Aryan

This has become our first long term project since arriving at MCCSS.  Isabel will be attending a global conference in April at Appalachian State University to talk about the programs at MCCSS, especially the Night Shelter for boys.  Accompanying her this year will be a young boy from the shelter, Aryan*.

Aryan is 11 years old and came to the shelter a little over a year ago I think.  MCCSS was notified about Aryan after his father committed suicide one day while rag picking in the dump yard by setting himself on fire.   Aryan, like most boys living in the short stay home, were rag pickers along with other members of their family.  Most living on the street or in the slums, rag pickers earn little money by sorting through mountains of trash at the dumping grounds, looking for scrap plastic and metal that they can then sell.

Since coming to MCCSS,  Aryan has stopped going to the dumping grounds and is attending school.

This year, funding for the boy’s home has been cut.  This means that there is not an actual program in place to help them.  However, MCCSS still provides a safe place for the boys to come every night after school, to receive a meal, shower and a bed to sleep.  Unlike any young boys that I have ever met, they are completely capable of taking core of themselves.  JB and I are the closest thing to guardians that they have being that we are always here, but they don’t even need us.

They come home from school, do their homework, spend some time playing and are in bed by 10 so they can be up and ready for school the next day.  They, along with all the young girls at the short stay home, all call me Sister.  They smile and joke every time I see them, an re some of the brightest young boys I have ever met.  They are each other’s protectors.  On the inside they are just the same as any other little boy you will ever meet, but on the outside they are toughened, thick skinned.  Some of the things they’ve experienced seem absolutely horrid and unimaginable to us.  But to them it’s life.  They talk about past abuse as if its nothing.  While at first it seems that they are hardened by hardship and incapable of feeling, it’s the exact opposite.

These boys feel love and joy in a way we might not understand because they cherish it.  They know the hardship and the sadness, but rather then allow that to alter their attitude towards life, they let it slide and allow the blessings they’ve received to radiate throughout.

*Name changed for client confidentiality.