A girl I know

 

I met her maybe twice. She barely smiled at me. In fact, it was only as she was walking away the last time I saw her that she turned around, said goodbye and smiled. I met her because she kept running away from home and her mother was a woman that we have helped. Her younger brother is in our sponsorship program.

I am not sure exactly what kind of life Sarah has had. Or rather, I can't imagine living the life that I imagine she has had. She is around the age of 13 and if she was in school she would be in P3. She grew up, not with her mother but an aunt who it seems used her to look after her own kids and house. In this culture Aunt's and Uncle's are not just relatives or extended family. They are mothers and fathers to all their nieces and nephews. In this case however it seems as though this girl was let down by both her biological mother, Florence, and the mothers that culture dictates.

About a year ago Sarah’s Aunt sent her back to Florence to live with her. Florence was sick, in the late stages of HIV/AIDS and possibly thought it would be good to have someone to look after her. In fact I'm told that when people here first met her, that it seemed likely that she would die. Some money was found to help and she did receive medical help and rallied.

Sarah had run away from home, although we didn't hear from Florence straight away. We went to the house where Florence told us how awful her daughter was. As we left the house all the neighbours were saying awful things about this girl. Grown women abusing a 13 year old. We looked for her and found her not far from her house. She had been sleeping at nights in kilns that are used to make bricks. It turns out that some people were helping her mother with some food but in return this girl was forced to go and dig in their gardens. Instead of also offering hope through education to this girl she was exploited. We endeavoured to get her into school and away from her home environment but it seems we were too late. When we went to pick her up again to take her to school we found that she had run away again. And this time she could not be found although we did try to trace her.

The easy assumption to make is that she is selling herself on the streets. A young girl like her with no skills will most likely end up there unless someone has given her a job, maybe as a housegirl.

I tell you this because we heard this week that Florence died. A life wasted by AIDS, an African statistic, a tragedy. As far as we know she leaves behind three children, one of whom is also HIV+. When I met her, although I pitied her for her state in life, I couldn't help be angry also. HIV is an awful disease. But it seems that the neglect of her children started much earlier than that. I don't know her story and I'm sure it is also tragic. Poverty tends to create lives of tragedy. And yet love does not cost anything.

A picture of an african statistical tragedy

(the dark blue dots represent sub-saharan Africa)

So this tragedy leaves a young boy in the care of his older brother who is not able to take care of him and a young girl on the streets somewhere.

I am glad to be able to say that the young boy is sponsored and will continue in school. And this means that we will able to continue to make a difference in his life.

I have met many people here. Coming from the life I have I cannot begin to imagine the effect that poverty has on someone's worldview. But I have met people who respond to poverty with a dignity that I admire and I wonder how they got it? Poverty in itself is degrading. And trying to get out of it can be like trying to get out quicksand. The more you struggle, the more desperate you become, the more unlikely you are to get out.

But there are those who make it and provide hope to not only those who are still struggling but also to me, someone who cannot help but to listen in awe to their stories.

Our organisation Australia HOPE International and our partners are here among other reasons because the ones who make it give us hope that we can change things for the ones who don't.

So for Sarah, where it seems everyone in life has let her down, my only hope is in the one who saved me. Maybe I will never hear what happened to her. But I am praying and believing that someone, somewhere, saw she needed rescuing and is looking after her, that she is part of a family and now knows a love that she has never known before.

Blessings

bron