Kuwaiti Alumni Reach Out to Local Children

When the Kuwait alumni chapter set out to serve their community, they naturally gravitated towards working with youth, which led them to the residents of the Kuwait City orphanage. "These children really need attention from society; they need to know how important they are in this life," explained Jassim Al-Ganim '04. "They are very isolated from our 'real' world." A birthday party theme was decided upon and '04 alumni Dalal Al-Sharhan, Zaina Al-Musalam and Jassim Al-Ghanim led the organizing of the event. A party was planned for thirty-five residents between the ages six and ten. After doing some fundraising, the alumni formulated a budget and decided to include a DJ, cartoon characters, games, dinner, cake, and of course, presents! "Our main goal was to make them laugh and be happy," said Dalal. "We will work on giving them our attention and hopefully we will make a difference in their lives."

Alumni also invited the '07 YES cohort to participate to orient them to the idea of community service and to get to know them better. Nada Gaber, Amna Shire, Yousef Abulhassan, and Fatemah Al-Qabandi represented the '07 cohort at the event.

On the evening of March 26th , the alumni, the '07 cohort and AMIDEAST staff set out for the orphanage, where they received a warm welcome from the orphanage staff, who led the group on a tour of the center. Afterwards the students busied themselves with decorating the nearby park where the event was set to take place. When the children arrived, the alumni made an effort to meet each child and introduce themselves. At first, the visitors were perceived as strangers and the children "seemed to be out of control," said Dalal. "It was hard and sad for me to see those kids living without their parents." However, as the alumni continued to get to know the children their attitude changed;

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Dalal Al-Sharhan and a child from the orphanage enjoy the birthday party