Every Child Has a Story - Dennis' Report

EFREIANUS LAIA is seven. His mother died two years ago. He has two younger sisters. The one who is about two has deformed arms and legs. She has never sat up. She will never crawl. This is possibly because her mother would never have seen a doctor during her pregnancy and her diet would have been very lacking. Efre's father leaves the children unattended in the house when he works in the fields. On the advice of the those who have experience, we have restricted the ages of those we accept to 6-12. Efre is the one in this family who qualifies. In June we walked down a jungle path and waded a river to go to their house, in such bad repair there is no way a person can be in it during a rain and not get wet. It is propped up with poles at a 45 degree angle, so it won't collapse. I took him a plastic toy truck and some candy. He had never even had candy before......remember he's seven. As we walked back out to our motorcycles I asked those with us if I was correct in thinking that when Efre got sick he would never see a spoonful of medicine or a pill. They said “yes”. With us were two university students who live in our dorms. They are not from the poorest of the poor families but they are from villages. I asked them how many children had died in their families. How many siblings. One said 2 and one said 6. Efre has come to Jochebed's Choice.

SUPERMAN WAU is also seven. Superman is his name, not a nickname. He is the fifth of nine children. His father is dead and his mother is irresponsible. She is gone from home two weeks at a time, returning to change clothes before she leaves again. The oldest child is 16. He is already gone from home trying to make his own way and support himself. A 14 year old boy is the “functioning” head of the family. They eat “what they can, when they can”. Hopefully we can provide several years of growth, education and nurturing for Superman. Fifteen or twenty years from now he will possibly be carrying the weight of his brothers and sisters on his shoulders. He will be the one given opportunities the others didn't have. Could his mother do better by her children? I surely think so. Has the strain of facing her nine children daily knowing she can't feed them, can't ever take them to a doctor and can't send them to school become too much for her? Someone might say, “If they can't feed all these children, they shouldn't have them.” Of course that is right. But they are here now. We can't take all the kids in this family under our wing, but we can take one. I want to be Superman's superman.

OKHIZATULO is eleven. His father died. His mother remarried. Then his mother died. Then his stepfather remarried. The stepfather and stepmother have their own children. In a family where, at best, only some get enough to eat and a chance to go to school, where do you think Sokhi is going to rank............a stepchild of both step-parents?

The above is from Dennis' latest Nias Report. If you want to see a full copy of it, click on the "comment" button below this article or send me an email and I'll email you a copy of it. Photos will be attached.