(CASA & Children's Advocacy Center)
| How are the Children? By Sandy Barber Check back monthly - this column will be written monthly and posted on this website below. It will also be published in the Bonham Journal, Leonard Graphic, North Texas eNews, Trenton Tribune and Weekly Gazette. We appreciate each of these publications who have partnered with us to protect the children of our community. Their support and generosity is critical to our efforts in child abuse prevention and intervention. Stranger Danger - February 2008
CPS, CASA, CAC, FCCC & FCFCC - who does what? - January 2008
The idea for this column first came up during a strategic planning session. Despite our efforts to inform our community about the Fannin County Children's Center, there continue to be people who have never heard of us. Plus, there is understandably some confusion about the difference is between the Children's Center, CASA, Children's Advocacy Center, Child Protective Services and the Crisis Center. Most importantly, there are children in our community who are being abused and neglected who are depending on adults to respond in order to protect them and give them the chance to grow up safe and healthy. Community education is an important part of preventing child abuse and protecting our children and youth. Then the question arose: what do we call this column? The inspiration came when I was attending a state conference and heard a keynote speech by Texas Supreme Court Justice Harriet O'Neill. In closing her speech, she shared the following story. It's an inspiring one that eloquently describes my vision and focus for this column: children and their well-being. A quick search of Google and I was able to find it to share with you now: How are the Children? Among the most accomplished and fabled tribes of Africa, no tribe is considered to have warriors more fearsome or more intelligent than the mighty Masai. It is perhaps surprising, then, to learn the traditional greeting that passes between Masai warriors. "Kasserian Ingera," one always says to another. It means, "How are the children?" This traditional greeting among the Masai acknowledges the high value that the Masai always place on their children's well-being. Even warriors with no children of their own always give the traditional answer: "All the children are well," meaning, of course, that peace and safety prevail, that the priorities of protecting the young, the powerless, are in place, that Masai society has not forgotten its reason for being, its proper functions and responsibilities. "All the children are well" means that life is good. It means that the daily struggles of existence do not preclude proper caring for the young. I wonder how it might affect our consciousness of our own children's welfare if, in our culture, we took to greeting each other with this daily question: "And how are the children?" I wonder if we heard that question and passed it along to each other a dozen times a day, would it begin to make a difference in the reality of how children are thought of and cared for in our own country? I wonder, if every adult among us, parent and non-parent alike, felt an equal weight for the daily care and protection of all the children in our community, in our town, in our state, in our country, could we truly say without any hesitation, "The children are well; yes, all the children are well." What would it be like if religious leaders began every worship service by answering the question, "And how are the children?" If teachers began every class by answering the question, "And how are the children?" If every town leader had to answer the same question at the beginning of every meeting: "And how are the children?" If every business leader and corporate executive had to answer the same question at the beginning of every work day: "And how are the children? Are they well?" wouldn't it be interesting to hear their answers? What would it be like? I wonder... I wonder... And how are the children? Working together, may all our children be well. |
Fannin County Children's Center
112 West Fifth Street Bonham,TX 75418 USA
Phone: 903.583.4339 Fax: 903.583.3074
Email: info@fanninccc.org