Friday, May 1, 2009

Heaven and Hell

Before, I spoke of one of my favourite places in the world: Tuleeni Orphanage. The children have nothing except each other, but that is all they need. They are happy. They are loved, and on the couple days a week when I am able to go there, it is always the highlight of my day. This post will be dedicated to contrasting Tuleeni with the other orphanage associated with CCS: Upendo.

The word upendo in Swahili means love, yet nothing could be a more false representation what is actually practiced at this orphanage. Unlike Tuleeni, the building is amazing – there is adequate space for all the children, each has their own crib, there is a room for playing, a room for eating, a room for sleeping, a courtyard, a playground, murals painted on the walls, an adequate amount of workers and a large bin of toys. Yet, I have never been to an unhappier place in my entire life.

The orphanage is run by a group of nuns who declare themselves The Precious Blood Sisters of Upendo on the sign outside the building, as well as several workers who, for the most part, were once orphans themselves. The unhappiness begins with the corporal punishment. They beat the children with sticks. These children are all younger than 8-years-old, with the majority under the age of 4. The children are hit for reasons that I cannot even begin to comprehend. For example, one day at Upendo, for no reason at all, the workers decided that the boys were not allowed to go into the playroom. The children were lined up against the wall and asked to sit down. They were made to sit there, on the cement floor with their backs against the wall for hours with no explanation; if they moved, readjusted their position, or talked, they were beaten.

The children are not potty trained. They are not provided with diapers, which, to be fair, is not that uncommon here. The issue is that the children are beaten for wetting themselves. These are 2-year-olds. If they do pee themselves, they are forced to remain in their wet clothes, despite having the luxury, unlike most of the children at Tuleeni, to actually have other sets of clothing. The workers’ way of dealing with this situation, instead of making an effort to potty train the children, is to try and stop them from peeing all together, thus, the children are not given water. They do not understand the ramifications of severe dehydration, especially at such a young age. The children are so thirsty that, sometimes if a child pees on the floor, others will try and drink the urine.

Two weeks ago there was an incident with one of the baby girls who had a very severe ear infection. She is one of the cutest, most precious children I have ever seen. She screamed constantly. She had a fever, her ear was noticeably swollen and red, yet the Sisters refused to take action beyond consulting the on-staff nurse, saying she was fine, yelling at her to stop crying. She was administered painkillers, but nothing to cure the raging infection. They would shove q-tips in her ears while she was screaming, saying they were cleaning it out. Finally, one of the girls who is placed at Upendo intervened and took along the doctor we have volunteering at CCS to examine her. To the best of my knowledge, she is healthy now.

Intervention by CCS and Upendo is not well received. Many of you may be reading this wondering why the hell we haven’t taken drastic action against this cruelty. We are volunteers, there is nothing keeping them from simply saying CCS volunteers are no longer welcome at Upendo. Then, nothing would ever change. It cannot be something that is dealt with by us telling the nuns and workers what to do. It needs to come from a very respected Tanzanian source, and it needs to be long term. The volunteer who is placed there now is outlining a careful, calculated plan to change Upendo. We are all praying to God it works.

The children at Upendo rarely smile. They have adequate resources, yet they are incredibly unhappy. They may have basic needs; they may have toys and their own bed, but they are not loved. When we think of ‘the lucky kid’ from our childhood, we think of the kid who had the cool toys and the good food in their lunch. We think of the kid who wore the nice clothes, and drove the electric powered mini jeep. Yet, that kid was probably not the lucky kid. What every child needs, more than any toy or outfit, is love. What would make every child happy is the care that is give at Tuleeni, not the materials given at Upendo.

2 comments:

  1. Thank you, Graeme. Dealing with "unfortunate" children (by our over-privileged Canadian standards), I still need that reminder - that all kids, regardless of their situation or behaviour, sometimes simply just need love.

    Dad

    ReplyDelete
  2. It is hard to imagine the cruelty of people, yet it constantly happens. It breaks my heart to know of such things going on in this so called civilized world. I too will pray for change for the better and quickly. Love Grandma

    ReplyDelete