Every child fighting for a better future is a reminder to act | Marina Shacola | TEDxLimassol
[Applause] This is Empira in Kenny. I came across many of these balls during my journeys there. First as a photographer and then as a volunteer for the Sophia Foundation for Children. These balls are made of old used plastic bags and rope by the children to play football and volleyball. But this ball is a very special one for me because it was given to me on the very first day we managed to get permission to enter a children's remand a prison basically for children between five and 16 years old. Nothing really prepared me for the day for that day we entered the prison. Even uh though for many years before I had been faced with many difficult situations regarding children, children sick with AIDS, children suffering from malnutrition or malaria, children abandoned in hospitals because a mom died, children living in the streets helpless. But still, the day we entered the prison was a shock for me. And not because the children in there were abused or beaten or made to work as slaves. No, it was more the silence of the place, the nothingness, the absolute lack of any stimulation, any recreation, any purpose. No toys apart from balls they made themselves like this. No schooling, no books, no hope. Children were there because they stole in order to eat, even killed in order to survive in the streets. But there was also a category of children who were there simply because there was nobody to care for them. Such a girl was Judy. When I first looked at her, she looked more like a wild, scared animal than a 13-year-old girl. She was not talking, not making any eye contact. She looked totally lost. Judy was 9 years old when she was married off to a much much older man who legally raped her and then abandoned her in the street. She was abducted then by a person who used her as a slave, as a worker. And when she managed to escape at the age of 13 while in the streets, she was picked up by a group of men who were supposed to take her somewhere safe, but instead held her as their captive and abused abused her repeatedly. Some good neighbors discovered her and took her to the police and the police had no place to put her. And there she was in the children's prison. I asked her if she wanted to go to school and she nodded yes. Leaving that place later in the evening, taking this ball with me and many images of the children locked in there, I had to really gasp for air a few times and I'm not really claustrophobic. I just couldn't swallow the whole thing. Can you just imagine being a 13-year-old girl abused pract practically by everybody you ever met and on top of everything else to be thrown in a prison with no hope of getting out. It took many efforts on behalf of the Sophia Foundation for Children to get permission for her release and then we were faced with a very big dilemma where to take her. The Macario's Children's Home, an orphanage under the care of the Sophia Foundation, was overcrowded with children living in bad conditions at the time because we were still struggling to build the new premises. So, we decided to take a risk and take Judy to a private school, a boarding school, where she could be safe and get education. The day of her release was really a strange one and an unforgettable one. Even when the clo when the doors of the prison closed behind her, she would not change the expression of her face. No reaction. We took her to buy school uniforms, shoes, mattresses, everything she needed for her new life. Still not a sign that she was understanding what was going on. We proceeded to the school, showed her the new room, introduced her to some girls who were going to share the room with her. Showed her the playing fields, the dining room, the classrooms. Not a word, not a smile. Then I started to really panic. I thought maybe we were making a mistake. Judy did not belong in prison. That was for sure. But did she belong in that place? Would she adjust or was it going to be all too much for her? I was desperate to get a sign from her that we were right in our decision. So, instinctively, I asked her if she knew a song she could sing for me, something to take back with me as a memory of her when I went back home. At last, her face brights up. Sing God. Hallelu Jesus Christ. Halleluah Jesus Christ. Halleluah Jesus Christ. Hallelu Jesus Christ. Hallelu Jesus Christ. That was my sign. Judy had a voice. I knew she was going to make it now. And even today myself, I I still hum this tune in my head to remind me of the day a girl got out of prison and flew into a new life. The Sophia Foundation for Children also created a program for supporting children while in prison with proper balls, books, medical care, but most importantly, we created a program for releasing children from prison under the guardianship of the foundation. either taking them to the Macario's children office uh children home if if they are too young or to different boarding schools to live now safely with dignity education and prospect for the future. Thanks to different sponsors who support this program, we have now under the guardianship of the foundation almost 200 children children who would otherwise perish in the deadly streets of the slums or the juvenile prisons and remands. In fact, three of them since last year, they managed to finish secondary school with top grades and are now attending university. And we're so proud of them. But Judy did have problems during her first year in school. She was actually very sad and very depressed because she was last in her class. So then she did something brave again. She voluntarily asked to repeat the year, to repeat the class, in order to make solid foundations in order to be able to compete with the other children. She was so wise. Ever since that decision, she has been amongst the best students of her class until today. I met her again uh about almost two years ago when I was at the Magario's children's home with other volunteers celebrating at last for the completion of the new buildings of the home and I was there taking photographs of the kids filming them and suddenly I see her was so happy to see her again and I asked her if she she was there during a school break so I asked her if she also wanted to say something on camera. There she is. My name is Judy Moni. I am 17 years old. I am in form one a school called Moita High School, girls high school. It is in Nuki and I am in form one. When I grow up, I would like to be a nurse and also I would like to be a musician, a gospel singer. I like singing. I do compose gospel song and I do compose them especially when I when I sometimes my future for the past sometimes I feel so bitter because all of it and so that I express my bitterness. I try to compose the the songs now from the songs because when I was in remand nakuru remand I was just feeling that there was nobody who was caring about me. There was nobody who was standing there for me and I was sometimes even regretting where I was born. But for now since Marina took me and now I'm in school since even I could not believe it because I thought it was just a dream just to realize it was just reality and I thank God. So that is where when I was just realizing that there was nobody to care for me at those days. That is when the when those dots now come to me. That is when I try to compose some songs and I see there is hope. Now in future I want to become a nurse because in sometimes I visit the hospitals and I feel messy when I see the old the old people and the childrens they are just queuing and sometimes even you when you visit the the world you meet them they are lying on bed they are just tossing because of that pain and I feel I feel just mercy and I feel if I am there I can be able to care for them and they can return in their state. I would like to tell my sponsor that I'm so glad I cannot even be able to say my happiness because of making me to go back to school and be able to learn so that I can achieve that my goal because yes he has done great to me that I'm going to when I be a nurse when I will become a nurse I'll be very glad and I will be very happy I'll appreciate it because she has removed me from the farm where I never had hopes of the future but for now I have hope. So I tell her thank you very much. Judy, you know by now Judy is my hero and every Judy, every child who fights for a better future and anyone who cares enough to support children in this condition immediately becomes their hero. I am very lucky because I have the chance to meet with the children, interact with them very often, share their energy, listen to their voice. But I wonder, is it really necessary to be physically there in order to care? For me, it took a ball and a girl song in my head to daily remind me that there are children who need our help, urging me to act for you. Thank you.