What it Really Means Not to Have Security

Tragedy recently struck one of our fellow teachers at St. Mathias. Alex, whose son is one of our best students in Standard 7, came to school a couple of weeks ago and told us that his parent’s home had burnt down. Losing their home not only meant losing their shelter, but it also meant that all of their maize, which was supposed to last them for another 8 months, was gone. Because of our relationship with Alex and his son this tragedy hit us too, so we decided to help the family out. Last week we drove with Alex to his parent’s house to deliver 300kgs of maize and several blankets to help alleviate part of their suffering. After a difficult drive through village roads, across a maize field and down a steep quarry, we arrived at their home and were instantly struck by how vulnerable these people truly were. Alex’s parents are very old and their house isn’t close to any neighbors or source of water, so we were immediately picturing what it must have been like to watch their home burn helplessly. After we delivered our donation, Alex’s father explained to us that when he saw the fire taking everything they had all he wanted to do was run into the fire and end his own suffering. There is not really much anyone can say to make everything ok for this couple but as they begin to rebuild their lives we are thankful that we could help in some small way.

I have to say though that this experience, one week later is haunting me and I cannot stop thinking about the lack of security people in the villages have. If “all the stars are aligned” things can appear to be okay for villagers. But when you think of the countless things that can happen, such as fire, a poor maize harvest, serious illness, caring for orphaned relatives, etc., you realize that there is no margin for error. If any of these things strike a family all of their work to barely make ends meet gets washed away and they become basically helpless. Thousand of grandparents like Alex’s parents are now caring for a half-dozen or more of their orphaned grandchildren. They’re just not prepared for that. One of the goals of Goods for Good in supporting CBO’s caring for orphans is to alleviate this demand on people who are simply ill equipped to handle it on their own. Visiting Alex’s parents didn’t show us anything we didn’t know already, but it did serve as a strong reminder the risk people here are facing and how important it is to help them deal with today and prepare for tomorrow.