Christmas for Rosemary

Tears abound in my eyes as I sat thinking about how this experience made me feel and what I got out of it. These words are that of a dear friend of mine but I need you to go through her blissful encounter with me in hope that you get a glimpse of why and how.

Along one of the eastern states in Nigeria, I walked peacefully in a bid to stretch my legs at noon and came across a lady sitting abreast a Catholic Church with children around her and a baby who’s eyes where dim, crying with no tears falling down her face, and holding on to her (un)lactating mother’s breast hungrily. She and her children are homeless and looked rough, malnourished and unkempt. Seeing how hungry the crying cute baby was, I quickly went to a store nearby and got some beverages to give to her, it was as if her children could smell my intention as I left the store with the bag of few beverages because, they came running down to me asking me to help them with whatever I can - food or money. My heart bled watching them as they rushed the contents of the bag - these children ought to be in school learning and working their way up the radar for a bright future.

I kept walking up to the lady, I came to her and greeted of which she responded in a native dialect familiar to me. I spoke in my native dialect to her too , giving her the beverages as a gift and standing a while to chit chat with her and know, just to understand why she is on the streets and if she has any family that can help her with her children.

This is her story

Her name is Rosemary and she bitterly narrated to me in between tears and a beem of hope, how her husband left her to cater for their kids alone. Life wasn’t fair to her, as just after that happened a crisis sprung up in her home town that left her children and herself homeless and without properties. This was when she moved to this other eastern state in hope of getting a green field job that would help her fend for her children; it is sad that her hope was squashed and her agricultural tools she came with left to rust seeing that I met her on the streets and not at a desk or on the green field.

The life of her children are in danger, danger of the evil of this world both in daylight and at night. Having no roof over their heads even after they had moved has made life a struggle. Now, there is Covid. 

For Rosemary she lives everyday in hope of what she begs off the streets of the eastern part of Nigeria and as for me who walked by an idea. Experiencing that made me realize I could do so much more and actually help Rosemary out with the help of friends around me. Especially if I can support against spreading covid by being exposed to the public. I quickly called my friend in the uk we brought this idea to life and now we are hoping to raise 10,000 pounds to help Rosemary give her children a better environment, to help her smile. We started Christmas for Rosemary. 
This fund would be used transparently to carter for her needs and this we hope to do before Christmas sets in. I mean after all the bad, it’ll pay to do some good especially at a dire time like this. 

For Rosemary who wouldn’t see this coming, I can only imagine how happy and glad she would be when she finds out that the whole world came together to help her out. This team of well-meaning individuals also, would be so indebted to the world that became our backbone .