Earlier this week, I did a quick post about a little girl I met at the Hotpec orphanage. I was so emotional at the time, it was all I could manage. On the plane home, I was able to write a more detailed account. Here it is…
Our visit to this second orphanage is almost too much to bear—91 abandoned children living in absolute squalor.
The babies are in one room, crammed into the few cots that are available. Most of them are docile and lethargic, many seem to shrink from human contact. I can’t tell if this is due to malnutrition or a conditioned response (probably a combination of both).
The rest of the children are separated into two small rooms, one for boys and one for girls. They sleep four to a bed, with no sheets, no electricity and, often, no food. I ask our friend, Ed, if he’d let his children sleep in these rooms. He wouldn’t let his dog in here.
In Cameroon, all children must pay to attend school, and this orphanage is continually trying to find ways to raise enough money to send all of their children to school. I find an older boy alone in his bed, trying to study in the twilight, desperate for an education, because he knows that is his only hope for a future. Twenty-seven of these children, some of them as young as five-years-old, walk one hour to and from school every day.
By 6:30 p.m., the area is submerged in complete darkness. The headmaster is hoping that electricity will help protect against two main threats of the orphanage: poisonous animals, mainly snakes, that come into the rooms at night; and the men who lurk in the jungle, waiting for nightfall and their chance to either rape the children or steal them to be sold as sex slaves.
Meals are cooked in a barn that is more of a shack, and this is where I find the girl. She’s scraping old rice and dirt from a bowl and spooning it hungrily into her mouth. Back in Canada, my four-year-old daughter is considered fairly small for her age and this girl is the same size, although she’s likely a few years older because of the malnutrition.
I pick her up as I would my daughter, but this little girl is much more delicate and fragile than any child I’ve held. I can actually feel the lack of density in her bones. She clings to me, craving human interaction and reveling in my touch. Something about this little girl pierces my heart and speaks to my soul. I can’t put her down, even when Ryan comes to get me, telling me it’s time to go. She begs me to keep holding her and I’m in tears as I drag myself into the Helix to leave. I do not want to be that person. The one who abandons her, again.
Thanks Treana, now you’ve gone and made me cry. My heart aches with yours for I wish I could take all the abandoned children of the world and show them the love and affection that they deserve as well as make sure they have an education, food to eat, a safe place to play, a warm place to sleep, and give them the opportunity to grow and thrive. It hasn’t been easy for me to read these posts but I have managed to read every one of them and wished I was right there with you and the others to try and make it even a fraction better for these children. From one mother to another, thank you for loving ALL the children and trying to make their lives that much better. My heart swells with pride knowing that there is a woman like you out there actually making a difference for these kids. You are one woman that those children will never forget.