As we visited the centers today, I was frankly lulled into a sense that while these people are significantly poorer than we are, things weren't so bad for many of these kids. They seemed so happy. Then we had the opportunity to visit the homes of some of the kids from the Refugio. Squaller would be several steps up the ladder for these kids. You can see some of the pictures of the some of the places we saw. Whole living spaces (most of us wouldn't call them that) smaller than one of my children's bedrooms, occupied by 4 or 5 or 6 kids and 1 or 2 or 3 adults. The last time I saw anything close to this was not in Detroit or New York or Washington, but was in Cairo, Egypt. These were places where children as young as 10 were left alone at night to deal with infant siblings. One boy, 12 was heading out to try to wash cars for some money. He will ride the last bus home tonight, after I've gone to sleep, and will get up tomorrow to go to school. What you help provide in this place is a gift of God for children who truly have nothing but the clothes you sent to them. If you have every wondered if your life had made a difference no matter how small, I can speak to the fact that it has.
Your stories are both inspiring and at the same time sad. Sad because children must live in such poverty. Inspiring because I choose to look at this as a "Glass half full". We CAN and ARE doing much to improve the lives of these children. We can do MORE, not because we should, but because we can.
ReplyDeletePeace,
Bill