Janet: The story of an African child

In September, a good friend of mine and I were going to by a text book for one of our classes and we were catching up over what we had been up to over the summer. He is African by birth and I was telling him about how amazing how different the kids are there in comparison to here and he said something thats stuck with me, " It's because they have to deal with so much more and have way more responsibilities and by the time they are six they are full time mothers." That sentence has been in the back of my head for the past five months now and about two weeks ago I was looking over my photo's of a gazillion African babies and I found a series of photographs, of this 1 child, Janet that shows all the different dynamics of  children in Africa ( and other developing countries) and what makes them so special.

She has a strong face and a stronger personality.
 I met her at Plaster House after she came for surgery
where she became my friend and helper.

This is Janet, aged six. Here you see a little girl, happy and healthy as can be. 

Here you see a little girl who is scared, frightend,
 sad like many other children

Here you see a little girl who has seen far to much for her age, who has grown up fast, and who although she is young, she has probably had a tough life and her face shows it.

Here you see a little girl who cares for those younger than her with pride, and enthusiasm. When this picture was taken, my friend Maria had just finished reading the kids stories. Janet walked over, picked up the books and carried on leading the children in story time.

Here you see a little girl, being silly, cheeky. Like a child should be.

Finally, here you see a little girl, so happy and so content  with life and enjoying the simple pleasures.
Like she should be, like all children should be.

This is one of the many children who I met during my time in Tanzania, one of the may children I grew to love as my own, and one of the many children I will never see again.