Why are these children shunned in this uncivilised society?

Had they been given a choice – knowing that they’d be abandoned within weeks of their existence – they, likely, would have refused being born into this broken world.

[What does it mean to exist, anyway? Is it the act of breathing and being in the flesh? Is it that others acknowledge that you are alive? Is it an act of consciousness, experiencing one’s own ‘reality’?]

You are to travel nearly 60 minutes outside the city (Cairo) to visit this orphanage – which leaves you feeling as though you are moving away from ‘civilisation’ into this very remote world of children who are forcibly lost.

You probably think we’re overthinking things.

Perhaps. But at the very least, we’re thinking.

To add insult to injury, the orphanage is owned and operated by good hearted incompetence – juxtaposed with being regulated by corrupt incompetence.

‘In the grand scheme of things, though, these children have been given another chance’, some will say.

Another chance to be orphaned off in a broken, evil, incompetent world? How disconnected you are, you poor soul.

The sad truth is, they are labelled for the remainder of their existence – ‘created an orphan’. They will be forever treated as outcasts; treated differently as they navigate institutions.

[Imagine the seeds of psychological and emotional trauma that are planted and replanted, again, and again, and again – beginning in childhood. Those golden years of childhood.]

Unless, of course, by some audacious miracle, they can escape this merciless environment – one that so ignorantly and arrogantly accuses them of having been born.

They address volunteers/staff as “Captain” so and so.

What they don’t yet realise is, in our broken, putrid, merciless world, THEY are the special ones.They are saints.