Child Advocacy

Vic was born and brought up in a third-world home environment where surviving was for the fittest. He has lived to wonder whether an opportunity would ever come to him to get out of such a cruel situation. He did not apply to be born.  It was not by mistake either that he is here. Vic desired education but it was far from him; he desired a decent home environment but that was like a dream.   Better health and feeding on a proper diet was beyond the family reach. Social life was excluded in the family circle. Behind Vic eight other miserable kids hung on. Nature controlled family population by claiming some children  for the graveyard. Helpless parents comforted themselves at pots of local brew that became blankets and beds for their cold nights. Children  spent nights on empty stomachs. The situation was beyond imagination. Vic was not experienced enough to join the other miserable and helpless gangs. Staying holy without a priest was impossible. At  an early age Vic was lonely and confused. The best drink was a drop of tears and the best food heaps of disappointments spiced with torment. Oh! No! Why all this! With desperate hope, Vic still awaits an opportunity.   You may be his only hope.

I would like to request that you  read the following.  Where possible share with a friend and devise ways and means as to how these wanting situations can be bridged. If the bridging does not occur then we shall be creating a world of troubles and endless conflicts.

Experience has taught me that most children-in-need (CHIN) grow into people-in-need (PIN) who in turn keep the society undeveloped. Most of these societies-in-need (SIN) love to dwell in cities and urban centres for reasons best known only to them. In most cases these wanting beings end up in jails, having beatings, or all sorts of mistreatment from society and even lose their lives. They have to fend for themselves.

The well-to-do fellows dwelling in luxury homes, driving  luxury  vehicles, dressed in the most expensive attire heap piles of money in banks and own expansive acres of farming lands, have not realized that the trouble may arise from CHIN-PIN-SIN community which has been neglected. One philosopher said: Yes, you have treasured all those riches and kept a deaf ear to the needy.  What if your life is taken away tonight?  Whose

will the riches be? The answer may seem simple: "My children's."  Remember the CHIN, will they live to see your children enjoy the riches? Is it as simple as you think? How I wish they had benefited from your riches and support. By not helping them creates a gap between you and them thus creating opportunities to have the fruit of your hard labour violently taken from your family.

The children who could have been national leaders or prominent citizens of tomorrow continue to exist under pressure.  They have  worries, harsh conditions, miserable cold nights and fear of having no clothes. Yet relentlessly this young blood struggles on.

It has been observed that disease, poverty, sexual and child abuse are day-to-day experiences that these children face. Denied education they remain trapped in a cocoon of poverty.  Children lack refuge save the urban slums, old cars, and street accommodation. Shaped and dressed for street life, the children learn to survive.  They continue to live with cruelty, suffering and brutality.  The children are suffering for the deeds of their parents that may have caused a gap between their lives instead of bridging it.

Guilty or innocent, have you demanded of yourself an explanation as to why these children are in the condition in which you see them?

Let us put ourselves into their situation. Throw a light on their pain, pressure and the forces that have lead them to accept the outside (street) life as their sanctuary. Who is to blame for shutting them out? Should we re-open the doors for them and receive them from the cold and insecurity? Or is it our business?