I remember one story in particular, from many years ago. It has always stuck in my mind. A very sickening story of two parents treating one child better than the other; the younger was blessed with their love and affection, while they locked the older one in a closet. He was forced to eat the lead scraps of the inside to stay alive. These are very vivid examples which remind us of what is really going on out there.
I read a short summary of a book by Reverend Donald H. Dunson, entitled, "No Room at the Table-. In this book, he discusses the hardships of the children in different regions. While I did not get a chance to obtain the book, I learned that the book highlighted the lives of the children, from different parts of the world, by telling about their daily work and sufferings. The children's habitats ranged from Sudan, to right here in the U.S. "Overwhelmed by poverty, war, hunger, and separation from family, they are not allowed to be children. They carry guns, they sell themselves to buy food, they live on the streets.""# This is such an emotionally-stirring statement. To ponder children as young as seven and eight, having the same worries that the average adult in the U.S. is very disheartening. .
After September Eleventh of 2001, when the troops rumbled down into Afghanistan and were first encountered by children holding guns towards them, we were all shocked. My question is Should we have been? If you look at everything that's happening, we don't treat children here any better in many instances. There, it was alarming, being that it was more vividly portrayed as a problem due to the fact that the children were placed in the same shoes as our own U.S. soldiers, grown men and women.
In a smaller example of child welfare, hard-working parents do not have the adequate resources for their children when it comes to after-school programs and care. The city's programs have a waiting list that one staff member said is four to five years long.
