GIVING HOPE TO THE HOPELESS

CHRISTWAY BAPTIST MISSION NEWS LETTER

EDITOR’S NOTE

It gives us great pleasure to introduce to you our Mission Newsletter and to x-ray the works of our team of missionaries whom through the leading of the lord has obeyed the calling of the lord as  in 1 John 4-7and8.Beloved, let us love one another for love is of God and EVERYONE that loves is born of God. Love cuts beyond skin color, race of ancestry, or any other difference we can think of.

Christ way Baptist Church has extended the passion to love and giving hope to the hopeless to the African Continent and has been able to identify the needs of our Brethrens over there. This Edition will also x-ray the challenges they face on a daily basis. They are battling with early marriages which lead to lack of education, unemployment, malnutrition, poor healthcare facilities which in most cases is even nonexistent.

As we leaf through this edition it is our sincere hope that you will be touched o buy into this vision by contributing out of what you have been privileged to have to help the less privileged while doing your to make the world a better place.

Together we can give hope to the hopeless, feed the hungry, shelter the homeless and educate the illiterates. Love cuts beyond geography. Happy reading and God bless.

Agosu 'Tayo

                  

MISSION: GIVING HOPE TO THE HOPELESS

Man according to dictionary is defined as a product of his environment and the circumstances surrounding his birth. This implies that wherever we are and the conditions under which we live defines us and determines the extent we go in life. Christ way Baptist Mission in the course of the mission responsibilities of giving hope to the hopeless made visits to Gambia, Ivory coast, Senegal, Republic of Benin, Nigeria and what we discovered was heart rending. Young people desirous of being educated are not able to read and write even in their own local languages. In the developed world and some parts of the developing Nations where there is Right to child Education it is a common saying that the illiterates in this new paradigm in Education will not be those who can neither read nor write but those who cannot use the computers.

This is quite laughable because many are oblivious of the fact that we still have people who cannot read or write and therefore have never heard of computers. The children are forced into child labor to fend for themselves right from their formative years when they are expected to be having their basic education.

This stems from the poverty and hunger pervading the land. They engage in this to either feed or support their parents to earn additional incomes which in most cases are not enough to get them decent meals. It was gathered that some of the dissatisfied ones either resort into Gangsterism, Armed Robbery, or local drugs peddling for survival. The young ladies are forced into early marriages which in most cases taint their futures. Some of them get raped and stigmatized while some are lured into prostitution and sex slavery by human traffickers.

To our utter dismay, we met with 14year old Janet who had been married off to an old uneducated Man with no means to take care of her. While chatting with Janet we got to know that she already has a little baby battling with life because of the poor living condition of the parents. The little child is Malnourished with no health care whatsoever.

Sometimes when we think we deserve more, we should think deeply and remember our brethrens who has got nothing and stand up for the salvation of these ones. They deserve to wear shoes like we do, put on clothes and not rags, get basic education so as to be useful to themselves and the larger society. Little drops they say, makes a mighty ocean.

Chatting with Janet it is quite visible that she desires to be educate and regrets having a child she is not able to cater for.

Early marriage is a major clog in the wheel of the African girl and something has to be done to save the likes of Janet and Mary whose story will be featuring in the later parts of this Edition. Readers from developed nations will wonder if this is a current reality or something from the Stone Age or the state of nature as described by Thomas Hobbes in his work which typified the state of nature as a state with no organization of any sort, where contractual agreements were broken with impunity and might was equal to right with no respect for the feelings of anyone. The answer is that in this African settings visited, there are rulers but some are just plain selfish or the structures institutionalized do not favor the minorities under which the likes of these people fall.

The problem is not associated with only the children but also the older ones amongst which we discovered was a very high percentage of widows. Interviews were conducted and the shocking common inferences drawn was that sometimes their husbands have to overwork themselves to earn extra incomes and some of them just fall sick and die in a matter of days. It then became apparent that the medical facilities available are either sited very far from them and the ones they can access are not equipped.

MARY: BEHIND MOST SMILE IS A STORY

When we thought we have seen so much, we met with Mary, her outward appearance was pleasant as she came looking neat in her worn clothes and looking happy. She willingly granted the permission to be interviewed. Mary was grinning from ear to ear but behind her smile lays agony, fear, grief, anger and hopelessness. Mary said “I have been orphaned since the age of five and I have gone through quite so many but my hope is that someday I am going to get a chance to live the normal life my parents never had the chance to give me before they passed on but somehow am being asked to start getting ready to get married to an old man I have never met because he can afford to pay my bride price”.

One begins to wonder if Mary’s case will not turn out like that of Janet if urgent intervention does not come. Mary desire to be educated, become self reliant and be a positive reference point in the future. When people are unskilled and uneducated survival becomes a serious challenge, and if there is to be a meaningful development, there must be a planned, deliberate and sustained effort to ensure the people are educated or are empowered through skill acquisition programs. Development is a gradual procedure but ignorance is a major problem afflicting these innocent ones. Some of the people have never heard about school as they have never travelled out of the borders of their villages to experience urbanization. Mary is still in her formative years and can still be groomed to become what she desires to be in life.

