Nearing the End

So Z-Burger has been avoiding our calls and we haven't been able to set up a fundraiser. But hopefully the money we collected through tabling and the money we collected from just our group member donations will be enough to buy all 40 nets. We contacted RAPIDS and asked if they still had the nets and could give them to us at the same price so hopefully that will all work out. I'm kind of sad that Z-Burger gave us such a hard time but hopefully we got enough on our own.

I also finished my article on street children in the Congo. I learned a lot of interesting but sad things that can go on, even in the church. A lot of times the children are forced onto the street because they are suspected of being witches and so they are beaten by their families and forced to undergo extremely painful exorcisms by their churches. Bahati told me that if someone has a dream that their child told the devil about them they will take their own children to be exorcised. He said the process sometimes includes a hot iron being pressed to the child's back until they confess to being a witch, but even if that happens they are still beaten when bad things happen to the family. It is sad that a lot of organizations turn a blind eye to these children, but hopefully more and more organizations will be aware of the problems and allow these children to get their childhoods back.
-Katie