Where Do The Children Go? Part 2

In a previous post, I asked where African children orphaned due to HIV/AIDS and those abandoned go when extended families are unable to provide for them. Most countries to not have a formal child welfare system set up that facilitates fostering or adoption. As a result, there are a plethora of children relegated to street life.
I was made aware of this problem almost two years ago, while in Kampala. Today, governments are finally making strides to address the problem at hand, which has been intentionally and unquestionably ignored for years.
This article highlights a similar issue I witnessed at Sanyu Babies Home, where many infants are abandoned because they are born to young or poor mothers who are unable or unwilling to take care of them. More children than one might imagine are found abandoned on the side of the road or in pit latrines when they are less than a week old.
Luckily, there are babies' homes set up to care for them, but once they grow into toddlers, there are very few institutionalized structures set up to absorb the number of orphans and abandoned children in these regions.
This issue is compounding, especially since most children are being left without homes and families because of poverty and HIV/AIDS, two seemingly endless cycles.
For children who are able to be reunified with their families, Cameroon has set up rehabilitation and vocational training programs. However, there are thousands more who are abandoned and orphaned as infants and can not be reunified. In a growing world with shifting family structures and accepted responsibilities, it is time for African nations to address the needs of orphans and recognize that villages are no longer willing to raise children and extraneous options need to be considered and established.

Babies, Babies, and more Babies!

Today, we visited the Sanyu Babie's Home, where orphaned babies are cared for until the age of 2. This has been by far the best experience. I went to the nursery and fed the newborn baby, Hilda. She was 2 and a half months old, but looked about 5 lbs. She was so fragile. The staff jokingly said I looked like I was afriad to break her, but I was! Each child had their own story. Some had been left in the bushes, trash cans, latrines, doorsteps, anywhere they could be abandoned. The worst story heard was Duncan's. This little boy had been abandoned by this 17-year-old mother, who had been raped by her brother. His mother refused to take care of him so they brought him to the home. I wanted to take all the babies home with me. There was a great deal of love in the orphanage, but once they turned 2, their futures would become uncertain. Most of the children were boys because in Ugandan culture, they were the hardest to care for. Poor families knew they could not afford the dowries associated with their impending marriages so they abandoned them. It's very sad that people could feel so hopeless that they abandon a child on the basis of an even happening decades into the future.
We also went to the slums of Namuwongo Zone B. It was bad. The area was overcrowded and littered with feces and other waste. As we walked through the projects a plethora of children joined our group and tugged on my white groupmates in hopes of recieving money. They had already been taught to associate whites with salvation and completely ignored me and the other black group members. They were also smart enough to realize that we were not physically equipped to deal with the extreme waste in their community. Whenever someone would accidentally step in feces the children would quickly run to wipe their shoes, even though they themselves were walking barefoot. However, beyond the squaller, poverty, and abandonedment these children faced daily, it was their numbers that was indigestable. Each family had at least four children and they continued having them despite their inability to care for them. The children were left hopeless and the cucle of hopelessness continued to transcend generations. My fervor for education has been renewed. At some point the children need to be equipped to learn to care for themselves and educate others in their community. Their environment is no way for children to live!