The Rights of Children in Kenya and PEHUCCI
What do you see in the above photograph? Beautiful faces. Beautiful children. Beautiful eyes. What do the eyes reveal? Do you see children seated at desks? Papers on those desks? Writing on the paper? The little boy on the left, the one looking into your eyes, has a pencil in his right hand. The eyes seem to reveal an aliveness, a wanting to learn, a slight smile of possibility within.
A law was passed in Kenya guaranteeing all children their basic rights of life. Those basic rights include food, clothing, shelter, health and education. A Child Rights Club has been started at PEHUCCI; these essential rights of children remain primarily intellectual concepts and whimsical dreams rather than realities for their daily lives. Therefore, this poem, written by a child at an orphanage, is poignant:
1. Rights. Rights. Rights. Rights for children of Africa. A land of happiness. With rich soils and beautiful forests. Africa. An African Land.
2. Children of Africa cry out from hunger. Children are dying; clothing and shelter they lack. Lack of proper diet and they die. Mother Africa. Unite.
3. Let us unite together and forget the wars and hatred. They are foolish. The clever, the rich, the poor: we should all realize and fight hard for an African child. O Mother Africa. Unite.
LET US PRAY: Dear Lord, make me a child again and have the eyes of a child, so wide, so expectant, so full of possibilities for the future. Help me to join in the fight for the rights of your children. Help me to mature past my apathetic complacency. Fuel me with your passion for your mission. In Jesus Name.
