I just read an interesting brief excerpt in Oprah magazine (yes, Neil S, Oprah!) titled, “why we don’t care about Darfur”. The premise of the article is that recent studies have shown that people respond better to the needs of a single individual than multiple individuals. That the needs of a single person often compel us while the needs of a large group overwhelm us.
The article calls it Psychic Numbing, and perhaps that’s what I feel as day after day the same seriously malnutrived two year old crosses my yard, his shy smile appearing furtively above his enlarged belly - a sign of protein deficiency and a chronically enlarged spleen, perhaps. Though I love and care about him, I see so many children in similar shape that it becomes difficult to feel that I can make a difference, that the right way to help is to feed this child. Though I am compelled by the one, the many numb me into fearing to make a difference for him.
But over time, what I’m discovering, is that though I can do some things for many children (raise support for our school, develop programs that change their lives, invest into the staff who will have those important one-on-one relationships) some important things can only be done, by me, for a few.
And so it’s okay if I give an egg to just one little boy, calling to him furtively from behind the corner of the house and sitting beside him while he carefully eats each crumb of yolk and white before brushing off his mouth and giving me that special, secret smile, heading back to the bigger group. They are also malnourished, but for me, for today, I can help just one. Not only by handing him food but by accompanying it with the attention that says “I value you, you are worth spending time on.”
Perhaps that is why we have developed the Christ School Scholarship fund to reflect a pairing between a specific child and their sponsor. Orphans, just like that little boy, are at high risk of low academic performance, poor behavior, and ongoing social issues. That’s because so little in their lives has told them that they really matter. We hope the names, pictures, letters and prayers by their sponsors will convey that they are known, loved and valued. And that in turn, these orphans will respond with joy to the Creator who first knew and loved them.
So when you hear your next statistic about the five million African children who die each year from malaria, about the hundreds of thousands of people currently displaced by flooding in parts of Uganda, and you feel that psychic numbing kick in; remember that for just one child living in a state of slow despair and devastation, you could be enough.
For more information about the Scholarship fund and information on individual orphans, go to www.christschoolbundibugyo.org.
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