Imagine your life as a child of 10. Imagine you live with your extended family of twelve in a one-room dirt-floor wooden shack. Imagine that at night you share a twin-sized metal cot with your younger brother and sister. Imagine that only one of the adults in this family has a steady job, so there is never enough money to feed everyone every day. Imagine you don’t have the money to buy a pencil you need to study, so you have to drop out of school. Imagine that your father is an alcoholic who disapears for days and when he comes back he hits you. Imagine that your mother, who gave birth to you when she was 14, abandoned you and your younger brother and sister with your paternal grandmother, who is diabetic and can’t afford medications. Imagine life without water every day, without electricity at night, without a toothbrush, much less toothpaste. A life without books. Imagine a life where you are responsible for your younger brother and sister – washing their clothes, walking them to school, making sure they don’t cry.
Imagine that you are always hungry.
Would you beg?
Would you steal?
Would you become a prostitute?
Would you sniff glue if it meant you could forget all your troubles?
Would you dream of something else?
.
Here is where you are born:
Here is your home:
. Here is your bed… if you are lucky:
. Here is your bed if you are unlucky:
. Here is where you bathe:
. Here is your toilet:
. Here is your front door: . Here is your playground:
. And now there is a place where children with these lives can come for a better life.
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