So it begins...

The course I am taking here is called Children at Risk, so the stuff I am going to be learning about is going to be intense and heartbreaking. I feel like I am going to be crying a lot.

On Thursday night 2 girls and I watched "Invisible Children". It is an incredible documentary that 3 American guys, with little filming experience, made during their time in Africa in 2003. They tell the story of children who are used as weapons and children who are the victims. The film exposes the effects of a 20 yearlong war on the children of Northern Uganda. These children live in fear of abduction by rebel soldiers, and are being forced to fight as a part of violent army. It is hard and intense to watch things like that because it is unfortunately the truth of so many young lives.

Last night we watched a movie called "Innocence Lost". It follows a couple as they look into different situations that children are facing worldwide. Some of the areas they went into were:

The UAE (United Arab Emirates) where children are being kidnapped, as young as three, from villages and brought into Dubai to be a camel jockey.
The Soviet Union where young kids are being imprisoned for petty thefts and their cases are taking long periods of time before they are heard before a judge.
Greece where children with special needs are being basically thrown/hidden away by their families and put into institutes that are not equipped or staffed to deal with the amount of patients they have.
Togo, Africa where young girls are being sold for as little as $30 to live in another household and basically be a slave for the rest of their lives. As well as young girls being given to priests as his wife, to pay for the sins of someone else, usually a family member.
San Jose-Costa Rica where young girls are being pimped out and force to prostitute themselves in order to survive. Male tourists on the video were recorded as saying, "The girls enjoy what they do and they want to do it. They like knowing they pleased a man." (I almost lost it at this point. It took everything in me not to scream at the TV. They are just children. They feel disgusting and worthless. They hate it, they just don't know any other way..... oh Lord how I want to be involved in showing them another way.)
The last place they went was to Central America. In Guatemala they interviewed many street kids who are addicted to sniffing glue. They say that they use it to forget. When one child was asked what he wanted to forget his response was "That ... I exist." The homeless children are often beaten and have even been raped by members of the police. (How does this happen? How is it that those who are supposed to protect do harm? I have heard that this happens from my friends on the street in Toronto as well. I have been missing my street friends and those who work with them a lot today.)

Some of the quotes that really struck me during the movie were:

“That child needs to be hugged. That child needs a teddy bear and that child needs to be told that someone loves them. They are only children.” – worker on street children

“Necessity wears an ugly face” – young female prostitute

“Children are victims of a society that doesn’t really give a dam.”

“The biggest killer of street children is not the bullets, it’s not the glue, it’s the world’s indifference.”

The movie ends by saying “Until children are given a voice, everyone of us must speak for them” and so while I know that these next months are going to be incredibly tough and full of tears, it is my prayer that at the end of this course I will be better able and more equipped to speak for these voiceless, precious children of God’s.