Suffer Little Children: An Autobiography of a Foster Child

Venera Fazio is a social worker in New Brunswick.

O’Brien endured every conceivable form of child abuse. When he was
five years old, the social service department of St. John’s,
Newfoundland, apprehended him and his two younger brothers. In his
parents’ home he was “always cold, hungry and dirty,” but as a
foster child, he was equally neglected and often more cruelly treated.
Now 33 years old, he here reveals his experiences in four foster-home
placements and at Mount Cashel Orphanage. He writes a
consciousness-raising book, protesting the inadequate care of foster
children.

O’Brien has a natural, conversational style and an excellent memory;
he describes incidents of abuse with a sensitivity that gives this book
its emotional impact. The reader empathizes with his suffering and is
likely to feel anger toward both the perpetrators of the abuse and the
responsible authorities.

This is an eye-opening book for foster guardians and child protection
authorities. The orphanage staff routinely abused the residents
sexually, emotionally, and psychically. Only one set of foster parents
loved and treated O’Brien well. Another can be described as sadistic.
These parents treated him as if he were a dog. He slept under the
basement stairs, stood at the table to eat, was physically abused daily,
and had to use the dump as a washroom.

A welfare worker who visited this home considered the placement
“ideal,” according to a report released in a public inquiry many
years later. This report and others from the author’s childhood
records provide objective support for the author’s allegations of
neglect and incompetence by authorities.

He remains angry at the welfare workers; in the epilogue, he makes
sweeping statements of condemnation. By failing to be fair in
acknowledging the changes that have been made in child welfare policies
in the past 15 years, he unfortunately renders his book dated. The last
chapter is a summary of O’Brien’s adult years. It is far too brief,
presenting an unclear, unfinished adult portrait. The last chapter and
the epilogue are the book’s weakest sections. It is the inner life of
the abused child that stays with the reader.