Notes From a Young American in Congo: Orphans on the Edge
“I flew to Kinshasa in order to help a man help a boy. Scott Sherman and his family had recently adopted a four-year-old boy from an orphanage in the capital city of the Democratic Republic of Congo. When Scott’s son arrived in the States, he was severely underweight, suffering from a variety of illnesses, and indicated that he had been sexually abused at the orphanage where he’d lived. Scott’s son told his new parents that one other boy, Moise, had tried to protect him from the abuse. Scott and his family asked me if I could try and help find a better situation for Moise.When I located the orphanage, the situation showed itself to be worse than I had expected. Doll children sat listlessly in a sandbox of a courtyard. They looked like tinker toys with massive joints connected by straws. A three year old girl with beautiful bat-like eyes, moved through the air like it was made of jello. She had milky pus dripping from her right ear, and when we went to the hospital, the Doctor said she weighed just 17.6 pounds. Although poverty is a dire problem in Congo, the level of these children’s existence was extreme and unnecessary.
Moise was soft-spoken, shy, courageous and kind. Finding a loving Congolese family for him wasn’t difficult. Maman Bebeta is an avid Catholic, journalist, retired nurse, and proud mother of four children, three of whom are currently in University.
“We have a saying in Congo,” she told me, on the patio of the monastery where I was staying. “If you have enough to feed two, then you have enough to feed three.”
She immediately offered to take in the boy. Moise didn’t have any other potential adoptive parents, yet Maman Bebeta and I were forcefully turned away when we tried to arrange the local adoption, and it wasn’t difficult to figure out why. Apparently, the director of the orphanage wasn’t good at keeping up with her own lies.
Moise, explained the founder, was being funded financially by two Internationals. Both were paying for his schooling, clothing, and food. But the local school, and Moise himself, indicated he hadn’t been in school for a while. And despite the funding, specified for him, Moise would often go for days without food. His, and other children’s suffering had become meal-tickets for the adults claiming to have their best interests at heart.
Turning a profit from suffering is one of the more despicable and frustrating problems that arise from poverty and it’s not uncommon. Before going to Kinshasa I attended a meeting of the Association of Women Living Alone, an organization established for and by women forced into sex work, victims of sexual violence, and widows. At the meeting, a Congolese organization from Goma presented a much needed medical insurance plan. Pay ten dollars now, a large sum in Congo, and 50 percent of all hospital bills will be paid by the company for one year.
Medical bills in Congo are just as difficult to pay as any treatment in the United States without insurance. The women debated the pros and cons for over an hour, as two well-dressed company representatives looked on. Some women couldn’t afford the ten dollars; some didn’t believe it would actually help. In the end, though they could barely scrape together the money, a small group of women formed a line behind a piece of paper and signed their names.
“The women took their small savings and gave the company the money,” explained Baloti, one of the Association coordinators, a few months after the meeting. “But [the men] lied and just left with the money.”
Taking advantage of the suffering is sickening and cruel, and tragically, it also makes trying to help others a mine field. While going through the adoption process at Moise’s orphanage, Eleanor Caprine donated over $20,000.00 to help her soon-to-be adopted daughter and all of the other kids.
Most of the money was absorbed by the lawyer arranging the adoption, and whatever money did make it to the orphanage, didn’t make it to the children. Eleanor paid for tutoring for her future daughter, tennis lessons, tennis supplies, and even school fees for Moise. Her daughter was never tutored, Moise was not sent to school, and there are no tennis courts or teachers anywhere near the orphanage.
For me, and any individual trying to help, these instances are particularly infuriating. They cause good people with the capability of helping to turn away and people with real need to be looked over. Trying to help can contribute to the problems if not done carefully.
But despite the bad eggs and bad apples, there are still people suffering. It takes work and caution to effectively help, but it’s a field of mines worth walking through.
Eleanor is now working to get the lawyer disbarred. The Association of Women Living Alone is applying for grants and still seeking partners who won’t take advantage of their need. Congolese officials are currently investigating the sexual abuse and maltreatment of the children at Moise’s former orphanage, to determine if there is a need to close it.
And Moise, after a difficult fight and only because of Congolese people who saw suffering rather than money, is now enrolled in school, eating regularly, and part of a very loving family.
As the Desiderata, by Max Ehrmann says, “Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism.”
Notes From a Young American in Congo: Orphans on the Edge
[New York Times 5/27/11 by Amy Ernst]
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