A twelve year old boy living in the slums, Paul* (name changed) spends much of his day begging and collecting garbage to help supplement his family’s income. He lives in a small shanty house with both parents and four siblings. His mom collects garbage for a living and his father is an abusive drunk and drug addict.
Paul and his older sister Sarah* (name changed) are in the class I am teaching. Sarah is one of the brightest students in our class, and although Paul is rather rambunctious and mischievious, he has an innocence and playfulness that demonstrates the typical character of a twelve-year-old boy. But the children of this family have dark secrets that like so many of the other children in this organization and country, are tearing them apart.
It has recently come out through our teammates who are working with the community nurse, that the two year old and five year old sisters have been molested. After talking with the five year old girl, this molestation is commonplace and is occurring from her brother Paul and his friend. Paul is only twelve years old. But Paul himself is a victim, as this was done to him years ago by an older child. Paul is simply doing what he has been taught, with unspeakable consequences for the girls and himself. It is a vicious cycle of abuse that must stop.
This is what I mean when I say we are working with at-risk children. Not only are these children at an incredibly high risk for being trafficked due to the lack of supervision, but also because traffickers often come with money in hand or promises of jobs for the children, thus leaving the parent with one less mouth to feed and a lump sum of money. But the biggest tragedy is that like this one family, too many of these children are already being sexually abused and exploited in their neighborhoods and even in their own home.
My teammates working with the nurse have done much to help this family so far through abundant prayer, written reports, meetings with social workers, and trying to provide a safe environment for these children through counseling for the parents and for Paul. But my heart still breaks for this family and for all the other stories that I don’t know. My heart breaks when I see eagerness to learn but no environment to cultivate that motivation. And I get angry and want to cry all at the same time when I see innocence and life stolen from beautiful children.
