A Little Street Girl

As I walked into the orphanage and girls' shelter, I was stunned when a tiny figure hurled herself into my arms and would not let go. This little girl who had just been brought into the orphanage/girls' shelter after having been rescued from the streets, saw me and somehow decided I was a part of her family. And from that day on, a part of her extended family I and the friends and benefactors of Lumiere Charity have been. When she eventually consented to come out of my arms, it was clear to see that one of her legs hung uselessly by her side. She was carried away for a meal, and the dedicated carers at the orphanage and shelter told me her story.

This little girl had been found living on the streets, bewildered and hungry. Her mother and infant brother had died during childbirth the previous year. Her father had continued caring for her, despite being in the last stages of tuberculosis. He had died, emaciated and careworn the previous week, and her older brother had run away into the streets. He has never been found. This child had been hurt and her leg broken. Our organisation made funds available from donations for this little girl, and she underwent multiple operations in the next year. She started schooling, starting learning to read and write and started to build up to a normal weight. This little lady who had survived such a heartrending experience needed much counselling and assistance to help her in her emotional trauma.

The previous three years have made an amazing difference in this child. She is doing well at school, her leg has completely healed and she runs around without even a limp. She is a happy and mischievous little girl, living a normal childhood at last after the difficulties of her early life. Nothing can ever make up to her what she lost, but all at Lumiere rejoice for her that out of such sadness a new life and a new chance were born for this very special little lady.

*Photograph by Catherine Nicolette - please feel free to use copyright free for any worthy purpose

Lumiere Charity - Making a Difference

"Lumiere Charity is a Foundation which focuses its efforts on fundraising and paying for education and care of street children and orphans. The members fundraise to assist street children and the disadvantaged with care and education. Unemployed shack dwellers have been helped to start self employment circles which are now flourishing and independent small home businesses. Operations have been funded to pin and plate street children's broken legs and plastic surgery to repair a woman's face so she can eat again instead of just sipping liquids through her ruined mouth, and be eligible for employment..."

It is a beautiful day outside as I break off from reading these words describing our organisation's work.
Outside the lotuses bloom in violet profusion, the squirrels chase each other up and down the trees and the hot dust lies everywhere.
Where did the Charity start...?
And I remember a very early morning, 4.30 a.m. in the South African dark, when I went with my father on his daily visits to help those in need through his Charity.
As we sat in the car outside the church which loaned the use of the premises for the Charity work, he whispered to me to stay very quiet and not to move.
Eventually there was a rustle and a three year old boy leading his just-able-to-walk toddler sister came out of the bushes.
They came shyly up to the car, and Dad gently got out to lean over the two little ones.
He patted each on the head, and they blossomed into smiles. 'Hello Father', they said.
My father then gave them some bread and food, and a special little cake as a treat he had kept for each of them.
T-shirts, shorts and little sandals to match their tiny feet were accepted by shy hands. They then melted back into the bushes again.



As my dad got back into the car, he told me they were two little children who were living in the bushes, their parents orphaned by Aids.
He was feeding them and caring for them, until they could build up enough trust to allow him to introduce them to the care of another good friend and neighbour who runs creches and centres in the area to help these little ones.
'And they call you father?' I asked.
'Yes,' he said, starting the car. 'They have no father, mother or family of their own, so they have asked me to be their family. Their father.'
And I felt a lump in my throat as I looked out of the window at the dark South African morning as he went on to the blind lady who lived in a shack, to bring her food and blankets.
My dad was family to fatherless children who had absolutely no-one else in the world to care for them.
And I started to wonder - why was I not doing this work?
Why was I not caring for those really in need, like he was?
And that, I think, was where the Charity really had its first seeds...

*Photograph taken by Catherine Nicolette. Please feel free to use copyright free for any worthy purpose