-1.png?width=500&height=500&name=LJI_MAINLOGO_WhiteBackground%20(1)-1.png "love-justice.png")
Her name was Hope*—an irony considering she was dying alone in a ditch. Only 13 years old, she’d left her home in northern Burundi to seek work, but after two days and nights without food or water, she was too weak to continue.
Passersby looked and turned away, quickening their steps. Perhaps they thought she was a bad omen, or maybe their own poverty made them feel powerless to do anything. Whatever the reason, no one stopped to help.
Except one.
A good Samaritan
“I saw her lying down by the road half dead, covered with dust all over her body,” said
Gervais, a spiritual care coordinator with Love Justice. “I tried to wake her, and she couldn’t utter any sound. It was so awful.”
Gervais managed to help the young girl into an upright position so he could give her some water and pieces of banana. Another person stopped to help now—a mother—and the two of them supported the girl as they walked slowly to the local police station.
The police, though grateful for the intervention, did not take responsibility for the girl. Instead, they suggested Gervais continue to care for her until she was well enough to go home.
“I took her to my family, helped her to take a bath and have something to eat and drink,” said Gervais.
The dust from the drainage ditch by the side of the road washed off with each bucketful of water, leaving her skin clean and refreshed. Gervais bought her a clean dress and some shoes to wear in place of her old dirty clothes.
Finally she regained enough strength to speak.
Hope’s story
“My name is Hope,” she said. “I was born in the northern part of Burundi. My father is a drunkard and has sold almost all our family property, and we rarely had anything to eat. My mother married another man. So my father urged me to run away from him because we were living in extreme poverty.
“So I did my best to come down to the city to see if I can get a job. But when I got to the bus station, I had no one to receive me. I decided to walk through some cities to see if somebody could rescue me and give me a job. Now I have just spent two days and two nights sleeping in a water channel just in the dust, without anything to eat or to drink. So now, this was my time to sleep and die.”
Hope was greatly relieved to finally have a full stomach and a bed to sleep in, and she fell into a deep sleep. But early the next morning, she woke with a blazing fever.
“I took her to a clinic and paid for her medical tests and finally the needed medicines. She was struck by a strong malaria,” Gervais said.
For four days, Hope fought the malaria while Gervais and his family tended to her needs. When she finally recovered her strength, he took her to find her family, successfully reuniting them.
“This is, on the one hand, a subject of praise to God for bringing this tender child to life, and on the other hand, a subject of prayer for the situation of extreme poverty which is separating families in Burundi,” said Gervais. (Pictured below: Hope [on the right] smiling in clean clothes, sitting with Gervais' daughter [middle] and niece [left].)
Love rippling far and wide
Poverty is a major driving force behind much of the world’s suffering, including human trafficking. While we may not be able to eliminate poverty, we can show people the love of Christ as Gervais cared for this young girl in her hour of need—a love with an outward-rippling, far-reaching effect.
“When we started our station monitoring activities [several years ago], many people considered us just to be a team of adventurers in a community of rather individualistic people where everybody is just busy struggling with his own challenges,” Gervais said. “But as we started assisting young boys and girls in striking need, we were no longer treated as mere adventurers, but great benefactors.”
Over time, the Love Justice team became an example to the community of what love can look like when we care for one another, rather than just tending to our own needs. At first, no one stopped to help Hope out of the ditch—but when Gervais stopped, another woman stopped to help too.
This is a story of hope—a young girl bearing that name, and the power of love to transform a community and make a bold impact in the world.
This beautiful example of love and justice is what we stand for. Will you be a part of it with us, creating hope for someone else in their time of need? Join us.
*All data and statistics current at the date and time of publishing. Names changed and specific locations excluded for privacy and security purposes.
Post a comment