THE LETTER.

LIVING WITH THE FLIES

I am 11 years old and I live amongst the flies and on the dung of this earth. My days remaining are few, but before I leave this God forsaken place I must speak for the thousands of children just like myself.
I know I am at the end of my short life, I no longer have any body fluids and though I want to; I can no longer weep.
The flies have sucked all moisture from my eyes and from the pores of my body. I no longer have enough water to sustain my existence. I have nothing to drink and I cannot urinate, so I have nothing to wet my lips with. I hope for rain, but it doesn�t come here too often.
The earth I crawl upon is dry and encrusted with disease, the dead bodies of so many children are scattered across this land; their bones are now part of the dust that blows into my lungs.

The flies and mosquitoes often times cover our bodies and eat our flesh, they take everything from us and we are left to die; wherever we are at.
Every day I make my way crawling out onto the road; I have been doing this for so long now. I wait for the man to pass by each day. At one time I would grab at his foot or his long white garment and he would stop, stand me up on my feet and give me a crumb from his pocket. He would also move me to shelter, but that was a long time ago, this man stills walks past me and I try to reach for his garment, but I am too weak to grab it and he continues on his way glancing back at me and shaking his head; I think he has given up hope like so many who have passed me by.
I am one of the oldest children here and there are very few adults left
in our villages, most have died from hunger or disease and have left behind children and babies that now number thousands. We try so hard to survive, but it is impossible and soon we will all perish from this place.

When my mother was here she would walk for miles each day in search of food and water, she would get beaten and raped by the bad men along the way, but that didn�t stop her; she always returned with something just to keep me alive. One day she didn�t return; it has now been eight months since she left and I am so sad, I miss her and I hope she comes back soon.
She told me stories about our world and the beautiful cities beyond this place. She said that someday the good men would come and take us from this village and I would see those beautiful places where there is no disease and there are no starving children dying out on the roads. She told me I would someday smell a beautiful earth filled with flowers, green grass and clean water flowing from streams; she would have me smiling with her stories; that is what I miss most about her.
I will never get to see the beautiful earth my mother spoke of. The buzzards have been flying over my head today so my time is near. It is my hope that someone will find my letter very soon and come to save the rest of the children who remain here.
The last thing I remember my mother telling me was to keep my hopes up, to think of this place as the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus cried tears of blood and suffered most before his death. She told me there were many places like this village all over our world and that this is a test from our God for all humankind to wipe from the earth this stench, this atrocious cruelty� once and for all.


AN ATTAINABLE SOLUTION:

As a society of humane people how dare we allow the continuation of disease, starvation and decaying death of innocent children to flourish in our world.
Year after year for so long now many of us dig deep into our pockets and give what we can. We feel good about it and think we have done our part, the result? A clear conscience.
For most of us the plight of these children leaves our minds and we return to focus on our own lives, our own children and our own problems until the next time this atrocity is brought to our attention. We then repeat the same humanitarian act of giving money; this isn�t good enough. Admittedly we have made some inroads over the years by way of bringing medicine, food and clean water to some of these regions where poverty and disease are at their most vile. To this very date a child dies from malnutrition, malaria and A.I.D.S every six seconds; just stop and think about that. This is appalling and unacceptable.
Each year more and more organizations offer support to this cause and it is a wonderful effort worldwide with many doing their part to end the war on poverty, but there has been little progress made during the years of pouring resources and money into these troubled regions. We hear the word �successful� bandied around by those in power, successful means that the problem no longer exists; yet it is worsening. Do we know why? Does anyone ask why?
I am asking�why?

We need a massive collaboration of world Governments; every country has to take part in a major combined effort to rid the world of poverty. The way in which world dignitaries sweep the atrocity of starving and diseased children under the carpet is nothing short of disgusting, what they need to do is place this on the board with priority status. They can no longer throw a few crumbs from their coffers at these undernourished children in the hope that it will silence the multitudes�YES US� we are the multitudes. We have the real power and final say; don�t ever believe otherwise. We can and should demand that this be resolved. World leaders can no longer depend on the private/corporate sector to do what in fact should take precedence on every Governments list of things to do; instead it is shoved into the �too hard� tray. Do we really need to spend billions of dollars to keep troops in Iraq? And who really has a genuine interest in knowing whether or not there is water on Mars? These children have to be saved; the only thing they have to look forward to is a horrific death. THEY ARE MORE IMPORTANT.

