The children

I have only a little over a week left here at the orphanage before I leave for Kigali and then Uganda.  It has gone amazingly fast.  How was I ever worried about my ability to be away for so long?  Now, it doesn’t seem like near enough time.    

I’m still in awe of the children here.  There are many challenges—the crappy diet, the tattered clothes, the probably less than adequate schooling—especially when they are being taught in a language that they barely know--and of course, the lack of a true family unit.  But yet, although the diet is heavy carbs and low on protein, they certainly aren’t getting the processed foods and genetically modified mutations that we consume.  They make the best of their clothes and the teenagers even share like every other teenager across the world.  The value their education and study hard.  The all talk about University. And they truly love and look after each other.    

And they are happy.  As I have written about before, they sing and smile all the time.  I have an endless supply of hugs—not just from the babies but from the older kids as well.  There is a certain innocence about them that is so endearing that you want them to keep it forever.    While it is not a perfect life, it is much, much, better than I expected.

And the government wants to take it all away. 

The rumor is that they want to close all orphanages by the end of the year.  At least one and maybe two have already been closed.  I found the strategic plan of the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion and there is not one word about it in there, so it is suspected that it is a presidential edict of some sort.  (don’t think for a second that this is a democracy as we know it).  There were a few articles about the policy in the press last fall and now the talk has started up again and being heard by the kids on the radio. 

The plan is to place the children with their extended families if they have one.  The problem is that to date, these families have not stepped up to care for them and there is a real and legitimate fear that they will be mistreated if they are returned.  Not to mention that many of them cannot afford another mouth to feed.  For those that do not have extended families, they are looking at something similar to the American foster care program.  I will leave my views on that system out of this and just let you form your own opinion on how that might or might not work.

Of course, the orphanage has received no official word from the government.  Our current plan is to write a letter to the minister to ask if we can receive more details and also to see what the criteria is to select the two orphanages that we have heard they will keep open.   It is also hard to believe that they can accomplish this all in a year, so we will see.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the policy will be re-evaluated or reversed (Kagame has done that a couple of times in the past) as there are so many people that have invested so much to help these kids and there are so many good plans to help them in the future.   

And they deserve it.