Felix

Our first home visit with the Twiyubake Working group (see description under Twiyubake blog entry) was with Felix 18 and his sister Ernestine 16 and brother Venuste 14. Their mother died in 2002 and father in 2005 both of HIV Aids. Their aunt came to take care of them but in 2007 she took everything they had in their house and left. All they had was their house and land. This house is in need of many repairs so they pray they will have a new house built in a year or two on their land.

Life has been very difficult since 2007 with this family barely surviving. He was 13, his sister 11 and brother 9. Yet they stayed together. Felix dropped out of school to focus entirely on finding food any way he could.

When ZOE came to their community April 2012 they were selected to join the group. He said ZOE has helped him fight the "spirit of loneliness in his heart" as they were completely isolated. Now they work with the group doing activities. Other orphans stop and visit them.

He shared his drawing. He dreams of a new house and that children will not have to carry such heavy loads for so little food. He is sad about the death of his parents but could not draw a coffin to represent their death.

His principles are to pray, respect others, be peaceful with others and to love his fellow community. He is also dealing with the fact his sister is HIV positive but through ZOE is receiving medicine.

He received a grant and bought a pig that someone else is helping him raise. He has land to cultivate but he cannot do it himself. The working group was just created in April 2012 so until they are more organized as a group he has his neighbors cultivate and he gets a portion. I can't wait to see them next year and the progress they will have made. It is by baby steps that they will
pull themselves out of their hopelessness to a new life. And they give all the thanks to ZOE and God. So inspiring.

When we arrived we were told they lived down the hill from the road. We soon realized we were in for a hike down, down, then across the valley to their home. You can see how isolated they are.