An Unforgettable Mother's Day
On Mother's Day in Columbia, I visited 500 boys, incarcerated for sleeping on the street, for bathing in public fountains, for being alive. One 12-year-old, whose vision had been destroyed when his father's belt buckle hit his left eye, gave me a Mother's Day card he had made. One other grandmother and I were the only mothers visiting in the jail that day, although each inmate had carefully prepared a card for the absent mother for whom he longed.
I traveled to Nicaragua with Niños de las Américas, an excellent organization for teenagers who want to serve our neighbors. We walked many hours to villages accessible only on foot to immunize children and their parents. One village we came to had no children standing in line. "Where are your children?" we asked. We were told, "They died of measles a few months ago."
For the last decade and a half, I have volunteered with the National Court Appointed Special Advocate organization (
The Work Continues
Now that I am an octogenarian, I have the enormous good fortune of taking care of two little girls, 4 and 6 years old, who are enriching every minute of my life every day. Their parents work and I spend many hours with them and am truly grateful that, at a time when my children and grandchildren are grown, I can experience the love of these little ones.
As long as children are used as soldiers and become victims of war, as long as parents are addicted to drugs and alcohol, as long as many members of society are burdened by poverty and starvation, child abuse and neglect will thrive. We probably will never eliminate childhood trauma, which persists into adulthood. My hope is that an acute awareness of the frequency and severity of the suffering of young people will make us more dedicated to prevent the deep wounds we inflict. That awareness of this evil will encourage us to help the members of the next generation survive their childhoods.
DR. JUSTIN is a retired family physician who lives in Lakewood, Colo.
Dr. Renate G. Justin has devoted her life to caring for neglected and abused children all over the world.
Source Courtesy Natural Focus Photography