Most people think that orphanages are these big "group homes" filled with nannies that love the orphans, plenty of food, and toys to go around, warm blankets, nice beds. In reality this is nothing close to the truth. In Eastern Europe orphanages are a hell on earth, the kids are starved, malnourished, beaten, and ignored, there are no toys, no food, no blankets, no nice beds, no love, but instead soiled diapers, blistered bottoms, orphanage staff that beat the kids, and some even find joy in hurting this innocent voiceless kids. You think I'm joking? Maybe you think I'm making this up? I'm not. This blog post, that I talked about above? Has a video of one of the orphanage's staff, or maybe even their director, whipping these children that looked to about 7 or 8.
As she relentlessly whipped these children, she laughed and smile with each scream. I made it through about 40 seconds of this video, before my heart was no more. Faces repeatedly flipped through my head, my heart beating so fast, a pain in my chest that was from anger, and sadness, helplessness, and anxiety. Hundreds of thousands of children, being abused, beaten and neglected, day in and day out, and their abuser laughing with joy as these children pleaded with their screams, hoping she would stop, and there is absolutely nothing I could do. I wanted to jump through my phone, and wrap my arms around those precious kids, protect them from the evil woman that was so relentlessly hurting them!
I still can't get those 40 seconds out of my head. How twisted do you have to be, to turn around and laugh into the lens of a camera as you are beating innocent children? Children that have no voice, they can't speak up, or run for help. I pray that God would change the hearts of people like those.
This still leaves me wondering, what can I do? How can I give these children a voice? How can we Chosen To Bless give these children hope, and a way out of the hell the currently live in? There are hundreds of advocates that are rallying together, finding families, funding families, building these children's grants, blogging/praying for these kids, but it doesn't change the now. While we rally and raise money, the kids are still beat daily, they are still starved, and cold, neglected. But the grand thing is that God says:
"O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted;
you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear
to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed,
so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more."
Psalm 10:17-18
That verse shows us that one day, those kids who have been beaten, neglected, and hated will have justice brought into their lives. They will be rescued, and there will be no more hurt, their abusers will no longer be able to strike terror on this earth. With God's help, we will rescue these little ones.
You are probably wanting to know what blog post I am talking about, I will link it in the bottom of the post. But I warn you, your heart will no longer be whole, it's a heart wrenching video, but I feel that everyone needs to see it, even if only 40 seconds.
Although it's heart wrenching I feel that it's important for everyone to watch. I think that not everyone understands just how horrible orphanages are, I don't think they quite understand that innocent children, are forced to live in these conditions, these kids, they have no choice.
Kids like Della, live in those kinds of conditions, and soon Mick will too. Mick turns 4 in July of 2014, he will be transferred to an institution, where he will have to fight for his precious life.
I'm not sure what else to say, my heart hurts, and I hope that once you have watched the video you will be moved to do something. Don't turn away, and shrug it off, these are real kids, real problems, that are happening today, right now, and you always have the opportunity to do something about it.
The video is at the end of this blog post.
-Alyssa
