A traditional tale relates how a man walking
along a beach saw a boy throwing stranded starfish into the waves. When asked
why he was doing this, the boy replied that with the ebbing tide, the starfish
would die from exposure.
The man pointed out that there were miles and
miles of beach and thousands of stranded starfish. What difference could the
boy make? The boy bent down and returned another starfish to the ocean.
"It makes a difference to this one" he said.
The man looked at the boy inquisitively and
thought about what he had said and had done. Inspired, he joined the boy in
throwing the starfish back into the ocean.
The story of the boy and the starfish is core
to the ethos and culture of House of Mercy Children’s Home, Lagos (HOM).
Like these starfish, there are more children in
desperate need than any one of us could possibly hope to reach. Their numbers
are daunting, causing many people to resign themselves to the notion that
nothing they can do can have any real impact on a problem of such magnitude.
At HOM, our focus is on touching lives, one
child at a time.
We are committed to ensuring that
- one more child eats a nutritious meal,
- one more child has decent clothes and shoes,
- one more child learns to read and write
- one more child facing the dangers of life on the streets has somewhere safe to stay.
It may not significantly affect the problem of
global poverty but we know it makes a difference to each child.
Deeply committed to the well-being of children
and wanting to make a positive impact on the communities we serve, HOM was
established to address the most pressing issues facing Nigerian children today
– child hunger, child poverty, child homelessness and child illiteracy. Through
our projects, we want the children to understand that they are not just provided
for materially but that they are loved, valued and cared for.
No matter how overwhelming the facts and
figures are about the pain and misery of children in Nigeria and in the world,
we strive to make a difference in our own small way, one child at a time.
Bunmi Awoyinfa
HOM Lagos
House of Mercy Children’s Home, Lagos (HOM) is
actively involved in various charitable activities including outreach to street
children, child beggars and child scavengers; provision of free meals and free
clothing for needy children; school sponsorship for child beggars and
family-based residential homes for girls and boys at risk. Within the limits of
available resources, we support children in crisis across Africa. www.homchildrenshome.org
Convention on the Rights of the Child
Convention on the Rights of the Child
