Article January 12, 2004 Issue

A TRANSFORMING EXPERIENCE

Shepherd Urenje

The trip to Porta Farm gave my students a new awareness. They had not fully realized that people were living in their own country in conditions such as these. Poverty became a reality to these students. They had seen it on TV and heard about it from their teachers, but at Porta Farm they saw poverty firsthand. This had a big impact on them.

My students were able to see how privileged they are. They saw children who were worse off than they, and expressed a deep admiration for the children at Porta Farm—that they were strong, resilient, and that they didn't ever seem to despair.

On the trip back, the discussions the girls had were encouraging. They were saying things such as, "If I were the head of the farm I would do ...." Or "I would run it this way to make things better. ..." Although they were impressed with the way Porta Farm was being run, they were thinking of ways the settlement could be run even better.

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