Ky Quang and pagodas

So in the last entry I meant to do a comment on the orphanage Ky Quang. Its one of the favourite places for volunteers here to work at and I spent a day working there last week. Its for kids with special needs who are not all necessarily orphans- often the parents just cant cope with a kid with those kind of needs and work and everything else. In this society there is no Social Security!

I was impressed by the first sight of the orphanage- the gates are huge and sweeping and very beautiful. The pagoda (or Buddhist temple) welcomes you as you enter and its enormous with many lovely statues and religious artifacts that cost a fortune. Surely I thought, the kids must love living here. How wrong I was.

The orphanage itself is disgusting. It smells. There are hundreds of kids living there and in the main they are very much left to there own devices. Lots of them need special therapy to assist them to thrive and they don't get it. Some kids sleep on the bare metal of a bed frame because they dont have a mattress. Some of the kids have behavioural problems that the nurses deal with by tying them or chaining them to a post. No one entertains the children or makes any effort with them. The food is like swill and I would find it inedible.

I later found out that any money donated to the orphanage will be used by the monks for the pagoda and not for the benefit of the children. Thats why the pagoda is so beautiful and ornate- it has been built with the generosity of Western and Vietnamese donors, using money that was supposed to be used for the benefit of the children.

The most sickening thing I saw at Ky Quang was the 32 year old woman. She has lived there for 20 years and is considered completely "crazy". She is kept tied or chained up 24 hours a day and all the helpers and other kids will come up to her and poke her or spit on her to make her scream. They know that she cannot fight back against them. The nurses partake and encourage this behaviour. No wonder the poor girl is "crazy".

Unfortunately there is nothing to be done in this type of situation. Culturally this is how countries deal with their unwanted children. Its just heartbreaking, not to mention depressing, for people like us to walk in and have to see it, when we know that so much more could be done, and should be done. It would be very easy to adjust to this environment and not see the hearbreak in it when working there every day. I'm so glad that I chose another project and not this one. I would definitely be arrested for shooting my mouth off about it!!

The photos are just a few of the kids. They are mostly left to lie in bed all day- no one makes any effort to stimulate or occupy them. Therefore all the behavioural stuff just gets worse and that is used as an excuse to keep them there.

Think of that next time you are complaining that the bus is late.

Till next time.