Meeting Melissa
Debbie Allen
Several years back, I traveled with ZOE to Zimbabwe. We went from place to place meeting with different working groups and seeing how they were succeeding with businesses and plans. At one of the locations, our guide and the case manager from the ZOE office, Chico, indicated we were going to visit a little girl out in an isolated area. Her name was Melissa. Normally, ZOE sets up a meeting in an area, and orphans take the initiative to come to the meeting and find out how ZOE can help them. When ZOE met in this particular community, the orphans kept telling Chico they needed to seek out Melissa. These orphans recognized that Melissa needed more help than the average child.
Even though she had two living parents, both were mentally challenged as was her older sister. Possibly her younger brother was as well, but he was so young it was hard to be sure. In any of my travels, or working with people less fortunate, I’ve never seen as much wrong with a picture as this family setting. They lived way out from the town, isolating them from any help. Locals took advantage of their vulnerability by stealing from them. The father asserted himself on the daughters in inappropriate ways leading the mother to have the 2 girls sleep outside in the open air with no protection against animals, weather, or anyone who drifted by. They had no food and on the day we were there, they were boiling leaves picked from a plant to make a tea for their food. It was a horrible situation to say the least.
The ZOE team jumped to action. First, the training school for construction was ‘relocated’ to Melissa’s property and while teaching the skill to other orphans, they were actually building a solid brick structure for the family. The two girls were going to have their own room with a lockable door that could be closed off from the father.
ZOE connected with the local Chief asking his support in stopping locals from taking advantage of this family. He agreed to put pressure on the community to stop this abuse.
Health assistance was given the family, all of whom had a very suspicious cough. Even though not an orphan, Melissa was included into the working group for support and was being taught how to produce goats for sale. Food was going to be provided in smaller quantities so thieves could not steal anything stored up.
And most of all, this family was added to the circle of prayer warriors offering up their prayers for all the orphans.
Over the years since that trip, I have gotten a few reports that Melissa has done well. She stayed in school and had a viable goat breeding/selling business. I have thought about her so many times. It was so astounding to see a human being living in worse conditions than our family pets live in. I also think about how the orphans in town, living in awful conditions themselves, were so worried about this little girl – what a loving gesture on their part to pursue help for her. Knowing what ZOE has been able to do for this family is what keeps me coming back to help support ZOE and the orphans however I can.