September 13, 2022

Listening to their story while sitting in their rusted tin and mud shack tacked onto a weathered fence where the holes in the leaky roof had left a baby footprint in the dried mud beneath my feet, it was hard to keep from crying.

The tiny foot print spoke volumes to me of what this young girl has been through. With a baby at age 14, the sole care giver for herself, her baby and her 7-year-old special needs little sister, Joari was trying to keep it all together in the shack that looked like it had been pieced together with pieces of tin.

Joari had never known her mother. Her “sometimes” father appeared occasionally to abuse Joari and her seven year old little sister, below, and disappeared again leaving her to fend for herself and her little family.

The sadness weighing this little special needs girl down filled the house. Then a cousin, below, with a baby moved into the one room shack with them.

There was no light in the house except what filtered in thru the holes in the mud. The cousin said life was just too bad where she was staying.

I couldn’t imagine a place worse than what we were seeing.

As they told their story I could feel the despair on their faces.

We saw Joari’s kitchen where she cooked what little food she had for her family. She had told Anna there were times when she would not eat so the children would have enough. Their bathroom, without water, was a hole in the ground with sticks and a cloth for privacy.

We moved them out. We had to. Now they are safe at Neema Village. The father does not know where they are and hopefully he cannot find them. The move was easy, just a few bags of clothes and some pots were all they owned. Today the children have warm beds and blankets and there is food in their tummies. Erik Tryggestad, CEO and President of The Christian Chronicle helped us move them. Actually, I think we were all pretty moved that day.

On a later note, the little family all came to church Sunday and were prayed over and then invited to lunch at the baby home after church. They have moved into our Jeffrey Scott May MAP Houses where there is electricity and a stove to cook on, sinks with running water to wash dishes and a bathroom and shower. It must feel a bit like Heaven.

They attended the Women’s Rights class last week and will begin meeting with other women who have also been abused, abandoned and left destitute. They will start Bible classes, sewing and other events offered to women in the next few weeks.  Anna, our MAP Director, says they are so young she is going to be their momma.  We have hired a counselor to try to get them to a place where they can even begin to think about starting a business. 

Joari had told Anna, I wanted to run away and leave them all but I couldn’t. Since we deal with abandoned babies and moms at Neema Village it is good to hear a mom say, I just couldn’t leave them.