Celebrating birthdays
Every month we celebrate the children born in that month. Africa Food for thought give cakes to the centres donated by home industries. We can’t do this for each child’s birthday as we just don’t have enough cake or the people power to get the cake to the centres whenever there is a child’s birthday. And most of our children’s parent/s, or all too often other main caregivers are surviving on child care grants so sending in birthday cake from home is just not feasible. But the children look forward to the month’s birthday and talk about it often.
We make a small fuss of birthdays for a few reasons. The first is so that each child can have their birth celebrated and feel how special they are to the school community. And then birthdays are full of learning possibilities. The months of the year, counting (we clap the age of each child while counting), the number on their birthday crown and the fun and creativity of making a birthday crown. Then there is the learning children get from being able to choose their favourite song for everyone to sing during music. And growing and changing and getting big enough to go to Grade 1 can be thought about and processed. So celebrating birthdays is a very important activity!
But I do so wish every child was a wanted child. So many of the children’s moms and dads were probably horrified when they found that they were on their way into the world. And although all our children are under 5 years old many are already orphans, or never knew their father, or have parents who have to work far away and rely on others to care for them for weeks and even months, or parents who have simply disappeared.
I love birthdays, but it hurts to see how often children’s birthdays and their presence in the world is never celebrated or cherished.
Please take care not to have an unwanted child of your own, children need so much care during the whole of their childhood to fulfil their potential and live satisfying and emotionally rich lives. We need only planned for and wanted children in this challenging country and world...