Motherly Love

Another day has come and gone at the orphanage with not much new to report. I noticed an extra bed in the newborn room this morning as I was feeding and quickly scanned the room to see a brand new little face in the corner that must had been dropped off in the last 24 hours. It’s overwhelming to think of not only what this little guy has in store for the coming years, but what his mother went through and continues to go through. Some of you may wonder why so many women leave their babies, a heartless and incomprehensible act to many of us Westerners. Allow me to explain a little bit of what I’ve learned.

Many of the children at the orphanage are born to prostitutes and majority of them are born out of wedlock. Women that become pregnant out of wedlock are quickly shunned by the community, and either asked to leave their town or leave on their own out of shame. Forget single parenthood; unless you’re divorced or widowed, you and your children are not accepted in the community. With an orphanage in all of the major cities, some of these women from smaller cities purposefully travel to a place where they know their child may have a chance at life.

Abandoning a child is a whole other challenge. As it is illegal in Morocco to abandon a child, it’s important for the women to leave a baby where they know someone will find it but where she won’t risk being known or caught out of fear of imprisonment. The medina, a busy and crowded location, is a popular place, as well as: hospitals, besides trash cans, and virtually anywhere where people will be guaranteed to be are prime locations here in Morocco.

So, some of you still may ask, “How could they ever do that?” While I don’t know the answer to that and I’m still baffled myself, I learned that unfortunately the story doesn’t stop there. It is common for the husband’s family to inspect bedding after a married couples first night together. If there is no evidence that she is a virgin, the consequences can be tragic. So despite being shunned from her community, moving to a city where she doesn’t know anyone, birthing a child by herself in a dangerous environment, and leaving the tiny being that she grew and brought into the world… Many of these women can never get married and have the family that they always dreamed of and are expected to have. Because of this, the women that weren’t prostitutes before tend to begin to prostitute to make a life for themselves. Don’t even get me started on the women who were impregnated from sexual assault and then blamed for the event!

I commend these women for going through such lengths to ensure their child has a chance. I can only imagine what the mother of the less than one day old newborn is feeling right now. God Bless her!

Yes, this is heavy stuff, and it’s probably not a lot of fun to read. I promise it’s not always like this here, and there have been some fun times as well. But I promised myself this blog would be about what’s on my heart, and not an “Everything is wonderful and I’m saving the children of Africa” blog. I’ll try to mix it up a little and tell you of all the awesome and fun things I’ve been doing as well tomorrow. For now, B’slaama and goodnight!

PS- Thanks to everyone for posting comments!! It totally makes my day to hear from you all!