Hope for a Future

Hope for a Future

The story of Adana and Abezu, two children being helped by Remember the Poorest.

By Krista Allen

Hope, we try to grasp it, holding it tightly lest it slip through our fingers. Like a homeless toddler clinging to a moldy piece of bread, we fear to loose it. Between rusty aluminum roofs and mud houses, hope lingers. In the children running barefoot across the littered streets, hope lingers. In the grandmother raising her children’s children hope holds fast. Hope is what keeps this neighborhood from succumbing, completely to death.

Hope sifts through the fingers as the mother sits by her last child covered with sores breathing her final breath, the fourth of her children to die of HIV/AIDS in the past four years. With a shrug of her shoulders the childless mother falls to the floor silent. Hope evaporates as the mother sits on the corner waiting for someone to drop a coin into her open palms her last attempt to sell kolo failed. Hope has vanished when the boy turns to stealing to survive on the streets. Amidst the broken glass and discarded bottle caps, hope joins the refuse, left for children to trample, horses to run over, and dogs to lie in. Here among the poor, hope is discarded with the ease that last month’s dirt is washed from the body. Hope is a commodity to expensive to afford.

I am here attempting to pull the hope back out of the streets, dust it off, and give it to those in need. Hope should not become refuse. In my quest for hope I look to the story of 12 year old Abezu Abera and her brother, 19 year old Adana. Tese two children knew hope once. They were born in Metahara, the salt mining region of Ethiopia. Here the children helped the family by herding sheep and goats. Their father was a sugar cane cutter at the Metahara sugar cane plantation. The family was not wealthy but they had their needs provided for. They were filled with a hope for a bright future and life together.

Tragedy, inevitably, was close at hand. Tragedy covets hopes place and will do anything to destroy it. Tragedy orchestrated an accident which badly injured the other brother. For some time the family cared for him, hoping he would recover. But hope seemed useless, the young boy’s injures were too severe and he died beginning the family’s displacement. The mother came to Nazret while the father and five remaining children stayed Metahara. It wasn’t long before tragedy’s jealousy flared once more. In 2001, their father became ill. When he was unable to care for the youngest children, Abezu and one of her sisters, he brought them to their mother in Nazret.

Their mother was struggling. Life in Nazret was not easy. She engaged in various kinds of day labor in order to support herself and the children. On May 6, 2002 the children’s father passed away. All five children came to live with their mother at this time. Hope was rapidly losing ground. One of the girls is epileptic and in need of constant care and attention which presented the family with further difficulties. Their struggles continued. The children tried to help by selling boiled eggs and roasted grain, but their mother could not adequately care for them. Greatly saddened by this she sent Abezu and Adana to live with her brother hoping things would be better for them. Hope seemed to fail, one more time. A member of their uncle’s household harmed Abezu which caused Adana to fight with his uncle. He fled from the house following the quarrel. Poverty had forced him to the streets.

Abezu’s mother faced despair in the wake of her son’s flight to the streets. Tragedy laughed wickedly tasting vicory. The mother’s only son had become a street child and she seemed powerless to resist. Her heart was truly broken and she was determined to give up hope as so many of her neighbors had. Then she heard of RPC and the work they do to help suffering children. Mustering her remaining hope she brought Abezu here seeking assistance. Tragedy’s laughter was cut short as hope quietly reclaimed its favored place.

Abezu was accepted to RPC on May 6, 2004. She was then able to attend school regularly for her tuition was paid and she was provided with the materials she needs to learn. She also began to receive medical treatment when ill, clothing, soap, and hair oil. She has places to play that are safe and an opportunity for tutoring if she nees it Abezu is once more living with her mother.

Currently, 2009, Abezu her mother and two of her sisters are living together. They do not have their own home but are living in the rented room of a sick old man. Their room is located in a mud and cement building back behind other cement buildings divided into rooms. The Abezu and her family live in is a long narrow room, divided in half by a half cement wall. It is a small space of which Abezu’s family inhabits half of and the old man the other half. They have a bed, a dresser, and a chest in which to keep their belongings. They have electricity but no window, kitchen, or bathroom.

Abezu is happy. She doesn’t have much but she is with her mother and her mother has received relief. Abezu attends school, she is learning in grade five. She ranks in the top ten out of 50 plus students in her class. She is thin buy not malnourished. Her arms and legs have muscle and fat on them. She is happy, her hope has been restored.

Adana left his uncle’s home hopeless. He turned to a life of crime. He stole and fought. He had no place to sleep and little to eat. At this point of his complete despair he came to RPC. He was given a chance to shower, to eat a good meal, and received clean clothing. Hope wanted to return to his life. In time it did. Through the assistance of RPC he was able to find a place to live and began to receive training as a hairdresser. Recently he has started going back to school. He is learning tin grade nine and hopes to one day go to university and study sociology. He has been reconciled with his mother. He is unable to live with her because here in not enough room but he visits her often. Their family has been reunited.

For this family hope has sustained them. Life has been cruel to them and to those they care about but now they have each other. They have food to eat and the children are receiving an education. They have plans for the future, plans that can pull them from their poverty and give them a chance at a better life. These plans will never reach fulfillment unless they have hope. Hope that is fostered by the care others are willing to give them. They are thankful to RPC and to God for all that has been done to restore their lives.

Their story is a success story. It is our prayer that their lives will continue to be lived with hope. That as struggles come their way they may see them through and someday their lives will be better. We too give thanks to God for the work he is doing in their lives that is bringing about a future. Hope, when allowed to persist, slowly works to transform lives.

Picture :: The shower at RPC for the street children