An aquaintance told me of an eight-year-old girl, a second grader going to the same school as her son, who appeared to be in a very neglected and unkempt state.
At graduation day, all the children were dressed up nicely, except for this little girl. She was sitting all alone in a corner with her dirty clothes on. For days this story persued me in my head, and again and again I had to think of this child in prayer. So I went to the class teacher, where I found out that this girl is very poor. She said it would already be a big help to buy her notebooks and pencils, and to pay for homework supervision in school. That way she could spend more time in school, and would be served lunch there.
That same day I got to meet the little girl, filthy from head to toe, hair matted, old shoes way too big for her, she stood in front of me, eyes to the ground. A friend of mine and I tried to talk to her mother. She and the girl live in a disreputable slum in a town where a lot of families with alcohol problems live.
We entered the broken down place, which looked more like an animal shed than anything else, knocked on the leaning door, and went inside when nobody came to the door. What a horrific sight awaited us inside. We trampled our way through heaps of garbage to find an old grandma on a bed in the last room, clothed in rags. Next to her was a boy of about two years of age, seated on a pile of trash on the floor with an old pan containing indefinable muck.
When we offered help to the old lady, she responded quite aggressively and said she did not need any help. Somewhat shocked we left and contacted child protective services. There we were told that there was not much they could do, since our little friend was going to school regularly, and her mom was not a known alcoholic.
During my next visit, I got to meet the mother in person and offered help, which she accepted after some hesitance. Together with Oliver, a new staff from Germany, and two rehab guests we got down to work, armed with mops, brooms, and trash bags. The piles of garbage, and old matresses that were housing huge rats and were still used for sleeping were thrown out.
The smell made our stomachs turn upside down, but it got better after a while. After the dirt was cleaned, and the electric cables repaired, we got dishes, bed sheets, new matresses and some used furniture. The little girl and her 15 year-old brother were watching us with big eyes and exclaimed " We now have so much room compared to before!"
Since they did not have running water, I invited the girl over to my home and gave her a good soak in my bathtub. By now, she visits us everyday. I bought her some nice clothes in her favorite color pink, took her to the barber, and got to watch the ugly duckling turn into a beautiful swan!
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