Welfare authorities failed a seven-year-old girl who starved to death on a urine-soaked mattress...Ebony's room at Matraville was boarded up and the house smelt of urine and faeces. During the last two agonising years of Ebony's life, whose body weighed just 9kg when she was discovered at her home in November 2007, the dying girl received not a shred of assistance from official agencies...The NSW Supreme Court last week sentenced Ebony's mother to life in prison for murder and Ebony's father to 16 years behind bars for her manslaughter.
I don't know why these reports always shock me. But they do. I know that some people are screwed up and have big issues, and these same people have children. But the thought that someone would leave this poor girl boarded up in a room to starve and defecate in until her death totally sickens me, as I think it should sicken everybody, Christian or not.
The article is obviously taking a dig at DoCS for their poor handling of the case. I'm happy that the Labor Gov. has given them a huge funding lately. So it should. But I'm sure that DoCS probably needs about 15 times that much to handle every case properly (as we would deem "sufficient").
I've heard the following details from friends that work in the system. If there were 2 cases and in one case the child is being beaten and in the other the child is being sexually abused, usually they only have 1 willing family to take a child. The spot will go to the child that's being physically abused. Because the former child's needs are greater than the raped girl. The physically abused child is more in danger of dying, that is. Is this a good means of assessment?
Regardless, the point I really want to make is that there should be the 2 homes for the kids to enter into. DoCS shouldn't need to prioritise like that. In a world where children are almost idolised, I find it an anomaly that there aren't more foster carers. Is our society so selfish that we only truly care about those who share our blood line?
I hope that one day Craig and I will be at a stage of life where we can use our stable home to care for the neediest children in Sydney. Maybe God will give us a child to care for through the state. I'm sure my expectations of that child would be different to my own, but how different? I understand that a child coming out of imprisonment in their own room for years would have special needs. But what? How different would they need to be treated from my own children? Would a child that has been through so much abuse for so many years be able to cope with schooling? Would they speak? Would they still urinate in their bed at 7 years old? To get an idea of this girl's state, Ebony (alias) weighed 4kgs less than Avalon does at 2 years of age.
I can't even type out my raw emotions at the moment. I'm overwhelmed. The darkness of this world gets compounded by the day. I want to help these children. Somehow. One or more. Who knows, but I want to put it out there that each of us in a loving family should think seriously about sacrificing our picture-perfect family for these children. They are the downtrodden of this world. They are the helpless ones, who don't even make the choices to wind up in these horrific scenes. They just become the headlines. And sometimes DoCS isn't even aware of them. They suffer for the mistakes of their carers. Their parents should have protected them. DoCS should have protected them. But we can't just hold these cases out at arms length as it's so easy to do.
We need to protect them.
Read the full article at http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26176011-5006784,00.html
