Everyone loves children.
Babies with wide grins and googly noises delight everyone. Little girls exert their feminine charm all
around them. Excited little boys full
of hope with pockets full of rare treasures instill confidence that there will
be a future for mankind. Families love
these kids and God loves them too.
Not all children are that fortunate. Invisible children live around the
world. Maybe you never saw them, but
their tears of quiet desperation are real.
Around the world
Homeless children live in many places in America, victims of
the economy or their parents’ choices.
Children of migrant workers follow the crops with their families,
traveling from place to place to keep up with the growing season.
They also include the child widows of India and Nepal, and
orphan children in China. Children are afflicted with leprosy or AIDS, caught
in cruel civil wars, tote guns in an army, or slowly starve. You see their skeletal bodies and haunted
eyes on telethons for child help organizations. Some step on mines and lose limbs, so many suffering children
that no one sees. Many die before their
time, unseen.
China
Children orphaned in China are considered non-persons and
are invisible. No one sees them or
adopts them because they are not there.
Often raised in institutions, they are attended by insufficient staff,
which leads to neglect. Many starve for
human touch and stimulation. Some come
to live as orphans and grow up and die in the institution.
The lucky ones come to the attention of foreigners who adopt
them and give them a much better life.
Most do not and live desperate, wasted lives, never attending school,
never learning any skills, and never daring to hope.
India
According to several Internet sources, widows in India have
three choices. They can marry their
husband’s brother or live lives in social isolation and denial. The third choice is now illegal but still
happens rarely. They can throw
themselves on their husband’s funeral pyre.
These girls/women are often honored as saints.
Some child widows are as young as five, trapped in marriages
arranged by the families. They face a bleak future.
What can we do?
Everything we do
makes a difference. Cuddling a child or
rocking a baby in a hospital helps to meet his need for touch, basic to
survival. Praying for a child changes his life because prayer makes things
happen.
Touching a life, one life at a time, helps fulfill the Bible’s commandment to love one
another.
Other ways
- Sponsor a child through one of the organizations trying to save these little ones.
- Volunteer to help out in orphan homes overseas.
- Let Big Brothers and Sisters pair you up with a child for mentoring and fun on a weekly basis.
- Friend a child near you, perhaps that of a relative or neighbor.
- Schools often need volunteer tutors.
- Foster parents care for children abused, neglected, or abandoned by the parents.
- Consider adopting an “unadoptable child.” They still need loving homes.
Jesus loves the invisible children of the world. Will you
touch the life of one today? How about
tomorrow? A child is waiting.
Photos from Wikipedia Commons
First baby-Taxiarchos228
Street children of Kolkata
Woman with baby-Myles Grant
No comments:
Post a Comment