Last summer, I had this special experience marking the closing salvo of Ambit Notebook Distribution. It also proved to be the most challenging of all the weekends for us as it was already starting to rain. We were on our way to our resting place when I fell with the motorcycle I was riding on, along a very slippery, muddy part of the road leading up to the mountainous area in So-So. I fell only a few inches away from the side of a dangerous hill road. Covered in mud, extremely tired, hungry and thirsty, I thought to myself, “What am I doing risking my life.” In between moments of such present madness, faces of our children beneficiaries randomly flash in my mind and for this particular mission area, the children were barely smiling. It was in fact so very hard to make them smile. I wonder what could light up their faces. Apparently, not even the notebooks we were handing to them.
Being a graduate of Child Psychology, I somehow have an idea why children are the way that they are. But it’s way different when you actually get to hold them, see them and hear them … hear them. I didn’t have an actual conversation with any of them but I certainly I heard something from what their little eyes were trying to tell me. When I addressed them together with their parents, I said, “We Ambit volunteers, our own lives are not easy. Every day we too struggle to make ends meet, to survive, to fend for our families. But we are here because we want to help you find your dreams, the way that we did. We want to show you it’s possible.” Maybe it’s hope that I “heard” them say from their probing eyes. And I hang on to that. As long as they can learn how to hope, Ambit has the chance to keep going, too, yes even if it means going through the difficult, muddy, slippery road.
Three summers, more than 25, 500 notebooks and from one small village, Ambit has by now already reached out to four villages, giving notebooks to children in far-flung areas in the south. Friends, it is with great joy and excitement that we are now officially starting our notebook campaign for our 4th summer! As always, we look to you for love, support and mutual dedication for our beloved beneficiaries. We just have to keep going. The possibilities that these poor children can bring to our society are endless and we just refuse to give up on them. One piece of notebook is not just a symbol, but an actualization of their dreams.
