Latest from Alda and Carlo on Grandma Emilia

Latest from Alda and Carlo on Grandma Emilia – Aber January 2022

For years we have been supporting Sister Maria Marrone, a Combonian missionary, in her projects: help and support for HIV-positive orphans, particularly during the cosbel's campus; training courses to start up in the craft professions (hairdresser, dressmaker, carpenter, motorbike mechanic, barber...) for orphans who have become young or deaf and dumb.

During the covid period, with the schools closed and the impossibility of creating gatherings, their activities were greatly transformed: they intensified their visits to the homes of the most vulnerable families of the children they looked after, having the opportunity to "invite" their older siblings to their training courses, as well as discovering situations of hardship and poverty bordering on the unimaginable.

This was the case with Grandma Emilia. We weren't planning to visit her, because we were going to visit a family with three deaf-mute children, but she recognised the car - after all, not many cars pass through that remote area - and she literally ran to catch up with us.

She begged us to visit her at home, so we followed her. When we arrived, we understood why....

A cloud of children (not all of them his grandchildren, some of whom had come to see the Muzungu - the whites, that is, us - or the car), a hut with a broken roof and a lot of hunger. But luckily, to welcome us, we found above all, many smiles!

We listened to Grandma Emilia, the difficulties that had become insurmountable, because of the covid. Everything came to a standstill for two years, the small rural markets were banned, to prevent the circulation of covid. There wasn't even money left to change the thatched roof of the hut. By 'chance' we had a big white hen, some flour, beans, soap, lots of children's clothes and some soft toys in the boot of the pick-up truck. We didn't hesitate to give her everything, but we felt it wasn't enough.

So we talked to Sister Maria and decided to sponsor the construction of a new house for Grandma Emilia's family, made of bricks, with a tin roof and sanitary facilities.

The children's dignity is very important to us, as is their health: how can you grow up well without food, without a roof to protect you from the rain, without a toilet?

As always, a drop in an ocean of needs, but it is up to each of us to take a small step, so that together we can move towards a fairer future for all!

Grandma Emilia is not the only one living in these conditions, she has just been the most "brave" and enterprising one, running as soon as she realised we were passing by. She was not ashamed to show the reality she had to struggle with to survive and ask for help. And we didn't feel like saying no!

Do you want to make a difference too, for some grandmothers and their grandchildren? Help us to help them, even a small contribution can be enough!

Alda and Carlo

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