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Role model in a harsh environment
22 year old MS Kenya volunteer Charlie Soender Buchardt has learnt a lot about the realities of life for arphans after having stayed for two months with an Isiolo based charity
By Morten Bonde Pedersen04. June 2007
22 year old Charlie Soender Buchardt from Denmark has been working for three months as a volunteer (MTV) for MS Kenya. He has been placed with organization ‘Pepo La Tumaini’ (Winds of Hope in the Desert) in Isiolo.
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Meeting with a completely different culture has been both touching and frightening, he tells. Especially working with orphans in a children’s camp has been an experience.
On one side it has been touching to see the generosity of the children. They hardly have anything and yet they come and share with him when they are given a few biscuits.
On the other side it has been frightening to see how to big boys among the orphans are always ready to fight, how fighting is a part of their culture. On one occasion he witnessed the boys beating up a ‘fundi’ whom they claimed to be a thief. This is still a chock to the Danish volunteer.
However he is certain that the boys were surprised with him too - that he did not take part in the fight. In this way he hopes he has been a role model to the boys showing that fighting is not the way to solve conflicts.
