What About Me?

 

After many, many years of unsuccessfully trying to have children, Basie and Mandy Geerdts finally came to terms with the fact that the only way they were ever going to be a family was through adoption. Having completed the intense screening at a private adoption agency, they were informed that there was a beautiful little 14 month old girl waiting to meet with them at Cotlands Haven for Children in Turffontein West, Johannesburg South.

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Before they could proceed with the adoption process, they had to make sure that they could first bond with Precious, as she was known then. That process went wonderfully well and after about four months they realised that Precious, now called Ashley, was to be their lifelong blessing. But, somehow, some of the other children knew that too.

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During their second last visit to Cotlands, Mandy was standing there holding Ashley in her arms. Observing this, a little boy walked up to Mandy and asked her if Ashley was going to go home with them and if they were going to be her mom and dad? Mandy confirmed this to be true and then, after looking at them for a few seconds, came the question they soon realised was on the heart of every child at Cotlands, “What about me?”

 

On their way home Mandy started weeping for all the other children who‘d be left behind and who desperately wanted the same opportunity to have a better life – a father and mother who will love and care for all their needs, of which there are so many. Parents who would support their dreams and ambitions, desires and needs and to nurse them through any illness that they may suffer.

 

A family that can celebrate that special day of their birth, presents they can open on Xmas morning while celebrating Jesus‘ special day of birth. Going on holiday, out for dinner, to the movies, to the mall, to the swimming pool with all their friends and having a picnic there.

 

Someone to help them through all traumatic experiences and physical and/or mental setbacks they may have. Someone to pick them up when they fall, to carry them when they can’t walk and be their selective audience when they put on their private and personal fantasy stage shows. Someone to just love them, not for what they are, but for who they are.

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Mandy also wept for the all the others not seen by us but who are out there living off the streets, child-lead households and abused children. Children who are being deprived of their childhood.

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We both felt incredibly sad, as have many others, concerning the statistics so tellingly exposed by Pieter Trichardt, the Youth Leader at New Creation Family Church in Robin Hills in Randpark, which are:

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• 29% of children live below the food poverty line

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• 27% of children under-five are stunted – a sign of chronic           

  malnutrition that compromises children’s health, education and

  employment prospects

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• 42% of children have experienced some form of maltreatment

  (whether sexual, physical, emotional or neglect)

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• 58% of children cannot read fluently and with comprehension at

  the end of grade 4

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• There are an estimated 3.7 million orphans in South Africa,

  about half of whom have lost one or both parents to AIDS

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• 150,000 children are believed to be living in child-headed

  households

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• The South African Police Services reports that 50,000 children

  are victims of crime every year, with sexual offences

  constituting about 40 per cent of these cases

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• 12 is the global average age of experimentation with substances

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• A 27-YEAR-OLD woman allegedly sold her three-year-old

  daughter to a South African based syndicate that uses

  children as beggars at busy traffic intersections

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What are we, the ones who frequently cry out, “Ahh shame, look at those poor little kids!” or “Where are their parents? Who’s looking after them?” going to do about their plight?

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We, the ones who so glibly condemn those who walked past the stripped and badly beaten man who was left half dead without helping him. Who so boldly praise the Good Samaritan and pledge to show the same character, yet keep on walking past the abandoned, abused, neglected, orphaned and fatherless children without actually doing anything.

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When will we finally stand up and be counted as a compassionate group of “Good Samaritans” who care enough for the children to not just pay for them to stay in an “inn”, but to actually give them a permanent and loving home with loving parents – and the opportunity for a better and fulfilling life?

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