Crying children are heart-breaking if it is for a good reason. I cannot stand it when a child is sad.
There are so many children who do not have parents who care, and some become aggressive other becomes sad.
It is so important to find out why they are actually, crying as it is sometimes something very important you can help with.
I am sitting thinking of one very cold winter when some of my children from a family did not come to school.
There was no way to contact the parents as they did not have a telephone and were living in a caravan park.
I decided to go out there and find out what the problem was, maybe they needed help as they could all be sick.
When I stopped at the place they were living the father came outside and greeted me very friendly.
I said, what is the problem are they all sick why are they not coming to school.
He sort of gave me the impression he did not want to invite me in and I said, it is cold out here can we go inside.
He hesitated for a second or two then said okay come in it is very cold.
What I found inside broke my heart into millions of pieces.
Here were all these children sitting with a piece of dry bread eating, around a pot with boiling water to become a little warmer.
These were good people and they did not want to ask for help.
I felt so bad and asked what had happened.
The father told me that they were cutting workers from his job and last in first out.
This meant that about 50 of the workers were told they did not have a job anymore as they all fell into the group of the last 50 that had started working there.
They had no food and they were dying of cold that is why he kept them around the hot water pot to keep them warm.
They were too ashamed to ask for help, and I am so glad that I did go out there; otherwise I do not know what would have happened to these children.
Of course I did not go to the welfare as these children were normally well fed and looked after, but I did go to the church and explained the situation.
They jumped in as well as some of my teachers, and we got them warm school clothes, and the church brought food and warm clothes from their stock that people have been donating.
I cannot tell you how happy I was to see the children in school the next day.
They were not crying but laughing. They were happy just being warm and not hungry.
I do realize that some people just do not know how to ask for help, but people never doubt that you will be helped.
The children at school and nobody but the teachers at school knew what happened.
It is something you keep to yourself just to make these people realize it is not too difficult to ask for help from the right people.
We helped the father get a new job at the mine and, that meant housing as well things just got better from there.
Never let your children suffer if you can help it.
Ask your school principal and your church for help.
I am sure they will never talk about it but they will always help.
Thank you for reading my true story.
Have a wonderful day here from the Wild Coast.
