today would be a good day to hug sadie.

i watched the documentary children underground last night, and i simply cannot get the images of the tragic film out of my head.

the movie documents the lives of 5 of the 20,000+ street children in romania, a result of the anti-contraception policies of former communist leader nicolae ceausescu. as many of you know, orphanages in romania were overflooded, and now as the children are growing up, nearly all have simply taken to the streets and live a completely tragic life of drug abuse, physical violence, neglect, and starvation.

i have seen many a tragic movie in my day - i know i'm uniquely drawn to them. but this may have been the worst. perhaps it's because i now deal with children's issues for a living that it all particularly hit home.

today at work i'm writing up a text for unicef on civil society groups in mozambique, how unicef can better work with these groups to help protect children and secure their rights. this assignment is also particularly hitting home because of the summer i spent in mozambique five years ago, working with kids at the colegio infantil, and seeing first hand how widespread abuse and neglect of children is in mozambican communities torn apart by civil war and poverty.

the point of the text i'm writing is to argue that engaging with governments will never be enough, especially for children. a child is completely vulnerable to his/her family and community. national legislation or even state-run programs have little sustained impact on the lives of children. not compared to home-grown change in communities. in children underground you see how social workers fought to improve the lives of the romanian street kids - but ultimately they could do so little. the kids needed homes, families, people who loved them consistently and gave them daily support. i applaud the social workers and their indefatigable efforts, but after watching this documentary in addition to my own experiences with battered children (in the US and abroad), it is so obvious that external programs can only reach so far.

the problem is i'm writing this text for unicef in response to the donor community at large, which simply wants little to nothing to do with civil society (meaning community groups, churches, NGOs, etc.). donors want to work with governments, and this is where they will put billions of dollars into. perhaps it's good to leave civil society groups outside of the corruptible aid-machine, but at least there needs to be further recognition that it is only in the grassroots that children are actually protected. local groups need support from unicef and others to develop their capacity to affect change, which i know they can do better than almost anyone else. i want local action to be supported - and i'm happy unicef does actually stress this as much as it can.

sigh. sorry for the long, downer post. posting helps me release a bit, and these things are critical and need to be talked about... it just absolutely breaks my heart when i see films like children underground, or come into work and try to politically argue for the protection of kids i knew and worked with - ah, just to see families torn apart and children left scattered and abused. it's all too much.

but just remember to hug your kids a lot - even though i know all of you do :) they're all so lucky to have such love in their lives. so huzzah for that! and here's a scrumptious picture of moe and sadie just to make everything feel all better :)