"On 12 January 2010, the central region of Haiti was devastated by the strongest earthquake the country had experienced in more than 200 years. Over 220,000 people were killed, 300,000 were injured and 1.6 million were displaced and forced to seek shelter in spontaneous settlements. Children, who make up nearly half the country's total population, have suffered acutely in the earthquake's aftermath. UNICEF estimates that half of those displaced are children, and 500,000 children are considered extremely vulnerable and require child protection services. Almost a quarter (23 per cent) of Haiti's population is between the ages of 10 and 19, and their situation was extremely difficult even before the earthquake." (Unicef-2011 State of the Worlds Children Report)
The latest reports show that there are over 143 million orphans worldwide. With recent devastating events around the globe that number is sure to rise. For a child that lacks the care and protection of a parent, life is incredibly frightening and dangerous, these natural disasters make it even more so.
Children lack the ability to affect change in their environment, they lack understanding, they are weaker, more fragile, have no money, they lack the voice or power to control. Cold, hunger, pain, and fear are felt so much more keenly by a child. What happens today is their entire existence; the future and the rest of the world do not hold meaning in their reality and cannot bring them comfort. Many more dangers threaten their lives than those of adults in the same situation.
Children are easy victims and fall prey to the most devastating atrocities. A child living on the streets must be constantly on guard against those who would like to exploit them in their vulnerable condition.
Unicef documents that children living without the protection of an adult, are many times more likely to be forced into gang activity that includes drugs and violence, captured and enslaved as a child soldier, sold into the human trafficking business which includes slavery and prostitution, and many other evils that are difficult to track and document. These children lack the basic human rights to health, safety and an education. They are robbed of their childhood and hope for a future.
The faces we see on the television are not just commercials; they are not propaganda used to get into our pocketbooks. They are real people, with real names. The circumstances that led to their current condition were forced upon them, they did not choose it. But we can choose what our response to it will be. They may be geographically distant, but in Gods eyes they are our neighbor. What does He want us to do? If we are His body, we are made for motion. Our hearts must be touched, our eyes open, our minds engaged for action. Our commission is clear, to touch the weak and the lonely. But nothing can be done unless we are willing to be moved.
A father of the fatherless and a judge for the widows, is God in His holy habitation. God makes a home for the lonely: He leads out the prisoners into prosperity, only the rebellious swell in a parched land. Psalm 68:5-6
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