Exchange student starved by host family
Filed under: High school, Eating, Teenager, 15-19 years, In the News
Participating in a student exchange program offers young people the amazing opportunity to experience another culture and explore a different part of the world but still have the safety-net of being under the supervision of a host-family, at least that's the idea.
So imagine the horror of sending your healthy, seventeen-year-old, 155 lb. son to Egypt for the school year and seeing him return too weak to even carry his own suitcase and weighing a skeletal 97 lbs.
This is exactly what the family of Jonathan McCullum experienced. Unknown to the McCullum's, Jonathan was placed with a host family of Coptic Christians, a religion that fasts more than 200 days a year. However, Jonathan didn't place the blame for his lack of nourishment on the cultural or religious difference, he says the family was just stingy and mean with very limited English speaking skills which made communication difficult, while the host father insists the entire story is a lie create by the McCullum's in hopes of financial gain.
"The truth is, the boy we hosted for nearly six months was eating for an hour and a half at every meal. The amount of food he ate at each meal was equal to six people," said Shaker Hanna, the host father. He added that the boy was active, constantly exercising and playing sports.
Families are discouraged to make contact with their children while they are abroad and Jonathan never mentioned his weight loss or constant hunger to his family. When one of Jonathan's teacher's sent the McCullum's an email saying their son was in bad shape and really need to go home, the exchange program assured the family their son had been seen by a doctor was in excellent health.
The Committee for Safety of Foreign Exchange Students, a nonprofit advocacy group, said exchange programs are rampant with instances of abuse and neglect. "This is not an isolated incident. I'm aghast but I'm not shocked," the committee's director, Danielle Grijalva said after hearing McCullum's story.
I can completely see my older sons responding to this situation the same way as Jonathan did, staying silent and not wanting to appear babyish or weak by complaining. That's why I think any trips abroad before the kids are old enough to afford to paying for it own their own will be taken and shared with their all-the-time family.
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