The Next Time You're Ready To Complain, Consider This

I have noticed that a lot of people in the blogosphere like to complain. Actually, sometimes it borders on whining. I may even have been guilty of that a time or two.

If you think your life is rock-bottom horrible or that you're poor, you may reconsider after reading the following true story from West Africa.

Unfortunately, I don't think throwing money at the African governments (some of which are clearly corrupt) is going to solve these problems. All I can do is pray for people in this situation and be grateful to God for what He has blessed me with.

Best Wishes,
Allen

West Africa: Impoverished Families Trade Their Children

UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
NEWS
June 16, 2005
Posted to the web June 16, 2005

Cotonou

Thousands of children are taken each year from the poorest regions of West Africa and trafficked abroad for profit. Often, their own families are behind the trade.

It was just after his father died that 10-year-old Dieudonne was put to work farming in his hometown of Zakpota, Benin. But after barely a week, his uncle put him in a car and took him to work at a quarry over the border in Nigeria.

When Zenabou was eight, her older sister working in Gabon sent a friend to collect her from her parents' home in Sokode, central Togo. But the promised schooling never materialised and Zenabou was set to work first as her sister's unpaid domestic worker, then as a market trader.

Zakpota and Sokode are impoverished regions in two of the world's poorest countries, where the majority of the population scratch out an existence on less than a dollar a day, according to UN figures.

Read the rest of the story here...