Imagine:
A little girl of eight who has never even seen a Barbie doll before – and strokes the doll's long hair in wonder.
A little boy who has never owned a toy car in his life – and spins the wheels in fascination.
A girl of nine who has never seen herself in a mirror before – and makes little faces at herself in amazement.
A little boy of about seven who has never seen little plastic lions and elephants – and wonders if they may come to life any minute.
Operation Christmas Child UK has made its first-ever shoe box distribution to the hinterland of southwest Mozambique , where children like these can be found everywhere. Operation Christmas Child has been sending shoe boxes to Mozambique since 1999, but this was the first time that boxes were sent from the United Kingdom.
In all, SP sent 36,000 shoe boxes to Mozambique this year, and in early February an SP UK team flew out for nine days to distribute just over 4,000 of those boxes personally. Giving out shoe boxes in hot sunny weather was a welcome change after the sub-zero temperatures of Eastern Europe , where our other deliveries take place!
Samaritan's Purse has been working in south-west Mozambique since the disastrous floods a few years ago. We have an extensive feeding programme, a thriving water filter project, and a growing HIV/AIDS awareness teaching programme and a church ‘edification programme' in Gaza Province, the vast rural area to the north and west of Maputo.
The OCC team visited nine schools in the districts of Guija and Chicualacuala, chosen by our SP staff who are based in Maputo and Guija, and who know the area well.
Gaza Province has very few tarmac roads, no mains electricity, no running water. It is an endless flat landscape of low trees and scrub and red earth. The people live mostly in simple round huts made of wooden poles and mud walls, with thatch roofs. Their floors are sand, their beds are simple reed mats. The food is beans and maize and the occasional chicken, pig or goat. Water must be carried from rivers or ponds or wells up to 8 kilometres away. It is always unclean, often dangerously so.
Many families in these simple communities are struggling to simply survive. Owning western toys has been a luxury beyond these children's imagination. Their African toys are made of things like scrunched up paper, tied in twine to form a ball, or old bicycle rims to roll about.
And so it was that Dave Cooke and this team of 10 were especially delighted to be in Mozambique , and to be able to make a lasting impact on these children. As Dave said, it was a trip that the children would remember all their lives.
Excited children are an integral part of any shoe box distribution, but out in Africa , the land of the drum-beat, the team was fascinated by how the children showed their joy by spontaneous drumming on their shoe boxes. Their rhythm was perfect, and grew in volume – until the teachers cried “Enough – open!” And then there were screams and shouts of pure joy as the children dived into their boxes.
And now for some stories of the children themselves:
At Donga School , on the way north from Guija to Mapai, the team met Agnes, a little girl of about nine, who was wearing a black kerchief on her head. The interpreter explained how several years ago Agnes's father worked in the South African gold-mines. He finally came home, ill. Then he died. Agnes' mother gave birth to a little sister. Then she fell ill. Then she died. Then Agnes's new sister fell ill, and she died at 8 months of age. Now Agnes has only her 18 year old brother left - and with her black kerchief she mourns the death of the rest of her family.
Agnes' story is tragically common in southwest Mozambique . A staggering number of these children have been orphaned by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The figures break down as follows: 15.5 % are orphans: 3.1% of all children under 18 are maternal orphans, 11.2% are paternal orphans and 1.2% are orphaned by both parents. However in the 10 communities we are currently working with in Guija District, there are over 900 orphans.
Another story. At Juno School we met two little boys of 12 and 10 – Gefree and Absalom. They were delighted with their shoe boxes, and ran to show them to an elderly man standing by. Paulo was their grandfather, and he told us how his daughter had married and moved away. Her husband got HIV/AIDS and died. Mum then fell ill, and brought the two little boys back to the grandfather. She also died. Now Gefree and Absalom live in Paulo's store-hut, in a space about four feet wide, between the maize and the reed wall. While we talked with their grandfather, the boys raced their new cars up and down the floor of their hut in great excitement.
