In yesterday's post I commented on how I was increasingly of the impression that the best that one could do in the fight against girl trafficking was to make a significant "dent" in the problem; sadly I feel that the scale and economics of human trafficking makes the fight unwinnable given the limited resources a Trust like mine can muster. However, I added that I felt one had to continue to try to make that dent else one forfeits one's right to remain part of humanity.
After reading my post my wife Bev reminded me of the content of an amazing obituary we had read recently. It was for Polish lady Irena Sendler who passed away this month at the age of 98. During the war, as a gentile social worker, she risked her life to save 2,500 Jewish children from certain death by smuggling them out of the Warsaw ghetto. Later in the war she was captured and in return for her courage was tortured by the Gestapo.
Of course it could be argued unkindly that this heroism had but a modest impact given the scale of the Holocaust. Indeed, at the end of her days Irena herself remained haunted by the thought of how she could or should have done more. Nevertheless last year she was honoured by the Polish senate which had no doubt about her contribution as a national heroine. She had made that significant dent. Irena was too frail to attend the ceremony, but instead one of those children she rescued read out a letter in which she stated "Every child saved with my help is the justification of my existence on this Earth, and not a title to glory".
I am very pleased to share that philosophy, not least in the context of the motivation, professional background and beliefs of my first wife, Esther Benjamins.
