We started our Thanksgiving day at the Community Center focusing on the Bright Future project for street and vulnerable children. The community center offers a program from noon to 4, four afternoons a week where street children can come, be warm, eat a healthy meal, shower if they like and even wash their clothes. One couldn't help but notice it was all the older children ( 14-17) that were coming. When asked where the little ones were, we were told that the older ones scare them off. They want any benefits that the Community Center has to offer for themselves. Some revisions to the program would need to be made to include the most vulnerable of the street children. We are working on specific days and hours for the younger ones etc.
The irony is that the 14-17 year olds are not the top of the hierarchy living in the sewers- there is yet an older, very rough, looking group that stands at the top of the sewers and checks out the children entering. A bunch of the 14-17 year old kids did not have coats ( and believe me it is COLD!)- when our friend Ulzi asked them where their coats were- they replied they had them but they have to hide them. If the older gang sees them with them they will take them. So each gang protects their own and preys on the younger...
Unknown to us- the Police had scheduled a two day raid to bring in all the homeless children they could find and register them. This was happening on Tuesday and Wednesday. They had rounded up all the children that had come to the community center just hours before we ad arrived. They took 15 of the children down to the central lockup.
When we arrived back at the center,yesterday to have lunch with the street kids they were telling us that they had been held until 8:00 pm and then they were released- all but one. Little Autumnbat had not been released with them..WHAT- Autumnbat is the little boy that stole my heart last year. I had posted many pictures of him and just loved on him and encouraged him that there are people that care about him. Well, he heard that I was in town and so he came to see what I may have brought for him? We did not know that he had been taken into custody but not just anywhere...they take the kids to the "holding facility" that I spoke of in my earlier post. Abuse is rampant here and this is a little boy ( now 7 years old, last year he was wearing size 4t)..
The authorities will only release children to their parents. What were we going to do? We had to get him out of that Facility. It is something when living on the street is preferable to police custody!
I had an awful, sick feeling in my stomach and everything in me was saying "We need to get him out of there"
Thankful for our friend Ulzi who knows many people in high places.....it turns out Ulzi has a friend who is a commander general in the Police Force. As we made the long trek out to the detention facility inching along in traffic , Ulzi was on the phone. Was Autumnbat still in detention? We didn't want to get all the way there and find he had been released ..We did not even know his last name. ..Will they release him to non-guardians?
Autumnbat sleeps with older boys under the stairs in the apartment buildings. He spends all night being chased "up and down and up and down" by the residents on the floors. His mother and stepfather and their two children live in a ger in the city- no phone, no money, no car- his mother would not be coming to get him and his stepfather beats him so bad, even if they knew he was in the lockup- they would not be coming to get him.
Finally the Commander calls Ulzi- they have located him and he has ordered the boys release to him.
So we arrive and Ulzi and Tamir go inside while Kim and I wait in van..... about 15 minutes later, out of the detention center, swaggers this little boy with a grin from ear to ear! He got right into the van and sat with me and immediately began talking and talking. We had a nice long ride back into the city to try to decide what our next step would be...
We were in awe of this little 8 year old. ( he really looks about 6 with the sweetest little raspy voice). He was so anxious to tell us about how he got the scratches on his face from a fight -that he almost won! Ulzi was asking him if he would like to come live at an orphanage where he could have his own warm bed and food everyday..currently he begs for money and buys what food he can everyday. But surprisingly, he did not jump at the opportunity... He values his freedom very much ..The bravado had us in stitches! then he says " Just don't leave me alone- I am afraid of being alone." He said that the people at the orphanage will beat him - Ulzi assured him this would not happen. But Ulzi did tell him he would have to go to school ..This was not so appealing but we could tell he was considering it. He mentioned that in the past, he was unable to attend school as he had no supplies:(
So we were all hungry by this time and figured he was too...so we went to a great restaurant in the city. When we told him that we were going to eat, he quickly took off his coat and turned it inside out, claiming that the inside was much cleaner to go into the restaurant. Overwhelmed with the menu, he ordered 2 chicken breast, salad ad french fries. I think the plate was larger than him! He ate and ate and we could tell he was getting full and that he was very tired. Once we told him that he could take the rest with him, he stopped and said he was full but did not want to leave any.
Tamir, one of the helpers at the community center offered to take him for the night, get him a bath and keep him safe. Laws limit our ability to really help these kids as the parent, even though she sends him to the street night after night and allows the step dad to beat him, they have to give permission for the child to be signed into an orphanage or help center.
So we pray for healing in his family, for his mom to protect and fight for her children or for her to be willing to put him somewhere safe. The community center will be following up and Autumnbat will now be coming to then community center on a regular basis again. For now, he is warm, fed, and surrounded by people that care and want to help him. May God be his protection from all harm......
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