This week, our social worker Elias, brought Ocen back to his relatives in the village. When he was brought to Amecet, a couple of months ago, he was not sick or malnourished, he was a bit dull and sad, but that is completely over..... I made this picture some days ago, when they suppose to have their nap. He was standing in his bed, shouting to the other toddlers, to do the same and to make as much noise as possible.. His story is sad, as many stories of the children we get in Amecet. Ocen was brought by two gentlemen and a police officer, one of the two gentlemen said he was the former boyfriend of Ocen's mother. The mother had disappeared. We took Ocen in Amecet and our social workers started to trace for the mother. It should be also the work of the police, but most of the times it is Amecet who is doing this work. Our two social workers, Simon and Elias, are the one's who trace for the relatives of the children in Amecet who are abandoned. Later came out, that the former boyfriend is the real father and the other gentleman is the real grandfather. In a situation like that, we can not just bring Ocen back to his father, knowing that he doesn't want him and might neglect him. We need to bring the child back to his relatives, but it has to be safe!! The social workers found where the mother came from, they traveled to her village and found the grandmother there and uncles and aunties. It was still a process working towards the day that Elias brought him there. The local authorities were involved and at the end Ocen was welcome. The mother was not at home, she is wandering around, but at least there is a home with a grandmother.
On the picture at the right, you see how Ocen gets all the other toddlers into action. They are all under one year old, but they can make a noise!! Ocen taught them to throw everything out of the bed, some of them do this now. It was quiet the first day he was gone, but Esther, the little girl at the left on the picture, is now the leader of the room.... She just started to walk, the other day and she is also cute, but noisy..
Ocen was cute, but he was also very naughty....... Many times he didn't want to listen and sometimes he was even dangerous, climbing on everything etc. The picture left is after one of those times, we put him on the naughty chair for some minutes. And as you see, he doesn't enjoy that at all. He is like every two year old boy would be, fighting for toys, throwing food (sometimes) and not listening.....
But then other times you want to cuddle him so much, he is trying to learn a bit of English and when he walks past the office where I work, he has a big smile and says: good morning, It might be the end of the afternoon, but for him it is "Good morning". He is also compassionate towards the other children, but it is not always working out well. He wanted to help another toddler to take off his bib, but the other child was still weak and when Ocen tried to get his bib off, he pushed the other child on the floor, crying of course.
We see this development as a good thing, a child needs to be naughty at times and noisy, but it is sometimes not easy to have patience with all those toddlers. They are safe in their beds, maybe you see them standing and think, they will fall over, but that never happened before. We keep a close eye on them..
We pray that Ocen will adjust in the village and be the cute , naughty boy we know. That his relatives will love him and care for him....
And we continue to find safe homes for all those other cute, naughty children..........
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