For those who have no voices

Today at the Casa Josefina children’s home I was looking after two babies, three 2 year olds and Beltrán (who is 6 but with varied special needs). This is quite normal but usually one of the house mums is there too. Today however the cook hadn’t come which meant the house mum was cooking and I had all the kids on my own. Katerine and Alex (the babies) are actually very good, and Beltrán is not difficult to look after either, but the three 2 year old boys can be rather a handful! Anyway, while I was there I witnessed one of the saddest things I’ve seen since being here – a mum came with the social worker to leave her little girl at the home. The little girl has Downs Syndrome and the mum lives in a remote village with four other children. She had decided she couldn’t look after this little 2 year old properly but was obviously very distraught at having to leave her baby. She left with tears in her eyes and asked me to make sure the baby was well-cared for. It is hoped she will be able to take her back at some stage, once her other children are a bit older, but for the foreseeable future she will just visit once or twice per month.


Yesterday I also went with Robyn to visit Alina, who was in the Casa Josefina home until recently. She has been moved to the Mother Teresa home which is better able to cater for children with such severe special needs. She seems to have settled in well and smiled when Robyn mentioned Lucy’s name. She laughed like always when I sang some of the songs we used to do with her at Casa J. However, it makes me sad to see these children in such an institutionalised place – they care for the kids quite well but there are really not enough staff and it’s nothing like being in a family home. There are three rooms full of big cots, a place for meals and a play/therapy room, but it is rather like a bare hospital. And probably so many of these kids are like the little girl who was left today – loved but with needs that poor families in remote communities feel they cannot handle. When I think of the help these kids and their families would receive in Britain it makes me so sad. Many of the children of Peru are in desperate situations, a large proportion of them completely hidden and forgotten by the outside world in remote communities. We only see the tip of the iceberg in children like Alina. When I have read previously in various leaflets and websites of aid organisations about ‘Juan (or whoever), a poor farmer who struggles to provide for his families’ needs such as food, healthcare and education’, the reality had never quite struck me as much as today when I saw ‘Juan’s’ poor wife leave behind their little girl.

I wonder if you have ever sung the song below? I haven’t sung it for a number of years but it came back to me as I thought about the little kids and the youngsters with special needs – the ones that literally have ‘no voice’ and cannot even verbalise how they feel or what they want.

I will speak out

by Bankhead, Rinaldi, Goudie & Bassett

I WILL SPEAK OUT
for those who have no voices,
I will stand up for the rights of all the oppressed.
I will speak truth and justice,
I'll defend the poor and needy,
I will lift up the weak in Jesus' Name.

I will speak out for those who have no choices
I will cry out for those who live without love.
I will show God's compassion
To the crushed and broken in spirit.
I will lift up the weak in Jesus' Name.

Copyright © 1990 Springtime/Word Music

When I was looking for the lyrics of the above song, I also spotted these lyrics which were popular around the same time:

I the Lord of Sea and Sky (Here I am, Lord)

by Daniel Schutte

I, THE LORD OF SEA AND SKY,
I have heard my people cry.
All who dwell in dark and sin
My hand will save.
I who made the stars of night.
I will make the darkness bright.
Who will bear my light to them?
Whom shall I send?

Here I am, Lord. Is it I, Lord?
I have heard You calling in the night.
I will go, Lord, if you lead me.
I will hold your people in my heart.

Copyright © 1981 New Dawn Music

I think I heard, and I went, and now I’m here, and I do hold a number of children in my heart, but there are rather a lot more, and there is rather a lot more help needed, to put it mildly. The question for me now is whether to concentrate on helping a few children, or whether there is something bigger that can be done. In practice, what does it mean to ‘speak out’? It may sound as though I am a little overwhelmed by the needs of the kids here, and there are moments when maybe I am, but this is why I am here, and with the children we help at Casa Josefina, the Mountain Project and the hospital, we can show God’s compassion to at least some of the voiceless, the poor, the needy and the weak. Thank you again to everyone who supports us and enables us to help these children!