I am watching a program on TV featuring Cambodia. What they are showing bothers me greatly and is terribly heartbreaking... enough for me to write about it. A part of the program featured beggar kids in Cambodia, and the crew tailed two 4-6 year old kids back to their home. What the crew found out was disturbing. The parents of the kids were idling at home when their kids are risking their lives out on the road begging for a living. Not that the parents are ill or handicapped. Both are able bodied adults. It is clear that they are an improvished family, but the least the adults can do is to make an effort to feed the family. The father's excuse was that the kids make more money begging than he can from fishing, and if his kids want to fill their stomachs, they have to earn their own keeps. For the record, they have 6 kids below the age of 10, with another baby on the way. It is apparent that the parents view the kids as money-making 'tools'.
Why do they continue to have more kids when they can barely care for the ones they already have? How come their mother can go ahead to conceive and then have successful pregnancies in that kind of living conditions? I'm confident that she does not receive any pre-natal care, let alone vitamins and vaccinations. I am living in a country with an advanced medical care system in place, where I receive world class prenatal care, take all the necessary vitamins/ vaccinations, etc, but yet, I failed so miserably. It makes me feel very inadequate as a woman because I cannot even fulfill my basic role as one.
Going off soon to see Dr Anu and my little 'bun'. Worried sick but trying my best to keep the faith.
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