One of the great tragedies of the refugees is that families have been disrupted in a vast number of cases. Children are without parents and do t know whether father and mother re dead. Aged and infirm men and women have been deprived of those relatives on whom they depended.
The "lame and the halt and the blind" abound among Siccawei's charges, and disease, neglect and malnutrition have left marks on the refugees which even the most expert medical attention cannot erase. Indeed, many come to the camp in dying condition and, especially among the small children, resistance to disease is so small that they become easy victims of common ailments. Often are the priests called to the side of a dying child whom the devoted nursing Sisters cannot possibly save. The Sisters conduct the infirm ary, with some forty beds, where life and death rub elbows. There are many births in this department: and altogether the camp teems with children. The young mothers and the children generally are among those privileged to receive three meals a day, whereas the average refugee gets only two. Benevolent bodies help to furnish rice and other food.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.