Youth Speaks - Evie

Evie was one of the team members on the CRED Team Trip to work with Women At Risk in Ethiopia.  She has just finished school and is about to go to Drama School in London and the CRED Trip was her first experience of travel to a developing country. Evie loves to sing and dance, and is very good at both; on the trip she, and her singing friend Erin, used those skills, to bring a lot of happiness, laughter and smiles to the classroom. To see Evie, Erin and the class in action watch the video on You-Tube (link at the end of the blog). But first here are her thoughts about her experiences:

'Firstly I must say I find it very hard to try and put my experiences into words because what’s really out there and the impact it has on you is virtually indescribable. However I am going to try my hardest to express my feelings and share my experiences with you.

Ethiopia 2013 was the best and worst experience of my life, never have I been so heartbroken and sad yet so blissfully happy in one week. The children and young people I worked with were truly the most gentle, loving and pure souls I have ever met. Teaching them, laughing with them and seeing the gorgeous smiles on their faces when they were playing with us and the beautiful things we brought for them was absolutely amazing and I will never forget it.

These children openly welcomed us into their lives and shared with us their stories that really are shocking and heartbreaking and from the moment they saw us we were their friends. I keep telling people I have made real friends and that once you’re there everything in England seems so fake. Suddenly theres a realisation that everyone at home is just constantly striving for more, bigger and better, ambition consumes people to the extent they will sacrifice love and family to get there. Ambition for the Ethiopians I met is survival. In some of the mothers cases their ambition is only to give their children better lives no matter what it takes, which for most is the reason they turned to prostitution in the first place.

One of the boys, Nati, who was in my group really has changed me forever. He is inspirational. Although his story wasn’t as bad as some of the other children’s, he has still had a difficult past with his mother before she found the WAR project and he is yet to learn that the lady he thinks is his mother actually isn’t his real mother; his real mother died when he was very young. I was told this when talking with one of the Women At Risk staff about Nati and trying to understand the full picture of his life. Nati inspires because he is still a typical teenage boy so cheeky, smiley and happy despite living such a hard life with a tragic past. He lives in a home, which he describes as "not bad, but not good". This to me from what I saw on my home visit is absolutely shocking and barely liveable. Nati will always be in my heart and I hope one day with the support of the WAR project, who I will continue to support, he will be able to become the engineer he really wants to be.'

Link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEU_JJ3JOok