February 2012

Alleviating the Suffering of Children

You Helped Save the Life of A Drugged Baby Girl

“Nicha” was born in a small and very poor village in Thailand. As an infant, she was kidnapped by a family of professional beggars. Nicha was used as a prop to paint a picture of a poor mother with a sick daughter. Each night, a beggar sat on the bustling streets cradling Nicha in her arms to elicit sympathy and pity from those passing by. But Nicha was not sick. Her captors drugged her with sedatives to make her look ill and lethargic.

Police eventually rescued Nicha and brought her to be cared for by CHF’s ministry partner. When she first arrived, one of the volunteers noticed how lethargic and slow she was. Concerned, the volunteer scheduled Nicha for developmental tests. Within a week, it was clear that there was nothing slow or lethargic about Nicha at all. The lingering effects of the drugs had worn off. She was recovering.

That same volunteer describes Nicha now: “...When I walk past her, she runs up and greets me with her loud voice and huge smile. I asked her the other day whether she liked going to school, and she promptly started to tell me what she liked, who her friends were, and then broke out into song, proudly singing the Thai alphabet!”