No Longer a Slumdog

The sun was shining as I maneuvered my SUV up the winding road lined with lush, green trees. The kids were chatting happily in the backseat as I turned left and followed the signs: DOERNBECHER CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL. We pulled under the massive white arch and pulled into a parking space marked with a smiling child’s face: Patients & Visitors Parking.

I couldn’t help but remember the last time I visited this place, and how I had arrived not in my own car but in an ambulance.  Heidi had quit breathing and we’d dialed 911. They’d whisked us off in an ambulance for the 30-minute drive to this hospital where she received the best of care, and was pronounced absolutely fine, just a little more faint-hearted and breathless than most. (Hereditary?)

Though this visit involved a much more serious situation, our visit was fun and light-hearted. A dear friend’s infant son was having surgery on his skull, and we joined them in the waiting room, Dutch & Heidi providing some comic relief in the midst of their long wait.

As we sat around and chatted we couldn’t help but be reminded how blessed we are to have such tremendous medical care. In developing countries, my friend’s son wouldn’t have the luxury of this surgery, he would instead grow up with severe disabilities.  I too thought of all the children in that place, receiving the finest of care. Though I’m sure there are heart-breaking tragedies every day within those walls, what a remarkable gift that such medical care is even available. We left our visit there rejoicing, and later received a text that the infant-boy was out of surgery and all had gone perfectly. Praise God. 

That afternoon I curled up with a book that painted an entirely different scene. No Longer a Slumdog depicts the reality that hundreds of millions of children wake up to every single day. You’ve probably seen the movie, Slumdog Millionaire, which gives a powerful insight into this atrocity, and in this book KP Yohannan and Francis Chan expand on this to help us understand the reality that millions of children face right now, this very minute:

• 150 million children aged 4-14 are forced to work as child laborers.
• Every year an estimated 1.2 million children become victims of trafficking.
• Nepali women and girls, some as young as 9 years old, are sold into India’s red-light district — 10,000 to 15,000 per year.
• Sri Lanka is touted as pedophile’s paradise, with up to 40,000 child prostitutes–mostly boys–trafficked to serve tourists.
• 250 million people are Dalits in India, below all castes and considered less valuable than animals. Another 500 milion people in India suffer from need and abuse as members of the “Other Backward Castes” (OBCs).
• Together, Dalits and OBCs make up more than 60% of India’s population, representing a population that is well over twice that of the entire United States. In fact, more than 1 out of every 10 people on the planet today is either a Dalit or an OBC.