Helping A Child

Imagine that a pandemic has occurred. A seven-year-old homeless child shows up at the border of your property. This child has not eaten in two days and seems very hungry. He/she asks you for something to eat. Are you going to turn him/her away out of fear?

My church supports a orphans in Nigeria, We directly support about 40 orphans, It is costing a ton of money, and there is no middle man! We are helping with money, supplies, oxen, generators, digging wells.There are tens of thousands that need help just in the immediate area. Our senior pastor  and son just got back..... it is heartbreaking but in reality there is a limit to what you can do. I think that each of us is going to decide what that limit is.

You could put on a mask and leave some food outside. Tuning people away to die?? I don't know if I could live with myself. I couldn't do it. I hope it doesn't come to this.

I think we would make decisions on a case by case basis.

A child alone without food - we'd find a way to safely provide what we could to the child without close contact until if and when we determined that the child was healthy.

We will probably find ourselves helping a few friends who have refused to take the threat seriously. I know this will compromise our preps and shorten the time we can survive without new suppiles, but I couldn't sentence dear friends to death by starvation because they were stupid. I've been stupid a time or two myself.

While we would do what we can to minimize exposure, my husband would probably continue to work for as long as possible so it would be a balancing act anyway.

Since I work from home anyway, I could continue as long as we had power, phone lines and my employer had billable work for me. A lot of "Ifs". More than likely, the companies they provide services to would stop purchasing new processes and upgrades so the work would dwindle or stop, regardless of utility services.
Potential loss of income concerns me, but I cannot control everything.

My biggest concern is still the lawlessness that would no doubt follow a pandemic. The lazy and the criminals who would take advantage of the situation and run wild.

I'm sure I would be prepared to exercise more caution if we had children at home to protect. In our case, our only child is already gone so we wouldn't be putting our own at risk by helping someone else.

I , unfortunately , have to agree with  worrywart. I have done the best that I can to prep for this pandemic. We are not the united way or the red cross.  We have cut back to the essentials and in order to prep,  We just canceled our vacation.  We have taken our refund money ahd have brought more preps.  We have done all that we can do to prep for the bird flu.  I know that this si painful but we must maintain social isolation and quarrentine.   We both have tamiflu and are gettng plenty of water.  we now have that 90 day supply of water,  

tainted, removed

    
    

Edited by Gravitation - April 23 2006 at 7:29am

I would be taking that child in -isolate him untill the chance of infection had passed but after that hed be a part of our family.

 

 when the sh*t hits the fan , there will be no easy answers,   roxy

I just discussed the topic at hand with my husband. He thinks we should up an area for the child and feed and house it. -that's one child-how about others.-i think it is good that we are thinking about possible scenerios, but please don't pass judgement. the end outcome is that nobody really knows what one would do until it happens.
I'm sorry I posted my thoughts- I'm not a heartless person at all, but I will not risk my family's life, that's all I can say.I'll stick to that. the situaion does not have a be and "all or none" event. Perhaps , if utilities are still functioning, one could call for help etc.

I will probably help the child, but taking precautionary measures in the process, just in the event the child is contaminated.

As for me and in my opinion, I would try to help the child even if that means giving him a hug because he just lost all of his loved ones. I am not afraid of dying, I am not afraid of catching pandemic flu. Don't get me wrong, I don't desire to catch it either. I am a realist though and I realize that at some point we are all going to have to develop antibodies and there will not be a vaccine for a long time that will be trustworthy. My entire desire in life is to hear my Savior say "well done my good and faithfull servant so I will follow what I believe He would want me to do. I have prepped so that I can help people. I hope that I can live up to that. God will provide. Just my opinion from my heart and not a lecture toward anyone.

Maranatha!

I too would help a child and not turn them away . That not the world I want to survive in. I will have extra rice anyway for some one and stretch it.

It probally is a good idea to make plans for a lost child food provisions extra rice flour sugar salt .

A indoor tent is probally a good idea extra masks and or creating a separate ventalation system for the sick child cut of the furnace vent open a window, summer only.

Gowns would be good investments now. They wore two for sars masks googles earplugs hoods.       

Edited by Deanna - April 18 2006 at 9:07am

Adults are one thing. All the talk about the flu has been on the news at least once or twice a week for a long time. So there is really no reason for adults/parents not to know about the potential situation.Kids are something else. I couldn't see surviving the flu just to be able to not live with myself becuase I turned away a child. I'd rather have stocks of extra food (which I'll do) for just such a situation.

I will have to agree with Deanna. If turning away helpless children is what it would take to survive, I do not want to survive the pandemic. Imagine living in a world of cold, heartless "survivors" who turned away the most innocent of all of us!

LL

ps - I must also say that none of us really know how we will react until the storm begins.

The child would be put somewhere safe in quarantine, the child would be given all the neccessities I have to offer.  If my husband or I were to die of this disease and our children left parentless, I'd hope that there would be some one with a heart to give my children the care they'd need. God willing. If that were my child, I'd hope someone would be human enough to give them care. For I'd do it to a neighbor's child if I had to. 

 At least it was just your hubcaps and not your truck! 

tainted, removed

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Edited by Gravitation - April 23 2006 at 7:29am

FC wrote: 'Before putting it into isolation, it has to be decontaminated and given a change of clothes'

That is the same as hosing down in terms of semantics. What's more 'it' is less than a term of endearment. Children are humans remember?

Pehaps you could provide your children training in decontaminating themselves and hang a sign round their necks saying 'CLEAN' to save others having to cope.

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tainted, removed

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Edited by Gravitation - April 23 2006 at 7:29am

Under each posting is a report button, which one can use to report  problem individuals. I have just used it !

LOL 

The button is for reporting posting problems, not problem individuals.  If you can't stand a critique, you shouldn't engage in social discourse.