A Right to be Hungry?

In Mae Sot, many children must walk the streets every day, begging for money. For some, their parents will beat them if they don't make enough. For all of them, they are subjected to abuse on the street and are robbed of their childhood. I have seen the marks on their little bodies and can't deny that they've been through hell.

We spend time with these kids when they come to our drop-in center to be loved and fed, and to be a kid for a few hours. We also see them on the street, where they're hot, hungry, and barefoot. We don't give the kids money, but we will feed them. This upsets and irritates a lot of people. Last week, at about 8pm, another staff member and I ran into a couple young boys who told us they were hungry. We took them to a nearby restaurant and bought them dinner. They weren't kidding - they inhaled their food like they hadn't eaten in days. While we watched them with affection and sadness, we noticed that everyone in the room and walking by on the street kept stopping to glare at us, as if we were having dinner with monsters. They were disgusted.

Either independently or out as a group, we have seen and fed these boys about six times since then. I was sitting at a computer with my iced coffee in an air-conditioned coffee shop when I spotted one of the boys getting change from someone in the parking lot. (By the way, his face and the boyishness in his eyes has a striking resemblance to my little brother's at that age). He saw me through the window and ran over to wave. He knew he wasn't welcome inside, so he stood on the other side of the window, smiling. I walked outside and asked him if he was hungry. We both knew just a little Thai as our only common language, so it took a moment to communicate. An American girl walked by, rolled her eyes, and said, "don't do it", as if she was warning me not to do something foolish, like I should've known better. I left with him to get him some food, and when we stepped back out onto the sidewalk afterwards, a shop owner scolded him harshly to go away. I could see his face fall as he obeyed, so I followed him and we walked for awhile. He pointed at his bare feet and at some shoes in a shop, and I was conflicted over what my response should be. True, he might just sell them, but I was also looking at a little boy who didn't have any shoes. When I saw that the shoes were the same price as the iced coffee I was holding in my hand, I couldn't say no. I knew that shop owner, and was so happy that she smiled at the boy and helped him find a pair that fit. And when I saw him just a couple days ago, he was still wearing them!

I feel grateful to be part of these kids' lives, and intensely unsettled by the attitudes I have seen. Another girl had a similar experience this week when she shared some of her chicken with one of the boys. An American man pulled over as he was driving by to say, "you fell for it, huh?" Fell for what, exactly? Is it so hard to believe that a young kid without anyone to look after him, who works on the street in the hot sun for 12+ hours every day, might be hungry? Or is the problem that he's hungry every day, and sometimes maybe even more than once per day? Yes, the kids are good at getting money from people. They have to be. Maybe after seeing them do this day after day and week after week, I'd start to see them differently.

But I sincerely pray I don't.