The Power of a Good Turn

Safina and her teacher

At Hope Academy we have recently added the Scouts programme as one of our school clubs.  Having learnt the concept of  ‘a good turn’, 11-year-old Safina, Patrol Leader of Joy troop, decided to find an elderly person in the community to ‘be’ kindness to. 

Without telling anyone, Safina located the house of an 80-year-old widow called Norah.  Norah lives in a semi permanent house with a dirt floor. Her mattress is made of banana fibres. Safina found Norah trying to harvest some potatoes in her garden so she came alongside her and got straight to work helping her with the harvest. Safina then went in search of firewood and other vegetables and prepared her lunch. She cleaned, swept the compound, and cleaned the bedroom. Safina's kindness knew no boundaries; Safina noticed that the woman had overgrown fingernails and so she trimmed them for her. When Norah asked her why she had done these kind acts she said it was because of what she had learned at Scouts. We only found this out when the lady came looking for the school and told the teacher what had transpired.

When the rest of the troop heard of what their troop leader had done, they were so moved by Norah’s plight that they put their little money together went to Norah’s house bearing gifts. They bought 3 kilograms of sugar, 2 bars of soap, 3 sachets of salt, 4 sachets of tealeaves, 12 ripe tomatoes and 5 ball sweets. They then smoked out the pit latrine, slashed the bushy compound and garden, fetched water from a nearby well and boiled the water for drinking.

After they had sung and Norah had prayed for each child, she stood up with difficulty and then danced and danced and danced.

Written by Larissa Rwakasiisi