Household Blitz!

When living in a country surrounded by poverty it is difficult to know how best to help the many needs you see every day, you can't assist everyone and therefore its hard to know who you can help, however sometimes the circumstances add up right and it is possible to get in there and really make a difference in someones living conditions...

Joyce is a widow who has been part of the Agape in Action widows program for a few years. She lives with her daughter in law Mary along with Mary's husband and four children. Unfortunately both Mary and her husband are somewhat simple, the kids are also rather developmentally delayed and their living conditions were horrible. 

When we went to visit the family it was disturbing to see... the kids were dirty and malnourished, they sleep on rags and sacks on the floor and the house was filthy. Neighbours had expressed their concerns about the family to the coordinators of the widows program and it was decided we organise a blitz day to help turn their situation around and give them a good head-start. 

A team of two older girls from here, three sisters from the ecclesia, Abi, Kiri and myself headed round to their house one sunny Friday morning. The house was emptied completely, piles and piles of filthy dirty, ripped and mouldy clothing and rags sorted through, the worst burnt and others all scrubbed clean, stitched up and neatly folded into new storage boxes. Thanks to some generous donations we purchased new kitchen equipment and pantry supplies, bathing basins, soap, clothes, mattresses, blankets, sheets, mosquito nets- an entire refit for the whole house. We even scrubbed the kids clean and put them in fresh new clothes- much to the babies displeasure, she screamed the entire time! 

The kids were so cute, proudly showing each other their new undies - which they were wearing for the first time in their lives! Upon seeing their new mattress they were so shocked they wouldn't believe that it was for them- discussing amongst themselves about how these visitors must be staying the night and that was why there was now a bed where they usually sleep. It took a while and a fair bit of convincing before they realised that it was where they were going to be sleeping from now on. No dirty sacks on the floor, a mattress, sheets, blanket and even a mosquito net!

The locals agreed to continue to pay visits to the family to make sure they have a good understanding of how to maintain their new things and follow the advice and example of cleanliness and hygiene. We left the house with the kids giggling and running around excitedly in their new clothes and Mary outside already using the new basins to do some extra washing. 

A heartwarming day for all involved!