. "I explain, 'You're a child. You need to be playing and having fun,'" says Travers. "She doesn't have to prove anything." Slowly her lessons are sinking in. "She now laughs and smiles," says Travers. "It's trying to teach them to be kids again. They don't know how." Christine The oldest of the bunch, 11-year-old Christine has reconnected with her mother, thanks to Travers' help. The two were separated when Christine's father left to be with another woman, taking the little girl with him. When he died, she was abandoned and did not know where her mother was. Even though she and her mother now visit regularly, Christine has remained under Travers' roof and care. "It's like an open adoption really," she says. "Her mom has no means to care for her at all." |