Our new arrivals

I am not in the habit of writing about individual children at the home because I think it is a breach of confidentiality.  Children often come to me and talk about their lives, not expecting their stories to be broadcast.  However, we have just received three new children whose story really should be told.  In any case, there is a need for sponsors for these children.  Their names are Luka (9), Foni (6) and Nana (3).

Luka, Foni and Nana

Their story reflects both the terrible civil war situation in other parts of South Sudan and also the very common family situations which cause children to end up uncared for, either as street children, neglected children or in a home such as Cornerstone.

Most people, including me, are uncomfortable with the idea of children’s homes or orphanages.  It can be very difficult for institutionalised children to manage once they leave.  Therefore we tend to think children are better off in a family or with a loving foster family.  It is a much more natural environment.  

However, in South Sudan this is rarely possible.  Many marriages are polygamous and it is culturally acceptable for stepparents to discriminate against those who are not their own offspring.  The wicked stepmother is alive and well, and lives in South Sudan.  Conversely, where divorce takes place and the mother remarries, her children are rarely accepted by her new husband.  In spite of what I had always heard before coming to Africa, the tribe does not often behave like an extended family.

Last week at morning devotions, we were told the following simple facts:  Three new children would be coming to live with us, aged 9, 6 and 3.  They come from Bor, where the fighting is intense.  Their parents have both been killed and the children were rescued from their home, which had been set on fire.  They speak only their own tribal language.  The eldest boy is in a very emotional and traumatised state, repeatedly asking for his mother.  The children were all asked to be very kind and patient with them when they arrived.  

I now know the whole story.  The father was the first to die.  Then, sometime later, soldiers shot the mother while she was trying to escape, carrying the youngest child.  The older two hid in their hut, which was then torched.  Amazingly, none of the children were hurt.  The youngest stayed next to her mother’s body.  A Good Samaritan rescued them all and put them in a truck of people fleeing the fighting.  The truck dropped everyone in the middle of nowhere.  Another truck came and agreed to take them all to Nimule.  Nobody took any responsibility for the children.  When they arrived, they left the children at the police station.

 In the meantime their uncle, who is a soldier, discovered that his brother and sister-in-law were dead and assumed that the children must also have been killed.  Fortunately somebody told him about the rescue, although nobody knew where the truck had taken the children.  The uncle frantically tried to track them down and discovered that they were in Nimule.  He and his family came to Nimule to find them.  As the uncle had to go back to Bor he left his wife and children to care for the orphaned children.  This turned out to be a very bad move.  His wife, in true wicked stepmother style, had no intention of caring for the children.  She simply did not feed them.  Another Good Samaritan alerted the police, who contacted Pastor Juma, the pastor at Cornerstone.  Fortunately Pastor Juma speaks some of the children’s language so he was able to converse with them.  The eldest broke down in tears when he said that they hadn’t eaten for two days.  He kept asking for his mother even though he knew she was dead.  Pastor Juma contacted the uncle and asked him to return to Nimule to sign an agreement for the children to live at Cornerstone.  He arrived at the weekend and was relieved to find a home for the children.

The children arrived at their new home on Sunday after staying a few days elsewhere while the uncle arrived and the agreement paperwork was sorted out.  

I had been very worried in advance about how the home would cope with these traumatised children and how the new children would cope with being at Cornerstone.  I prayed about it a lot and asked friends to pray too.  My fears proved to be completely unjustified.  I was at church when they arrived, but heard from the matron that they had looked terrified when they arrived in the home’s office and said goodbye to their uncle.  

Nana and her two new friends run to school
on her first day at nursery

Then some of the ‘old hands’ were asked to show the children around and look after them.  Literally minutes later they were all playing happily with children their own age in spite of the language barrier and their recent experiences.  It was a joy to watch them.  To see them play, you would never imagine the hardships they have been through.  They are incredibly resilient children.

The school agreed to let them start straightaway even before the school fees are paid, so today the children attended our school for the first time.  The eldest was tested as he said he had been to school in Bor.  He performed very well and was placed in Primary Four where he is the youngest child.  His younger sisters have never been to school before and were placed in the nursery.

Now all that remains is for Fulaa Lifeline (the home’s supporting charity) to find sponsors for these children to pay for their living expenses.