BEN’S BLOG: ‘I’m new around here’

[dropcap]C[/dropcap]asa Hogar are joining in with a new international initiative. Children from extreme-poverty are coming to live here, but only for weekdays. This gives their parents a chance to sort out their jobs/health/addictions whilst the family is kept functioning.

I was in the ‘comedor’ (dining-room) yesterday. On my table, were several of the same old faces, but also two new recruits. Andrea and Paula. Looking desperately nervous and shy.

It’s easy, once you’ve been here for a while, to become immune to it all. But I stopped and had a think. You know, Blog, when you felt nervous, to the pits of your stomach, when you joined a new school? Imagine starting at a children’s-home. Your parents can’t/won’t look after you. Nobody else has stepped up. There is nowhere else to go. Is this what it’s REALLY come to? ‘THIS is the end-gig?’ written across their faces. Deep, deep rejection now hitting home. It’s terrible to think of any child facing such a reality-check. But many do. THE LAST STOP OF THE LINE.

Over and out, B x ​