Plight of Pakistan’s abandoned children

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – The story about the worsening economy in Pakistan can be seen in the plight of children at the Edhi Welfare Center in Karachi – it has meant more children being dropped off.

This week, the scale of the suffering drew media attention after three mothers, members of an extended family, abandoned eight children at once.

Bilquis Edhi, wife of the center’s founder, 80-year-old, Abdul Sattar Edhi, told journalists that it was unprecedented that eight children with living parents were brought to them.

“The three women came together to my center,” she said. “They asked me to please take their children; they could no longer feed them.”

“The mothers were sobbing as they tried to leave the children and the children were crying clinging to their mothers,” Edhi said. “It was heart wrenching to watch.”

NBC News

One of the little boys abandoned at a welfare center in Karachi cries while answering questions from journalists.

All of the children seemed scared and unaware of why their mothers were leaving them at the welfare center.
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