Governments have the negotiating skills and resources to cut through ever-present red tape and make their presence felt in these regions without conflict, that is why this cause needs a collaboration of every world leader.
We need to take up our pens in a massive effort and flood Government agencies worldwide with letters of discontent and demand that they make a commitment to rid the planet of atrocities against children, against poverty and disease so that it never rears its ugly head again. We must leave our differences behind and form a united military front across the nations�side by side to lift these regions out of dung heaps and misery; this is the real war.
Who gets satisfaction from the death of another human being? Not many, but satisfaction does arise from seeing a healthy smiling child and knowing that we helped put that smile on their face. There is no greater satisfaction; it is the true beat of the compassionate heart.
I ask each and every person who reads this to tell family, friends and neighbors to write a letter, write ten letters and send them off to any and all government leaders and their constituents telling them of your demand. Send them a copy of the letter from the 11-year-old boy and think about how we as parents and grandparents, sisters, brothers and friends worry and panic when our children are ill; we would take any measure to rid them of discomfort. Read the letter and look at the photos, although unpleasant they are real�commit them to memory and carry them in your heart. Think about your own child and the lengths you would go to in order to protect them; it is a gut wrenching thought to be so helpless and hopeless.
Please help them.



I used Darfur only as an example, because the photographs are so devastating, yes this hunger, poverty and disease exists in our own neighborhoods, cities and countries, all the more we should become involved in this cause. I am asking that you write letters, that is all I ask, you can write them anonymously, it doesn't matter, just write, this is what we do best and that is why I have posted this on the WritersCafe sight, it is a public forum of diversified people, whom I have had the pleasure, for the past three years, to become aquainted with and have read the work of most of you.
I have felt your pain, your joy and your discontent, we pour our hearts out on these pages and I couldn't think of a better place to start this project.
I have written this under an anonymous name for several reasons, I want no recognition, you may not like what I write on this sight or you may not like me as a person, or I may be your friend and those would be your reason to react or not to react. I ask that you take part in this, because it is the right thing to do, because you have compassion. Thank you.

Reviews

[Succubi]

wow this was a painful and heartbreaking account of what reality truly is...i strongly agree with your solution, but like the governments of those countries, ours and money our enveloped by greed and other sins...you are compassionate and daring, and this piece speaks so much truth...you have inspired me with this...take your hope and your daring voice and drive on to something higher...you are truly an artist because you look towards a cause...great piece =)

[The Tao of Bri]

Thank you for sharing this. It is such a horrendous crime that needs more light.. the really sad thing is that there are agencies out there making money off of thissituation getting money to help it but not doing so!! There must be a special palce in hell for those kinds!

[Sarah]

That was indeed very painful to read, but it's so true. This needs to be brought to the attention of those that have the power to do something. (Which, essentially, is all of us.) This kind of suffering seems like it has nothing to do with us, and so it's often ignored. It's really heart-breaking. :(

[Tyler James]

it hurt to read this, the fact that is real hurt even more.

[Marvin Lewis Jr.]

This beautifully captures something that is very painful and too often overlooked...
its sad for me to read this but I can't even begin to fathom what they're going through.
Things must change.

[pal]

It's painful and regrettable, yet hard truth.

Solutions aren't around, just to bear all in agony.

Very well written piece.

pal

[Bhavya Kaushik]

This is really an eye opener, I have a poem by the name "Pain of invisible shelter" which has been written on the same subject and it's really a very sad situation. Often people say that we got to work now otherwise it would be too late, but then unfortunately we lacks in our efforts. This is really very impressive piece and is surely an eye opener, Thanks for writing it!

[Donald Meikle]

I agree with Fabian too and would add governments cannot fix anything everything they attempt to fix ends up worse than when they started. As it gets worse they spend their time blaming the opposition parties in order to get re elected. If it's a choice between a child starving to death and re election, there is no choice, after all how can they address the problem if they aren't elected?

[Valentine]

I have to agree with Fabian on this one..As one we can do nothing, as a nation that is headed toward being a third world nation itself..we can't even help those around us that are so exposed..In my town every factory has moved to Mexico laying off all of the workers..Know what.???.they offered the laid off workers a job in Mexico for $4.60 a DAY to move down there,,,is this American and the land of the free and the brave or what..We all need to search our conscience..look really hard at the people in the house of representatives and the senate,,choose a honest moral and upstanding president and vote out every one that is not doing a decent job for us..perhaps them China will lends us back some of our money so we can help these poor people..God bless the poor souls..And God bless America..Valentine Oh yea..and why should they have a much longer vacation time thatn anyone else when our taxes are paying their salaries..Off they go again tomorrow..

[Lyra H]

Amazing, heart-rendering stuff!