Wednesday 13 August 2014

Breaking point in this journey of mine.

This is why I came here...
For a long time I felt that I had a purpose but seeing that 90 odd year old man get up from that so called "house" which is four walls made of some steel structure was a breaking point in my life.

He had no strength & lost his eye sight. Has four young children and a wife who struggles with her mental capacity. So in a household of 6 people, right behind one of the richest establishments in the city, these individuals live in what I can describe has a hot box, at my best.
Completely lost for words!
The ground they live behind is a up and coming area of the city. It's behind a whole neighbourhood of NGOs. This family living in a shack, no food & what can barely qualify for a roof over their head. Health deteriorated, both physically and mentally between themselves. School for the children? No chance! How's a child meant to attend school on an empty stomach and a 90 odd year old father to help support?

A household of six individuals who are in dire need. Let that sink in for a minute.

Almost every 'mansion' houses NGO staff in the area. People that have supposedly come here to help the poor. Yet myself and my husband happen to be the first set of people to go see them! Wer told wer the first ones to ask about the people that really are in need.
This family amongst god knows how many more are living in what I am still struggling to find words for.
The security guards, bless their souls, are the ones that told us about this family. They help with whatever little bit of food they can for this family. They work 7 days a week 6pm-6am for $100 a month. This is for themselves, their families and they somehow help others around them that are worse off.

This household has no one to look out for them. A elderly man, a mentally challenged woman and four minors. The community between themselves do the best they can to feed them. That's the best they get.
This is the world we live in.
This is the world we live in.
Is this the way the worlds meant to be?

They live on the door step of people that live off millions that they gathered up on their heads.
They live in a land that can feed them 10 times over.
They live in a continent that they can support every generation of theirs to come. They belong to a global community where people are starving themselves because they don't like what they see in the mirror because it does not correspond with the image they seen on tv.

Let that sink in for a minute.

This 90 odd year old man sleeps on a rocky ground in a hot box he calls his home.

This is the world we live in.

This is my people, there is no reason why this man could not have been my great grandfather, it is just by chance that this woman is not my mother, it is just due to geographical difference as to why those little ones are not my brothers and little sister.

Despite all that he suffers from he got out of his bed to greet us, the warmest of greetings, the best smile his face could let him give, even when his strength gave up and he had to practically sit on the ground he held my hand and was offering me all the blessings under the sun. He was happy someone took the time to come and converse with him. He doesn't require much from life.
I feel so honoured to have met this family, I am so greatful and humbled to the almighty that I am in a position in my life that I am able to do something for this man and his family. There are no such thing as coincidences. Everything happens for a reason. Alhamdulilah.