allisoncallahan - One Among the Many

This has been a hard week for me. Not only is school over with and I do not get to see my kids everyday, but I have heard some very sad stories. One of my teammates and I have decided to support a few students from our school for the coming years so the head teacher wanted us to hear about the students' lives directly from them. We talked with one 14 year old girl in grade 7 for a while and it brought me to tears. This young girl, Sebenzile, lost her father in 2000, her mother last month, and is living with her 18 year old brother. Her mother left her 20 Emalangeni when she died, which is the equivalent of just under $3. She does not have any family members living besides her brother who is not in school and does not have a steady job. They have no money and therefore she has no money for food, much less school fees. As she was talking about her situation she started to cry, and the desperation of her situation hit me hard. What hit me almost harder than her story is the fact that she is not the only child in Swaziland in this situation. There are countless orphans in Swaziland who have no place to go and no way of acquiring food. The head teacher tried to encourage her and took some time to explain to her the importance of trying to be strong. The head teacher made sure to tell her not to resort to selling her body for food, because she will be approached by men for that reason. It's hard to believe that this is definitely not an uncommon situation in this country or in the world. I often feel like, well there is no way for me to help every orphan in Swaziland so is it really going to make a difference if I only help one? However, I have been called to help orphans even if it is just one. I have to trust that God is bigger than Sebenzile and her situation, as well as every other orphan's situation in Swaziland and He knows each one.