When I was taking donations for my project, some people told me that it would be hard to give because they didn’t believe that the children would be the direct beneficiaries of our support. They were inclined to think that the caretakers would loot the items. These opinions are valid. I used to think like that too.
I had my awakening when we visited the orphanage. The state of the facility and the state of the kids could drive you to tears. These are kids from all walks of life, brought together by someone’s vision. They are being taken care of by people who have a like-vision and also need to earn a living.
If you think these kids are regular, you are highly mistaken. There is a dynamic to each one of them. A but or however. Many of them motivated me because regardless of their circumstances, they had all the energy and joy in the world, I believe. Stubborn, witty, intelligent, smart, beautiful, funny, you name it.
Then I thought about the caretakers again. How were they dealing with the chaos? Who was keeping their mental health in check? Are they being paid well? Do they have enough training to handle these kids, some of whom are disabled? I would not dispel the fact that there may be some bad nuts among them but listen, you have to applaud them, for taking care of children who are not their own but may seem to be theirs.
Take out these caretakers for just a day, and you will experience a full day’s disaster in that orphanage. At the end of it all, what can we do to help? Ours is to keep giving out of love to them so that they can also give out of love to these kids. Ours is to hope and pray so they never forget that they have a charge to keep. One day, when you can, visit an orphanage. You will not return the same.
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