No Room at the Table: Earth's Most Vulnerable Children

Rating:
Summary: An appeal to our consciences and hearts
Review: Donald Dunson has traveled the world and spent time with, reached out to, and listened to the children whose stories he tells in this profoundly moving little book. On these pages we meet children who've had their childhood, their humanity and any sense of their own worth stolen from them, as they are forced find a way to survive in a cruel and uncaring adult world: kidnapped to fight in brutal civil wars, forced to flee for their lives from their own country, fending for themselves in crowded refugee camps, homeless and officially invisible on the streets of Kampala. However, the sorry litany of the inhuman treatment these children have endured is not the end of the story...The real story presented here is the difference that someone caring, paying attention, reaching out and offering hope and encouragement can make to the millions of these children in third world and first world countries. Stolen childhoods and innocence can't be returned, but lives can be given a sense of worth and direction and the hope that we are one family, as has been done in the Kenyan hospice for HIV-positive orphans, Nyumbani, where the children have a wonderful sense of mutual support and community.
If your heart has already been opened to suffering and injustice in this world, I recommend this beautiful book, and if your heart is complacent and comfortable and secure, I recommend this important book to resuscitate your soul.

Rating:
Summary: Not Suitable for Children
Review: The news media has already informed us of the world's youngest victims of poverty, violence, sexual abuse, and disease, but Fr. Dunson has given these children a personal identity. In each story, from Uganda to El Salvador, we know the children's names, their fear, their struggle, and their resolve. Sometimes there is hope and when it is absent, Fr. Dunson convincingly assures the reader that not only can we make a difference in their lives, but we have an obligation to make that difference.

Fr. Dunson sounds a call to action: "A just, humane, and compassionate world community would never tolerate the massive indifference shown today toward the unnecessary suffering of children. Humanity's real weapons of mass destruction are hunger, preventable disease, and indifference - and these weapons of mass destruction are killing our children as we watch. Ultimately, there is no such thing as other people's children."

While reading the book, BBC News reported over 200 people were massacred in a refugee camp in Uganda. They interviewed a 14 year old boy, Innocent, who witnessed his parents being hacked to death. Three weeks later (3/21/04), BBC did a follow-up on Innocent's life in an orphanage. This news report and No Room at the Table convinced me that I must take greater action. Acts of solidarity with children are offered in the book's conclusion. The last page is a prayer by Archbishop Tutu: Peace for the Children of God.

Rating:
Summary: Not Suitable for Children
Review: The news media has already informed us of the world's youngest victims of poverty, violence, sexual abuse, and disease, but Fr. Dunson has given these children a personal identity. In each story, from Uganda to El Salvador, we know the children's names, their fear, their struggle, and their resolve. Sometimes there is hope and when it is absent, Fr. Dunson convincingly assures the reader that not only can we make a difference in their lives, but we have an obligation to make that difference.

Fr. Dunson sounds a call to action: "A just, humane, and compassionate world community would never tolerate the massive indifference shown today toward the unnecessary suffering of children. Humanity's real weapons of mass destruction are hunger, preventable disease, and indifference - and these weapons of mass destruction are killing our children as we watch. Ultimately, there is no such thing as other people's children."

While reading the book, BBC News reported over 200 people were massacred in a refugee camp in Uganda. They interviewed a 14 year old boy, Innocent, who witnessed his parents being hacked to death. Three weeks later (3/21/04), BBC did a follow-up on Innocent's life in an orphanage. This news report and No Room at the Table convinced me that I must take greater action. Acts of solidarity with children are offered in the book's conclusion. The last page is a prayer by Archbishop Tutu: Peace for the Children of God.