Grandfather Paulo explained that the shoeboxes had brought them the first – and only – toys that they had ever had in their entire lives. “I can hardly tell you what this will mean to my boys, “ he said. “Let those people in England know how grateful I am to them for caring enough to do this. I am amazed that such kind people exist.”
At Juno School many of the children had little containers with them. It seemed that their teacher had simply said: “You will be given something.” They had assumed it would be beans – never even imagining a group of white people arriving to give them an abundance of gifts! Many of the children were just overcome with excitement, putting hands to their faces and screaming in sheer delight.
At Ngala Primary School , one of our team members discovered that one of the 600 boxes her company in England had packed was being opened by the little girl in front of her! It was an incredible coincidence – given that we have distributed 1.14 million this year. It gave Patsy great joy to see the child's delight in the necklace and cuddly toys and other presents, so lovingly packed back in central London .
Little Sagei held up a brightly coloured plastic pony in some bewilderment. Sagei had never seen or even imagined a horse before. We tried to explain, but she finally decided it was some kind of English dog, and set about contentedly combing its flowing mane.
At Tomanine school the torrential downpour of rain did not dampen anyone's spirits. The boys had discovered whistles and even a harmonica in their boxes, and were dancing in and out of the puddles, stamping their feet, and whistling with all their might. A very joyful noise indeed.
Another little boy, Jofee, was worried his box would get wet. He spent several anxious moments positioning the box in the exact middle of a bit cloth, and wrapping it up tight so that not a bit of it was showing. Only then did he relax, pop the whole thing up on his head, and scamper off into the bushes – presumably home, to show his mother.
At Chicualacuala we met Esmere, 4, and her brother Boris, 9. They are orphans, and live with their grandmother, Eva, in a small hut by the railway track. Esmere found a Barbie doll in her box, and stroked the bright shining hair in wonder. We were told it was the first doll she has ever owned in her life. Boris, meanwhile, was entranced by his yellow tractor – his first toy of any description.
At Hocha Ribye School , the most remote of all the schools, nine year-old Rebelena found, among other gifts, a necklace and earrings. She put them on, and we showed her herself in a mirror. Rebelena looked into the mirror in awe – she had never before seen a mirror before.
Also at Hocha Ribye, Maya, a widow with six children, invited us back to her hut to see the water filter SP has given her. It was simple round hut built of wooden stakes and mud walls and thatched roof. Inside there were a few implements and some reed mats, rolled neatly. We asked her the age of her children. Maya did not know. As for herself? She knew she had definitely been born in AD. She was proud to know this about herself.
Outside Maya had a pot on a small fire. Inside was something dark brown and lumpy and very smelly. It had teeth. It was a goat's head. That family of seven people was going to scrape out a goat's head for supper .
At Hocha Ribye we also visited Rela, a widow with seven children, to whom SP has also given a water filter. Her seven children played excitedly with their shoe box toys in the dust outside while Rela crawled into the hut to show us her water filter. Rela is lame, and can only get around on her hands and knees. This makes it very hard for her to get water and to grow food. She is on our list of vulnerable families.
Toothpaste was a great success. At Mapai school when two little boys found toothbrushes and toothpaste in their shoe boxes, they immediately brushed their teeth – right there on the spot.
Another little boy thought toothpaste was perhaps some kind of sweet, and after having a squeeze himself, was happily passing the tube around to all his friends for a squeeze
Many of the children were so eager and happy to show us affection. Timidly they stretched out slim black fingers to shake our hands. They gently touched our arms in amazement – so white! The smaller ones wanted us to hold them.
Last story. At Mpelane Primary School we were busy stacking up the shoe boxes, getting ready to hand them out. Most of the children were singing songs with Steve Robinson on guitar, but one little girl came over to us. She watched us emptying cartons and stacking up the boxes with her enormous dark eyes. We asked her, through our African driver, “Do you know what we are here for?” We wondered how much she knew about the shoe boxes.
That little girl was way, way ahead of us, however. Looking up solemnly, she suddenly smiled. “Yes, she said. “I know why you are here. It's because of Jesus.”
And you can't say fairer than that!
Written by Anne Coomes
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