Visiting Dorcas
On Sunday we went to the SOS Children's Village Isolo to visit the Nigerian girl we are sponsoring. Her name is Dorcas Hodonu and she will be five years old on 2nd May. She came to the village in the Autumn of 2005 with her brother Israel (6) when her mother died in childbirth. Her father visited occasionally for the first two years they were in the orphanage, but they haven't seen him for the last 2 years.

The SOS Childrens Village Isolo is just before the airport in a rather poor area of town. We left the Statoil compound at about 10:15 with a police escort and were there shortly after 11am. On the way in the car we explained to Erik and Daniel that this is the way we help people, not by giving money to beggars on the streets. I have felt bad about going to Cub Scout Den meetings every Saturday morning and ignoring the beggars we pass, so I got Erik to say his Cub Scout Promise on the way to make the point!

We were rather sceptical when we turned off the main road, but when we saw the walls of the village with the SOS Children's Village logo, we were very pleasantly surprised. The gates opened and we could see that the grounds were spacious, clean, organised and well maintained (this is definately not the norm in Lagos). The lawns were well cut and there were several playgrounds.

The director of the village met us and showed us around the village while we waited for the children to come back from church. The village is home to 101 children in 10 houses. Each house has a "mother" and an "aunt" looks after two adjacent houses. The village has 35 staff in total.

There are three small schools within the compound: a nursery, primary and a secondary school. Other children from the area around the village also attend the school. While we were waiting we looked at one of the houses where they were busy cooking a big birthday dinner for one of the girls on an open fire.

Shortly after noon, Dorcas's "family" arrived back from church. The main room, just inside the door in the middle of the hoise was the sitting room and dining room. Down two corridors were the bedrooms, kitchen, common bathroom and the mother's bedroom. Dorcas was waiting for us in the sitting room.

She was very quiet and shy, as you would expect. We gave her a birthday present - a doll, a pushchair and some doll's clothes. She didn't recognise the pushchair - she called it a car - but she loved pushing her doll around in it. Another girl about the same age as Dorcas wasn't so shy and kept trying to push infront of Dorcas and get the attention, so we made sure we gave her some attention too. The other children ranged in age from a baby (7mths) to a couple of children in their early teens. This is done so that the older ones can help the younger ones and it gives the house more of a family atmosphere.

It was interesting to see how our children reacted to the visit. Mathilde was really clingy - she kept wanting to be carried and hugged me, pointedly to show that I was hers! Erik played with them, but was obviously conscious that he did not fit in; he was the one asking to go home. Daniel, on the other hand, fitted right in. Outside, he was swinging around with them on the climbing frame. Inside, he sat down to draw, while all the other children gathered around and repeated him each time he said something about his drawing.

Inger-Lise had made a birthday chocolate cake for Dorcas and everyone had a slice. Dorcas was still looking overwhelmed, as well she might with suddenly getting so much attention.

We then brought out lots of old clothes and toys we had brought and piled them on the dining room table. It was heartwarming to see how much pleasure they gave to the children. The mother was a really nice lady; the family unit seemed to be very strong and they all seemed to care for each other which was fantastic to see.

They all followed us to the car and waved goodbye when we set off back to Lagos with our Police Escort. It must be strange for them to have us suddenly appear from nowhere and then disappear again. Perhaps I will visit again, though.


I hope that the visit made an impression on Erik and Daniel, so they can see what they have compared to other, less fortunate children. Also, not least, that they understand that just because we ignore the beggars at the windows of our car every day, it doesn't mean that we don't care.

We think this is a very good organisation to give money to. If you would like to sponsor a child, you can find more information here

Jeremy