Shortly after we returned to Madagascar, Iris found one of our boy's family. He had run away and the courts require us to make every effort to find their family. His mum was very sick, malnourished and extremely underweight. She has Diabetes Type 1 and only weighed 29 kilos when Iris found her. She had no job, no husband and not enough food for her and her three children still living with her. Iris has a Kids Community Programme, where we support families who are too poor to provide for their children, by supporting the families with rice and other food, school and medical fees, while training the parents or helping them to start businesses, so that in time, they can be weaned off the programme. Our family has paid her rent for the next year, as she is too sick to get a job at this stage. She is living with three of her children (the forth is at Iris) in our village, about 5mins from us. We have been able to visit her and take her some girls clothes for her girl, and give the boys, who are at the local community school, some picture books in Malagasy. Tabitha and Mary-Beth wanted to give her six year old girl one of their dolls, a pencil case and some stickers. These will be the only toys she has. We also took her a set of pots and fry pans. As much as Delphine and her children were touched by our gifts, we also were blessed by being in the position to be able to give and the joy and the humility that that brings. We were very emotional and humbled to see their humble abode and how little they have, but what joy they still have. It reminds me of the verse "Blessed are the poor...".
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| Wearing their new clothes |
