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I want to tell the life story of Gladys. She is a mother whom I have known for years and I want to tell her story as an example of how hard life is here.
Gladys was born 37 years ago in the implacable Turkana District where the population is plagued by drought and lack of food and is in dire want of health care and education.
Her first child, Alex, was born when she was 17 years old and had come to Kitale to seek work. She started working on the farm around 1995. Her second child, Meshak, was severely physically disabled, probably due to lack of oxygen during birth. Her third child was a girl, Winnie, followed by Joshua and Evelyne. All these children had the same father, who tragically died of tuberculosis. She thereafter had another child, Lilian, whose father unfortunately is nowhere to be found.
Meshak has been sponsored for many years by SOK, enabling him to live in a home for physically disabled children in Endebess, where he is doing fine.
Unfortunately, Joshua contracted meningitis at the age of 2, causing him to become blind and deaf and paralyzed. Furthermore, he had severe brain damage.
For years they took care of him as best they could and tried everywhere to get help. I saw her regularly in the clinic but could not do much for her. I discussed with her whether we should treat a pneumonia, but she didn’t want that.
A few weeks ago, Gladys traveled with Joshua and the little girls to Turkana to her visit her family and bring them food.
During the long and difficult journey the bus was raided by heavily armed men. Shots were fired and 3 people died on the spot. Others were seriously wounded, among them Joshua, who was sitting on his mothers’ lap at the time. His arm was completely shattered. Although Gladys was able to reach Turkana, sadly, Joshua died 2 weeks later of his injuries.
On the farm, the message had now reached us that Gladys had been involved in an armed robbery but no one knew where she was. I was therefore delighted and relieved to see her with Meshak when I visited the orphanage in Endebess last week. She was returning from Turkana back to the farm.
I gave her a lift for the last leg of the journey and she told me the story of the robbery. She began with: "Joshua is dead." While she was telling me her story with the two little girls on her lap, I realized once again very clearly how hard life is for the people, especially women, in Africa.
I have enormous admiration for all those women who do not give up despite all the difficulties that come their way.
Gladys tries her hardest to keep job to enable her children to go to school. Also, she has a hormone preparation implanted to prevent unwanted pregnancies. In her little hut, she does her best to feed the girls and provide them with clean clothes.
They have 50 euros per month to live on, and that, in her eyes, is not bad, allowing them to eat once a day ...
I could also have told the story of the mother of 4 children who has sickle-cell anemia, whose children all had strokes before they reached 10 years old. Or the mother who has 3 boys with muscle disease, who she has to watch wasting away with the knowledge they will not reach the age of 20. Or, the grandmother who has to look after 13 children in her little hut because all of her children have died of aids.
None of them give up.
I see it as our responsibility to continue to try to help these people. Sometimes the pressure is almost too much to bear and I feel like giving up because I can’t relieve all the suffering. At those moments, it’s important to try to to prioritize and be clear in our vision in what we are trying to do and to spend our limited funds as honestly and sensibly as possible.
It is a huge comfort to me to know that I am not alone in my efforts. With the help of the donors in the Netherlands we can bring a little improvement in their lives.
Larger donors recognize the importance of the work we do here and the government supports the projects where they can.
However, until there are more structural changes in countries like Kenya, I see no other way but to try to make a difference on a small scale.
Thank you for reading my story.
Bea Andersen
February 2009
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