Diane Sawyer came to Camden and filmed the plight of poor children for ABC’s
program 20/20. It was broadcasted on Friday, January 26, 2007. Her visit was
to an urban desert where the nurture of nature and beauty is torn from the
children. A few children appear on the program. Their words and their lives
of poverty are a cry to the people of America.
Diane Sawyer and her colleagues spent over a year chronicling the lives of these young children to bring forth the desperate state of poverty in the poorest city of the richest nation on earth. It should be required viewing for the President of the United States, and indeed, everyone in America. It is about America. Not just one small city of 79,000 people. It is local and universal at the same time.
Camden City is bankrupt. It has a murder rate seven times the national average. It is a place where too many children are destroyed.
Thank you for visiting SacredHeartCamden.org. I hope you can visit the 20/20 piece to see and hear the children.
One of the beautiful children that smiled at the nation was Alicia Santiago, a 7th grader at Sacred Heart School. Her mother, who gave birth to her at an age far too young, has a job in a nursing home with ungodly hours. Every morning, Alicia has to be ready at 4:30 AM to be taken with her young brother and sister to their grandmother’s house and there they wait for school time to go to Sacred Heart. When asked by Diane Sawyer “if you had a dream, you could have anything you wanted, what would it be? Alicia answered: “that my mom would get a better job.”
In spite of all her burdens, by some miracle of God, she is a smiling child
at Sacred Heart School. We thank God for Alicia Santiago. As Isaiah said:
“A little child shall lead them.” A little child does at Sacred
Heart.
