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Editorial
Almost every edition of the International Anglican Family Network Newsletter provides a moving tribute to the courage, tenacity and resilience of children all around the world. But the stories told in this edition present us with a picture of some the most extreme circumstances imaginable. We learn of children fending for themselves in the face of disease and danger, not only without adequate material necessities, but also without the love and emotional support that all human beings need to thrive.
It is important to know that, instead of being overwhelmed by the numbers of children involved, there are people who move from anger to action. Often with desperately limited resources, and at great personal cost, they are reaching out to children whose previous experience of adults has been painful and terrifying.
The provision of refuges for children who have been living on the streets, including health care and education, demonstrate the practical power of Christian love. Some of the articles, like the one from Estonia, tell of how work with abandoned children in one part of the world is supported by churches in wealthier countries. But it is important to remember that children are abandoned in significant numbers in countries that have not been affected by war, poverty and political upheaval in recent times, as the articles from Scotland and England illustrate.
In addition to the care shown by the committed Christians who help children in great need, it is also very moving to learn of the care that children show to each other. Older children try to care for younger brothers and sisters, and street-gang members look out for each other if they can. The runaways from Cidade de Meninos in Brazil returned with another child from the streets. “They had felt sorry for him.” Compassion is not the prerogative of Christian adults alone.
It worth noting how many of the projects written about are collaborating with the civil authorities where this is possible, so that experiences can be shared and resources pooled. There is another theme running through this edition: the growing awareness of the possibility of fostering and adoption for many children. Particularly in Eastern Europe, changing political culture has helped to encourage changes in patterns of caring for abandoned children. Perhaps this is a further reminder of why Christians are called to engage with the wider societies in which they live.
It is hard to read the articles in this Newsletter without thinking of those parents who have been compelled to abandon their children. Many of the children described have not been orphaned, but are alone because their parents are unable to care for them. As Dr Irena Genyte, the Director of Kudishkiai Namai in Lithuania says, “many of the mothers grew up in Children’s homes themselves and so find it normal to leave a child in one”. In Papua New Guinea, as elsewhere, the social stigma of having a baby out of wedlock or as a result of rape can be too much for a mother to cope with. Jeanette Kasai Oala writes, "In the case of babies abandoned because they were conceived as a result of rape, most women even after counselling may still reject the baby because seeing the baby will remind them of the trauma they have experienced.” Elsewhere, the ravages of war have split families up forever. There are hundreds of thousands of abandoned children around the world. There must also be hundreds of thousands of parents who lost their children. Let us remember them too.
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