Since March 2017, the Agandi Foundation has been running the Safe Harbor House, in which children from 0-12 years old find shelter. Children abandoned by their own parents, thrown in the dustbin, left in the banana forests, tossed to hospitals, hotels, at other people's doors, children who are left to die by their mothers. We are often their only hope for survival and a dignified life.
There are about 25 children in Safe Harbor, but since the beginning of our home, over 60 children have gone through it. Thanks to close cooperation with the police, we sometimes manage to find parents, grandmothers, grandparents and other relatives who take care of children.
Children's stories are very difficult. They suffer even from the first hours of life.
I brought Charles home early in the morning on a rainy Easter Monday. The boy was given to me when he was still covered with blood, with the umbilical cord not even cut off. His mother left him on the street right after birth without any cover or protection. Were it not for the priest passing that, who heard his crying and took him to the police, the boy would not survive. For a long time we fought for his health, because at the time of critical Charles weighed less than 1 kilogram! But today, the boy is growing very well, growing beautiful, crawling, smiling at everyone who looks at him!
Bettie is the first kid to live with us. When I saw her for the first time, I was asked how much I judged her age. I answered five, maybe six months. The truth shocked me. Bettie was over a year old! She was so terribly tiny, skinny, weak. She barely moved. Her mother is a drug addict who left her at home alone for long hours and sometimes days and disappeared in search of drugs. Little Bettie survived thanks to a dog mother in the neighborhood who fed her like one of her young. The girl, with proper nutrition and care, quickly recovered, began to smile, interest in the world around her! After a year, Bettie runs with us, laughs, starts talking and rules the whole House! 😀