The Story of New Hope Centre -- Swaziland, Africa

“There’s a man at the gate. Something about a child sitting under a tree somewhere,” a staff member told me.

 “Ma’am, I have seen a very small child for five days. This child sits under a tree in the eastern part of the country. I see her every morning from the bus on my way to work. Can you help this child?”

The next day two of our staff members went with the man to try to find the child, and found her where he had said. Under the tree sat a very little girl who looked no more than six months old. She was little more than a skeleton. Her back was bent and her pelvic girdle appeared to have been distorted from sitting for such a long period of time which meant she was unable to walk or crawl. She was also unable to talk. She sat in her own excrement. How she had survived this long was a miracle. We asked people around the community about her and found out her entire family had died. A family said they would care for her, but sadly were unable to as she was so young and would have been too much trouble. Day after day she sat under the tree, numb in her loneliness and eating handfuls of dirt to quieten the hunger pains. The staff members bundled her up and brought her back to New Hope Centre.