The first glimpse of hope
On 12th January 2010 a 7.0 magnitude earthquake that lasted around 35 seconds destroyed Adeline’s home and everything she owned. Three days later her husband died, leaving her alone to care for her three young children.
Even before the earthquake hit, Adeline’s family struggled to get by. With a heart condition that required treatment, Adeline sold cooking oils to supplement her husband’s wage, so they would have enough to send their children to school, buy food and pay the rent.
For the next four years the family lived with 69 other families, on a plot of land bordering a ravine at the bottom of the mountain. They salvaged all they could from their previous house, and with NGO help, set themselves up in a tent-come-shack, which became home.
They salvaged all they could from their previous house set themselves up in a tent-come-shack, which became home.
Their community was named Camp Sodom; it had no trees, no shade, the ground was rough gravel and dirt and it was very hot. Apart from a toilet block, which was built a few months after the quake, there were no other facilities there. During the four years she lived there, Adeline’s sister helped her with some rice and beans every couple of weeks, but she had no other source of income and she couldn’t afford the fees to send her children to school.
In 2013, the owner of the land decided he wanted his land back so, to encourage families to move away, had the toilet block demolished. Adeline now laughs as she tells me the story, “For almost a year we did the toilet in plastic bags, but not everyone was so thoughtful”.
The strain of the situation soon took its toll and Adeline became desperate and demoralized. She and her kids had lost so much weight that: “I looked like a stick. I prayed, God deliver us from this place, show me some hope, please God do something to help.”
“I looked like a stick. I prayed, God deliver us from this place, show me some hope, please God do something to help.”
Around the same time, Adeline started to see some new faces in the camp. World Vision, with the approval of the Mayor’s office, had come to help people move from the camp in to more permanent housing. The government-sanctioned approach provided grants for families to find and rent a property for a year and set themselves up with a small business.
For the first time in years Adeline saw a glimmer of hope. “When I saw and heard the World Vision team I had hope, that my children would be delivered and that we could get out of this place. It was the first time I had hope in a long time.”
Today Adeline and her children sit in the front entry of their little concrete house on the mountain, looking down on the land that was their home for four years.
Adeline now has a small business making and selling peanut butter and has enough money to enrol her children in school and to buy food. Brand new, pressed uniforms hang wrapped in plastic on the wall waiting for the day that she never dared to imagine would come.
“When I saw and heard the World Vision team it was the first time I had hope in a long time.”
With her sister’s help Adeline has also managed to get medical help for her heart condition, but she knows her family may face challenges again, when the one-year rent grant runs out:
“At the moment I only have enough for food and school, and without a husband to help it is tough. But God will provide, I am praying that God will provide”, Adeline says.
Despite an uncertain future, Adeline’s children are happy. 17-year-old Nadine is a shy but beautiful young woman with friends in the closely packed community; Ernst, who’s 15, is also shy but sits protectively close to his mum and 13-year-old Jerry, with long braided hair, has a confident smile.
Adeline smiles too. Despite the tears in her eyes as she retells her story she is happy now and laughs often.