Rescued
Friday, April 8, 2011
by Bo Sanchez.
In my Soulfood Newsletter edition of March 17, I wrote about my spending much time with my kids Bene and Francis.
I urged all parent readers to pamper their kids with parental presence. Time. Bonding. Love.
Or be ready to pay the consequences later if they don't do so.
As if to drive home my point, our Tahanan ng Pagmamahal orphanage staff sent me some disturbing news.
News that made me feel even more the need to spend much time with my kids.
It's the news about Jenjen, our newest kid in the orphanage.
Jenjen (not her real name) is 8 years old, sick and malnourished, deeply wounded emotionally.
Sometime last year, her father abandoned her and her mom.
Her mom responded to the situation by giving Jenjen away.
Her mom went to Quezon City and asked a man, allegedly her cousin, to take care of Jenjen.
Then her mom went back to the province and has never been heard of again.
The "uncle" took care of Jenjen?
No, he made Jenjen take care of him. By forcing her to become a "professional" beggar.
Every morning, he would take her and other kids to a street-corner some 5 kilometers away.
And there Jenjen would spend the whole day begging from passers-by.
The man would then return in the evening to get her back.
And more importantly, her "earnings" for the day.
And he would beat her if she doesn't meet her "quota" for the day.
If he felt that Jenjen did not beg hard enough, or suspected that she skimmed some of the money, he would beat her brutally with his belt or a piece of stick. (The kid was only 8 years old.)
One day, she decided she had had enough. She ran away by boarding a jeep and landed in a far place. And she began living in the street, begging by day and sleeping in the sidewalk by night.
The cops eventually rescued her and turned her over to DSWD.
DSWD failed to locate her parents in the province. They suspected Jenjen just wouldn't tell them the truth on where her mom lived.
After a few months, DSWD turned her over to our Tahanan ng Pagmamahal orphanage.
When we accepted her, we subjected her to extensive medical exams and discovered she was suffering from TB.
With proper medication, good nutrition and safe shelter, physical healing will soon occur.
But emotional healing will take a longer time.
And time is something our orphanage in-house staff and social worker and volunteers are now giving Jenjen 24/7. We make her feel wanted, safe, important, loved.
We make her feel the love of Jesus.
May your dreams come true,
Bo Sanchez
PS. Thank you so much for making KerygmaFamily support our Tahanan ng Pagmamahal orphanage. Thank you for making KerygmaFamily support 9 other exciting ministries that share God's Love to thousands of people.
Labels: parental guidance, religious
posted by ronjiedotcom @ 12:21 PM,
0 Comments:
Post a Comment