PRESIDENT'S LETTER

I just finished reading a heart-wrenching book called "The Jewish Hospital" by Jonathan Hammel. The story is set in Berlin, Germany, in 1941 and 1942 — one of the darkest times in the history of the known world — and the story is told from the perspective of a young Jewish nurse, Lena, who served in the hospital until she was arrested and the Nazis sought to deport her to Theresienstadt.

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The Jewish Hospital in Berlin still exists today. It was a real place where the mostly Jewish staff during the Holocaust were kept on, serving the community, even as they watched their ranks reduced when the Nazis forced hospital administrators — many of them Jewish themselves — to choose who would go next among the adult and child patients and staff.

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The story, rooted in true history, captures the pain, horror and indignity of making impossible choices. It also reveals incredible humanity, bravery and quiet resistance, and shows the protection afforded to children — protection that came at great cost to the souls who worked in that hospital. The book's ending fast-forwards 40 years past the Holocaust to reveal the fruit of the bravery behind saving those children.

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The choices made to save children spoke loudly to me. There are children in our community here who need to be saved. Niños Incapacitados took care of a three-year-old who would have succumbed to brain damage without an operation he desperately needed. We serve another three-year-old who needs dialysis and must travel to Guadalajara for treatment that involves not just medical care, but transportation. We keep bedbound young people with profound disabilities on our rolls — young people who would not survive without our intervention, sustained over years.

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We can do this because this community has supported us with time and money. This community has chosen to support children who need this help. Saving children is always the right thing to do. Here, in our community, it is an easy choice.

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We welcome children into our program routinely, as part of our ongoing work. It is our profound honor to perform this service. And you have made it possible.

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Lydia Bodin
President, Niños Incapacitados

PS — Read the book. As difficult as it is, there is light at the end of it. It reminded me that I may not always see the outcome for every child, but I am certain that the work we do will bear fruit for years to come.