The children

There is a database of all the children, which I have been looking through. It gives background information on them, and reading through it is really sad. There are a number of children whose father ran out on the family and then the mother committed suicide. There is one child whose father is a missionary and left his son behind. There is one child whose parents died in the tsunami, and there are no papers on her so her birthday is just an estimate. There is a girl whose father died and her mother started seeing someone else and just left her on the street. Also, there is a whole contingent of kids from Manipur (region of India next to Burma) who have been at the orphanage for seven years. There is a militia there that kidnaps people and forces them to join, and there is a whole underground hiding from being kidnapped. In the underground, there are a lot of intravenous drugs and AIDS and kids whose parents have been kidnapped. These kids were rescued from that.

It is really sad to hear their backgrounds, but at the center it’s all smiling faces. It’s really uplifting to see these kids going to school, studying, getting regular meals, and playing together.