Who will protect the children????

Today I was again confronted with the suffering of children, done by their family members or caretakers and it upset me so much. In the blog of september 22, I wrote the story about Cecila. When we came out of church on Sunday, Cecilia was standing next to our car, she wanted to come with us. I asked her if she was back with her mother and she confirmed that. She looked good and the scars on her legs were healed, there were no new ones. But I just couldn't take her with me. She cried! Then yesterday, Simon and the Probation officer (child protection) went to follow up on Betty. Her picture is here and Iwrote her story in the blog of October 3. The plaster is taken from her arm, they came to Soroti the day after we met her. But the bottemline is that the mother now wants to use Betty to get things, as a source of income. That is not good, Simon went to the police, because the mother lives with her children outside. The fathers of her two children are known, they should at least help with a small house. We will folllow up, but this is not an easy story.

Then today, we were called by the police. There was a boy of 5 years in the Hospital whose legs were badly broken, by the first husband of his mother (not the father of the boy) The mother took the boy to the hospital, but she was pregnant and her baby was born. now she sits next to the bed of the boy, with her newborn baby. She has nothing with her and her relatives didn't come to help her. Please if we could help with some basic things. We went to visit her, the boy lays with his leg in traction and the mother and the baby next to the bed on the floor. I am glad we could help this lady and the boy. Then at the end of the afternoon, the police lady came to Amecet with a small boy (maybe 8 years?) Neighbours brought the boy to the police station. The boy comes from Karemoja, a District north of Teso, where there is a famine and the mother of the boy had brought this boy, with two other children to their sister, who lives in Soroti and is married with a Teso man. But the husband of the sister beats this boy every day and the neighbours were very concerned for the boy. The boy is now in Amecet and the police will investigate the case tomorrow, The boy had not eaten the whole day, he came on the right day to us, because Wednesday is Chickenday!!!

This evening I was just so sad about all those cases, who will protect them, when even their own relatives hurt them? I looked at my own little family and I am so thankful that God brought us together, otherwise they also, might not have been alive today. But who will look after Betty, Cecila, the two boys from today and all the others, out there? Sometimes, I feel we just put a bandage on the wound, for some we were able to really chang their situation, but others will go back to their old situation, you hope than that the relatives have learned their lesson.