Watson in one of his works said “Give me kids from different backgrounds, race of ancestry, skin color, penchants and geographical location and a specific world of my own and  will make the professionals in whatever field they choose”. This implies that regardless of the fact that they live in poor and barely structured places, if they get the right education or the relevant skills teeming population like Mary can live their dreams and bring about a paradigm shift in their countries.

Mary” case is quite worrisome because she will soon be married off to a old polygamist. Asked when the betrothal is going to take place, she simply shook her head saying “As soon as the bride price is paid”. Speaking further it was discovered that the bride price that sells these innocent young potentials into life of servitude is not more than a paltry sum estimated to something less than five pounds, some food materials, and in some cases Animals like Duck, Hen, or Goat are added to the bride price.

This is common in some other parts of Africa like the North and the Eastern parts of Nigeria and Benin Republic. In the Eastern Nigeria the girls are married off to businessmen who use them to make babies and force them to work as sales girls in their shops.

This because the Eastern Nigeria has a culture of not recognizing female children as a serious part of their family. This accounts for the reason why they are mostly married out as children and so they have no need to send them to school.  Aside from this, the female child in the Eastern Nigeria does not have a part in the family inheritance because it is believed that they have been sold out to another family.

Cases of domestic violence and abuse is quite rampant in this part and a close examination of this subject shows that the chief cause of this is the fact the lady is not educated to know her worth before the law of the land. She is oblivious of her rights as a citizen and also she is not legally married and so they live a life of servitude.

The young ladies are married off sometimes without their own consent. Women rights organization publications periodically shows that this is partly responsible for the women rights abuse in the eastern Nigeria and other parts of the African continent.

The Northern Nigeria is not spared from this problem. Aside from being considered less academically developed, they have a culture of child betrothal which is as old as man where the girl child is betrothed to an older husband at a very tender age. This exposes them to sexual involvements as early as the age of ten. This prevents them from getting basic education hence the attendant effects of early marriage. 

Mary desires to be educated and she is currently living in everyday in morbid fear of being shipped to the old man against her will. Mary asks for help to get enrolled in a boarding school to escape her fears. Her words “I promise to study hard, make good grades so as to grow up self reliant, confident and encourage people going through similar circumstances.” 

Kindly join us as we play our part in giving Mary a bright future by donating towards her enrolment in a boarding school away from early marriage which has destroyed many in the African continent.

MY STORY MY LIFE MY WISH

Driving down Akute Ogun State Western Nigeria in the tropical sun of a November afternoon a young boy of about eight years was spotted right by the road side struggling to fix a tyre to a car. Out of curiosity the writer had to stop by to have a chat. Initially quizzical glances were thrown our way but after while Wande the owner of the shed came forward to speak with us. He took us through the circumstances that led to little Kayode’s apprenticeship with him.

Wande said the mother died while having her sixth child at the age of 32. Kayode was broght to him by his father who happens to be his friend. This according to Wande was because he had no means to fund the boy’s education and so for him to be useful to himself he has to learn something at least.

He goes further to tell us that Kayode’s father carries plank for buyers at the local plank market to make ends meet while the remaining children are currently in Arabic school studying to become Muslim clerics. Kayode later spoke with us and explained that he would have loved to get western education but finance is a problem but hopes someday something may happen and he will find himself in a classroom.

When Wande was not within earshot he explained how he gets beaten at the slightest offence. He said many time people will stop by to either beg for him to be pardoned or threaten to arrest the senior apprentices who are in the habit of beating him. “This happens very often and I am tired to say the least”. Kayode looks so small and malnourished, but when asked how he feeds he answered with a smile “I live with my boss who is my Dad’s friend and we eat at home in the mornings and in the evenings. 

There are days when my father will come and give me some money. Some other times a client might come and give me something like the man that just left or when the senior apprentices just want to be nice to me they may get me a meal of bread and beans”.

Asked why Kayode is not in Arabic school, he replied “sir to be frank with you, what I really want in life is to work in office and not in a mosque so when they saw I was not interested they sent me home but my brothers are still there”.

We thanked Wande and asked to see Kayode’s father who later appeared. He said Wande is his friend who helped him accommodate Kayode and also helping to teach him the art of vulcanizing. When asked why Kayode was not in school the man simply replied saying “you see my brother life is not a bed of Roses and I can confirm that it is not a fair place. Good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people. When Kayode’s mum died he was always at home and one day I came back to learn that during the day someone took the advantage of his being at home to send him Marijuana. I may be poor but God forbid that I raise a drug addict. This is why I took him to Wande”.

We need to extend our hands of help to these people to enable them live normal lives because in our brief research we discovered that the minorities in any setting, less privileged and those living at the end of the spiral of silence can take everything thrown at them but there will surely come a time when they will get so dissatisfied and become rebellious. This is the reason why we have suicide bombers, terrorists, bullies in school and many more prevalent criminal activities.

This must not be allowed to grow into a monster we will not be able to control in the future. If this is not nipped in the bud it may have adverse effects on people living their secured and privileged lives.

We can collectively take Kayode out of this miry clay, clean him up and give him a lifeline by donating towards educating him. Gifts of clothing materials will also go a long way.