Popped Out For Sugar

I was chatting to one of our sponsored boys the other day about his family life, working out who was related to who in which way.......

 

.....he has a younger 'brother' who is really his nephew.......

 

I've known the nephew since his Granny (our boy's mother) bought him to me when he was sick as a baby. He was really very poorly and for a while we weren't sure he would make it - I'm happy to say he's as strong as an ox now and in the third year of primary school.

 

Anyway, I asked about the nephew's mother - I've never met her and I was wondered what had happened to her. It turns out she disappeared when he was sick, around the time I first met him, she said she was going out to buy sugar one day and just never came back - none of the family have seen or heard from her since.

 

It sounds like an old joke doesn't it? But it's not....it's really sad. Another boy in the family was taunting him one day, saying "I've got a mother, where is yours?", so he went and asked his Granny who his mother was......she told him that she's his mother now.

Little Ami and Her Poorly Leg

Ami is the baby sister of one of our sponsored students - a couple of weeks ago she somehow managed to fall onto a nail and injure her leg. For the past few days the leg has been very swollen so her Mum bought her to see me.

 

The injury looks quite deep, and it's obviously very painful for her......it also didn't help that she was scared stiff of me and wouldn't really let me get close enough to have a proper look at it, every time I got near her she screamed the place down.

 

I decided the best thing would be to get her seen by a doctor so I sent her to a local hospital yesterday. The would was cleaned and she was given medication and they have been told to keep it dry - she has to go back later this week for them to take another look.

 

Please pray for healing for Ami.

An Ebola Orphan - Angel

I've been spending quite a bit of time with a young lady I know who survived Ebola, because of the stigma attached to Ebola I'll call her Angel rather than using her real name here.

 

Angel's father became sick so her mother took care of  him.......when her mother started to get sick Angel took over looking after her father.......then Angel became sick too. They were all taken to an Ebola treatment centre. Angel's mother died first, then her father died two days later. Angel waited to die as well, but she surprised herself by recovering - after seeing her parents die she'd fully expected that she would die too.

Angel has three younger sisters and a younger brother, fortunately they all tested negative for the virus.

When Angel was discharged from hospital and returned home everything she owned was destroyed when the house was cleansed. She is now living with her Grandmother along with her younger siblings.

 

Angel is around 18 years old, at the time Ebola was at it's height she should have been starting Form 5 in school (SSS2), but the schools were closed to try to stop the virus spreading. Now that the schools have reopened there is no one to pay for her to go to school. Although the government are paying school fees there are other costs such as uniforms, text books, supplies, extra lessons....the list goes on. Her Grandmother who has suddenly found herself with 5 extra mouths to feed can't afford it.

 

All of Angel's previous school reports were destroyed when the house was cleansed - but she tells me that on her last school report she ranked 8th in her class. Her favourite subject is Cost Accounting and when she leaves school she has dreams of being a bank manager. She has 3 more years left of basic education.

Although she is keen to return to school Angel is scared to go back to her former school because some of the other students know that she had Ebola and she thinks they will mock her......she told me that they laugh at her.

She has already missed the first term of school since the schools reopened, so we have planned to enrol her in a new school when the new school year starts in September.

She is such a sweet, shy, caring, gentle lovely young lady who deserves so much more than life has thrown at her so far.
 

If anyone would like to help Angel with her education please contact me.

A Plumber In The Making

This is Mustapha, he was in our sponsorship scheme but had to drop out of school during SSS3 (the penultimate year of basic education) when his father died.

Around the time of the beginning of the Ebola outbreak he came to see me to discuss his plans for the future. He wanted to take a 2 year plumbing course. I know him to be a determined young man who has tried his best to support his family since losing his father, I thought that given the chance this could be a great opportunity for him to gain a skill and lead to good prospects for future employment for him.

I contacted his previous sponsor who, once I explained the situation, agreed to restart his sponsorship to support him through the course.

He is now nearing the end of the first year of his plumbers training and he's doing really well. Every time I see him he's so excited to be doing the course and is eager to show me what he's learning.

 

Once he qualifies he will be the first person in his family with a skilled trade. He is looking forward to being able to support his family.

I'm hoping that we will be able to assist many of our students to learn a skill once their have finished their basic education and really set them on the road to finding paid employment by the time they leave us.

If you would be interested in sponsoring a young adult to learn a trade please let me know.