Kids Helping Kids

Usually the boys at Nabo Jibon don't interact with each other very much. A lot of them love the volunteers, but treat the other kids like they don't exist. I've been trying to find ways to overcome this for a while, and mostly without success. Two boys that are capable of walking by themselves, but insist on having me hold their hand while they walk around, can tell the difference between holding my hand and holding the other boy's hand. Some of the more physically able boys love to toss a ball back and forth with me, but I cannot get them to throw to each other.

In the past week or so I've actually had a few successes. One of them I was particularly happy about. Robert is an energetic boy with the strength to walk. Unfortunately, his ankles are misshapen so that he cannot balance without holding on to something. Robert loves it when someone will support one of his arms and walk around with him. Then there is Ushwal, he seems to understand a lot of what goes on around him, however he only has a little control over his body. As a result, he is stuck in a wheelchair. Ushwal gets excited whenever someone will push him around outside in his wheelchair. I try to do this at least once every day, but often I get distracted by the other kids. Last week it occurred to me that I might be able to combine these two kids. I lifted Robert up and placed his hands on the handles of Ushwal's wheelchair. I gave it a little push to get him started, but Robert quickly got the idea and continued to push Ushwal around. I still had to provide a little help in guiding the wheelchair so that it wouldn't get stuck on bushes, but Robert could provide all of the strength. I loved the fact that it was far easier for me to guide them than it would have been to help either of them on their own. Both of them had a great time, and I really enjoyed seeing that together they could do what neither of them could do on their own. It seems like their might be some parable that relates to community in there...