We would go and bring the children food and clothes; we tried to interact with them, play with them and encourage them – whatever we could manage at the time. Later on, we started bringing lots of friends and acquaintances to these centres; we tried to get involved and help out. Unfortunately, things didn’t always go as we’d expected, and we realised there was a certain mindset amongst the staff working in these children’s homes which we couldn’t, under any circumstances, change very much. 

 I realised that there were a great many street children out there – children who were forced to beg, children who didn’t know how to play, and who were always arguing. I really wanted to get involved in these children’s lives, and that’s how ‘The Miracle Among the Blocks’ began. We started gathering these children, buying them toys and playing with them. I spent a whole summer playing with the children amongst the blocks of flats. I taught them how to play, how to behave; we began to get to know one another, to interact, and to talk about certain aspects of life. It was a summer during which the children began to form ideas about their future; many of them had dropped out of school. As September drew near, I suggested we go to school, talk to the teachers, enrol them, buy them school supplies and start the new school year.