I have had a very inspiring morning attending a "Journey for Change" presentation at the Auckland cbm office. CBM used to be called Christian Blind Mission. It has a 100 year history and is now involved with many other types of disability in 13 countries, so the name/logo is now simply cbm. Check out their website here. I was inspired to be reminded yet again how easily we - who in world terms are rich - can contribute to changing the life of a child or adult who is living with a disability and in poverty. Disability + poverty = almost no chance for a full life. Disability + poverty + being a child = loneliness, rejection and limited opportuntities for education or being seen as a valued person with abilities. cbm changes lives every day - every 47 seconds in fact! Somewhere in the world a person is given back their sight by a cataract operation every 47 seconds. For an adult this costs $35 dollars. For a child the amount is $230. I had cataract surgery myself a few years ago and it was many times that amount!
Thursday 13th October is World Sight Day - which I didn't know until this morning!
So where do ducks come in? Well driving home from cbm there was a mother duck with about ten tiny ducklings crossing the busy road with traffic coming both ways. All the traffic stopped until the mother had shepherded her flock safely across the road. I couldn't help thinking how compassionately we cared about a mother duck and her "children" and wondered if we do the same for mothers in poverty who desperately want fullness of life for their children - children like Justine and Ben.
