This is a picture of a boy that is in the Natinga School camp which provides a place for displaced people of Sudan, mostly boys ages 8-18. They are taught just like in normal schools but this school is a little different. This school doesn't have a roof so when it's raining, school is cancelled. When it's not raining, they learn to write by using sticks to write on the mud floor because it's hard to find paper and pencils for all the students (Walgren). Food is also scarce and breakfast is just a half a cup of grain, barely anything to fill anyone. There also isn't hardly any water which makes it difficult to have enough for drinking and for cleaning all the boys (Walgren). To make matters worse, they have to grow up with usually no parents or family and this school is basically all they have (Walgren). Living at this camp and school is the best option that most of these boys have and I'm sure life isn't easy for them. Having all this happen to them at such a young age would be so hard and something that most people wouldn't want for themselves or their children.
Salgado, Sebastiao. Photograph. "Migrations: Humanit in Transition [Children Today: Men & Women of the New Century]." Legends Online. PDN & Kodak Professional, n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2010.
Walgren, Judy. "The Lost Boys of Natinga: A School For Sudan's Young Refugees." All Business A D&B Comapny. Kirkus Reviews, 1 Aug. 1998. Web. 10 Mar. 2010.
As I sit here in the Harold B. Lee Library, surrounded by dozens of computers that each cost well over $1000, I read this post and wonder why I am so blessed. Day after day I take for granted the educational resources I have and the opportunity I have to be attending such an amazing university. We don't have to write on the dirt floor with sticks. We don't have to sit on benches made of twigs. We don't have to cancel school when it's raining or snowing. Desolate schools are the best the children depicted in this photograph have, and they are so grateful for them. We have so much more. We need to be grateful too!
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