A Visit of Hope to Agape Children’s Home

Not far from the central town of Yaoundé, there is a neighborhood called “Ekounou” where members of the Significant Deed’s association paid a charitable visit to, during the month of September, 2016. The trip was comprised of about 10 out of 30 members at the time.

Our arrival was welcomed by songs by enchanting voices and a word of prayer by a little cute girl child aged 6years old. Thereafter, poems and dances performed by some children in a dramatically way, made us to feel the joy and excitement the children had for seeing us that day. One of our members on behalf of the association took the lead and gave the children some words of appreciation, encouragement and love which we all had for them.

As our visit was at the beginning of a new academic year, we thought it wise to donate school materials to the kids. These items were handed over to their caretaker while we distributed the snacks we had brought to entertain us for the day. We soon got involved in some  games with the  kids like handball and racing at one part of the courtyard especially with the girls while the male children played football on their own part at the other end of the courtyard. They all seemed to be passing a nice time with us.

Looking at an angle, I saw a little girl who did not seem to be enjoying herself as the others did so I went closer to her and sat near her. I then asked her why she wasn’t playing with the others and she didn’t reply and  suddenly burst into tears while saying “I want to see my parents”!!! This then left me in a dilemma not understanding what went wrong. The caretaker who noticed it moved to us and took the child to the resting room and came back explaining things to me. She said the little girl was the only survival after a tragic road accident killing her elder sister and parents. Her uncle who was the only family she  had refused to take care of her and decided to bring her to the orphanage. This therefore made me to understand that the little girl was still suffering from severe trauma from what she had been victim of.

I went back to the little girl whom I met sobbing in the rest room and tried to comfort her. I talked with her for quite some time and then gifted a dull baby which I told her never to leave her baby a lone because it was going to be her guarding angel to protect her when in need. She glanced at me and gave me a smile and promised never to cry again and also, to take care of her dull very jealously.

Time was already against us as we had to live for our various homes. The children thanked us with a lot of joy and appreciation for the gesture and promised to be good children all through. This visit to me was a very fulfilling experience and many more valuable lessons learnt.

Ayakeh Cassandra