While I'm not the best writer in the world, and most definitely not the best blogger, I will keep on putting words to paper in an effort to help these children.
Children who through no fault of their own have been thrown onto the garbage pile, left to exist rather than live.
Children who live in misery.
While we go about our daily lives, these kids waste away behind locked doors.
While most of us take for granted the 3 meals a day, the warm home, the loving hugs - these children spend their days laying down in a crib, locked away where no-one can see them.
Once these kids are moved from the baby orphanage, they are thrown into the chaos of an adult institution, where it truly is a survival of the fittest situation.
Non mobile children - and even those who CAN get around, but cause too much trouble - are confined to their crib.
Children who cannot feed themselves are fed by short staffed caregivers, who bottle feed these kids a concoction that is poured down their throat via a slit in an oversized nipple.
Children who have problems swallowing get very little nutrition, as most of what they are fed is brought back up - they slowly starve to death.
Children with physical disabilities such as cerebral palsy spend their days in their cribs with no stimulation. They do not receive much needed physical therapy, so their muscles atrophy, and their limbs stiffen.
They do not get an education. They do not have toys.
They literally spend their days doing nothing - between feedings, they lay in their cribs.
If they are sick, they suffer.
If they are in pain, or hungry, or lonely, or bored, they have learned that crying is a waste of energy. They lay silent.
Their teeth rot.
They lay on their own waste, with their diapers being changed once or twice a day. Often times, disposable diapers are reused, as the places these children exist in do not get enough funding for much needed supplies. Even the most loving of caregivers can only provide the bare necessities, when they have far too many children to care for.
Have I seen this with my own eyes ? No. I have, however, read many many first hand accounts of people who have adopted from these places.
I have seen the children brought home, and the transformation that happens once they have love, food, therapy and education.
I have seen, in the past few days, pictures of children who have been transferred to an adult institution. Children who, when still at the baby orphanage, were doing OK. They were better taken care of, receiving adequate nutrition, and even the opportunity to play and interact with others.
Please - take a look at these photos - see the change in their eyes, see how the life has been sucked out of them.
The first picture is from the baby orphanage.
The second after transfer to the adult institution.
SEE THEM.
This last one - this hurts the most.
Sealey.
I am Sealey's "Guardian Angel".
I am supposed to be shouting for him - last year I helped raise money for his adoption grant in the Reece's Rainbow Christmas campaign.
I am failing him.
We hadn't had an update about him in forever, and I will admit, I feared the worst.
I thought he would show up on the "In Loving Memory" page, which lists those children that have died before being adopted.
However - he is still alive.
I SHOULD be rejoicing that he has been found, and his profile updated after all these years.
This was Sealey, before transfer.
This is Sealey now.
He is 12 years old.
Sealey needs OUT.
He needs a family to see him and rescue him - they will truly be saving his life.
Please help me share Sealey and the other children listed here.
They are just a handful of many many children who need rescuing from deplorable conditions.
You can go to Reece's Rainbow, to see hundreds and hundreds of children of all ages who are looking for an adoptive family.
You can click on any of the names above, and you will be taken to that child's profile.
You can go HERE to donate directly to a grant pool that will help fund the adoption of older children, including Sealey.
Please do something - anything - to get the word out about these children - to get them seen by possible adoptive families.
Please - for Sealey - for all of these children - please share, donate, pray.
Before it's too late - do SOMETHING !!
