Archived Bulletins

SOUP KITCHEN DIARY

By Linda Fiah
Class of 2005

A careful look into your neighbors face will reveal scars of hurt, pain and disappointment left there by constant struggles through the storms of life. The ability to sail through these storms and come out with only scars to tell your tale is called living. Life is war and in times of war the less wounded soldier helps bring his wounded colleague to safety. This is why the JoyFM Easter Soup Kitchen is such a laudable activity; it lends a helping hand to the disadvantaged people in life. But I wonder.... "how long can a drowning man clutch at the straw until help comes?" The Soup Kitchen provides food, clothing and health services for the homeless. But again I ask, how long after a full meal before the hunger pangs strike again? Or how long does it take before a healthy man falls sick, when forced to live on the streets. Once a year feeding of the hungry is not good enough because, from the Easter of one year to the next is a whole lifetime between which a lot of things could have transpired. We would be doing a lot better if there were many more 'Soup Kitchens' in between.

This year's Soup Kitchen, in comparison to previous ones, was the best in terms of organization and public patronage of activities. The 2001 Soup Kitchen was quite successful but there were many shortcomings in terms of its organization. There were no control mechanisms in place; people were scrambling for the items being distributed. It was survival of the fittest and those of us in charge of the food and clothes had to duck for our lives. It was both a fulfilling and wonderful experience nevertheless; an exposure to the wild side of human nature. Most of the students who participated in the Soup Kitchen were coming from middle and upper class homes (popularly called the "dada bees") where scrambling for food was a new concept and so their reaction was alien but enlightening.

The second Soup Kitchen was a slight improvement upon the previous year's but there were no visible changes in human nature. The organizational aspect of the event did not experience much change causing us to recollect and rehearse the ducking lessons learned from the last Soup Kitchen in anticipation of what was to come. Consequently, this display of wild human behavior was not so alien for the Ashesi's class of 2005 but it was rather fun watching the petrified looks of alarm on the faces of the class of 2006. I could not really tell whether it was confusion or amazement but in the end it was a fruitful soup kitchen with lessons well learnt and new memories created.

This year marked three years of Ashesi's participation in the Joy Easter Soup Kitchen. In contrast to previous years, the programme was much better planned; activities were more orderly and controlled and Ashesi students helped maintain that order. Looks as they say can be very deceptive, one would have thought the Ashesi students not physically strong, that is to say, not many of us have that the stature of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart character, Okonkwo or Mohammed Ali, the boxing medalist, but there is more power and strength in the mind and with that power you can do anything you set out to do. That was the conclusion I drew when I saw Ashesi students maintaining order in the lines formed by the homeless people. A casual look around and you would see students like Obinna Chuku and Charles Dollie (both in class of 2006) marshalling some units of the Street Brigade.

There were two categories of people present; those who had lost all trace of their manners and those who despite the hardships still held onto their human dignity. There were the ones who showed deep gratitude and appreciation for what was being done and those also who had traded every ounce of their human emotions for survival on the street. They were not only ungrateful but made it difficult for the organizers to maintain order. Jacques Rousseau, a philosopher would say they were living in the state of nature. They were using little children to collect more food for themselves perfectly aware of the fact that we could not resist a little child who comes to ask for food. You cannot help but wonder what the future will be like if the little ones are being taught to be dishonest and play on the emotions of adults using their innocence as a camouflage. There was enough food though for all who came in early like the proverbial African proverb "it is the early bird that catches the worm."

Medical practitioners offering medical services were also available during the soup kitchen. This was very thoughtful of the organizers because most of the people present looked like they needed the medical attention and indeed patronized the stand. There were also officials from both the Ghana and West African AIDS Commissions who offered counseling and conducted HIV-AIDS testing. The side attraction was the free distribution of condoms at the Holy Gardens, the venue for the event. I contemplated if they should not be preaching abstinence on Easter Saturday instead. But there were a couple of young girls who were barely adults carrying their babies on their backs. Some had two or more children with them. There were some older women who also had children following them who were obviously their children. One sometimes questions where the fathers are? The mothers in most cases do not know the fathers of these children; it is the nature of life on the street. It is not their desire to bring up children to add to their predicament. Unfortunately, of the two necessary evils one seems to be more promising. Their motherly instincts would not permit them to abandon the children so they raise them to the best of their ability on the street. But what hope is there for such a child? He only comes to contribute to the vicious cycle already on the street.

The soup kitchen was indeed another happy day in the lives of the homeless and the organizers. The former because they were shown love and care and the latter because they had been able to make a difference in people's life and the happy smiles on every one's face said it all. We need to wake up and save our future especially for the young ones. We are all responsible for what they become. Let us help them by helping the homes that are taking them in. This is the sole purpose of the Save A Smile Foundation, the official representative of Ashesi at the Easter Soup Kitchen

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