My wife Karen and I travel a lot, on business, vacation, and for volunteer relief and environmental work. More often than not, our travels take us into so-called “third world” (developing) countries.
Wherever we are, we meet children — lots of children. Karen’s documentary photography focuses on the plight of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS in Africa, so when we are there we of course see and interact with many children. However, even elsewhere, we encounter children. Some approach us on the street to ask for handouts or to sell us things. Others lurk shyly behind skirts and in shadowed doorways as we meet their parents or teachers.
We interact with the kids we meet. We show them how to thumb-wrestle and how to make the “Birdman” face. We try to learn their songs, dances, and games. We ask their names and tell them ours. We give them paper and crayons and ask them to draw where they live. We snap their picture with a polaroid camera and give them the photo. We ask street kids to show us how they live and buy them lunch in return. We hand out thermometers, compasses, plastic dinosaurs, and lots and lots of pens.
When the plight of a particular child or group of children touches us deeply, we commit to supporting them in an ongoing way. We arrange for periodic food delivery, pay school fees, buy school uniforms, provide school supplies and toys. Our friends and acquaintances in the U.S. help with donations and sponsorship commitments. We also raise funds by selling Karen’s documentary photography book Face to Face: Children of the AIDS Crisis in Africa and other photography-based products.
We consider all children, worldwide, to be our responsibility. Wherever children live, whatever their ethnicity or religion, whatever their parents (if alive) do, we feel that they deserve to be protected, nurtured, fed, and educated.
When we read about children being killed or maimed as a result of terrorist, counter-terrorist, or military action, we are saddened and angered. The children are innocent — caught in the middle of conflicts most of them don’t even understand. The conflicts of our world are not their fault.
[Nepali kids watching military helicopter]
So far, no children we know have been killed or injured. But that’s just because we haven’t visited the countries that are currently battlegrounds, e.g., Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Sudan. Just because we don’t personally know the children who have been hit by bombs, missiles, or gunfire doesn’t make those children any less important to us. If we had visited those countries, we would know children there and some of the child casualties could have been “our kids”.
Attacks that kill or injure children, even accidentally, should be condemned by all. The International Court of Justice (aka the World Court) in the Hague should investigate and prosecute such attacks as possible war-crimes. If nothing else, they are cases of gross negligence.
My next blog entry on civilian casualties will discuss a specific example of child deaths caused by U.S. military action.
