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Family struggling to survive before ICC rescued them (Nov 2005)
Just
$1
a day...
can change
a life.
This is the story of a boy 7 years old; his little sister, 4 years old; and his little brother, 3 years old.
Their father was killed in the jungle by an elephant. Their mother was too scared of the evil spirits to go to see and bury her husband so some men in the village went to bury him. She brought her children to the camp and made a bamboo hut for them.
One day before the baby could walk their mother gave the older boy 5 baht (12 cents) and she took 500 baht and told him to care for the children while she went to the jungle to try to get work. They have not seen her again but people told them that she married again and was not coming back.
The 7 year old boy stayed in the house with his siblings and cared for them since that time. When we asked how long since his mother left he did not know about weeks, months or years so could not give an answer. We then thought of the 3 seasons, wet, dry and cold and since the wet season has just finished we asked him how many wet season ago. He told us 3 wet season which could mean between 2 and 3 years.
He does not know how old he is or his siblings but we estimate that he is 7 1/2 and his sister 4 ½ and his brother 3 years old though they look much younger as they are so small and malnourished.
3 months later (Feb 2006) now with hope and a future.
Somewhere
there
are children
waiting
for you
to give
them
hope...
This means that he has cared for them since he was 5 years old. The village people told us that he has worked hard every day carrying heavy loads on his head for villagers so he could get money for food for his siblings. He has cooked the food. His little sister has been able to go to nursery school through the day and so she was given one meal in the middle of the day but his younger brother was too young for nursery school.
While talking to the older brother when we first met, the children looked so pathetic and listless. We gave them each a small piece of food and they ate as if they had not eaten for days. Later we handed the plate of small pieces to the big boy. He handed food to the little ones first and the took one piece for himself and then handed the plate back with another piece still on it. He is not greedy but hungry and is most unselfish and protective of his siblings.
When we found them the two youngest were hot with fever, they all had bad colds, scabies and evidence of malnourishment.
Other older children had picked on the eldest boy while he was trying to protect his siblings and he had two black eyes and a big bruise and cuts on the side of his face.
After talking for a while with the older boy I got a glimmer of a smile from him but no expression from the little ones. We finally asked if they would like to come to live with us and they all nodded in unison and the older boy gave a faint smile
The only clothes they had were the rags they were in and they were so worn and filthy that we left them behind and dressed them in new clothes we had taken after giving them a bath as they were so dirty.
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