Uncertainty.
Even just reading the words stirs up anxious feelings, doesn’t it?
It’s one of the most uncomfortable states of mind for us as human beings, yet for our neighbors like Fatmata and her family living in Sierra Leone, uncertainty is all they know.
You see, Fatmata and her husband, Mohamad, are farmers. They grow okra, nuts, root vegetables and rice on their one acre of land.
This one acre of land is everything to them. These crops are their only source of income.
And they have a family to feed! In addition to their own four children, they took in their 13-year-old niece, Salamatu, because her parents are too ill to take care of her on their own.
This act of kindness is wonderful, but added responsibility means even more uncertainty. How will they be able to care for everyone?
Fatmata (top right) and her husband Mohamad (top left) just want to provide the best life for their family, including niece Salamatu (in blue.) But some days, it feels impossible.
Your loving gift can bring some security to families like Fatmata’s, who feel so vulnerable.
With your support, they can get nutritious food and the seeds, tools and training to help them grow sustainable, reliable solutions to feed their children.
With this small plot of land, it’s hard to predict how much money the family can earn to afford food, clothing and education. The weather in Sierra Leone is harsh with unpredictable storms, devastating floods and relentless droughts.
Access to seeds and farming equipment is also a struggle. The uncertainty is overwhelming.
Will they grow enough to keep their children healthy? Will the scorching heat shrivel this year’s crops? Or will they be washed away in the floods along with their hopes and dreams for the children?
In addition to working hard day by day in the field, Fatmata worries about her youngest daughter, Emmah.
“There are many challenges,” Fatmata shares. “When our children are sick, we take them to hospital, [but] we don’t have money to pay all the time, especially Emmah, always having malaria, sick with malaria.”
When Fatmata doesn’t have money for the hospital, she is forced to use native medicine for malaria on daughter Emmah (here) and pray that it heals her.
Malaria is a heartbreaking disease because it can be easily prevented. But families with limited resources, like Fatmata’s, live in constant fear and uncertainty of catching it.
It is usually contracted by a mosquito bite, and symptoms start with irritability, sleepiness and low appetite. This is especially dangerous for children like Emmah, who are already weak and starving for nutrients.
Symptoms worsen as the infection progresses. Sadly, malaria is a leading cause of death in Sierra Leone.
Because this loving family can’t afford hospital bills, they are forced to rely on home remedies, or native medicine, to try to treat illnesses that plague their children.
Your loving gift can help provide quality medical treatment for children like Emmah and the proper protective equipment to help prevent deadly diseases, like malaria, from ever striking these precious kids.
The exhausting and unpredictable farm work combined with limited access to food, medicine and tools wears on Fatmata, who just wants to provide the best life possible for her family.
As a child herself, Fatmata had big dreams for herself, but she had to quit school when her father died. Fatmata was forced to go to work to provide for her family. She looks around at friends who were able to complete school and thinks to herself:
“Look at me, I am nothing.”
Because you are someone who believes we are called to be the hands and feet of Jesus, loving our neighbors as ourselves, Fatmata will be able to see she is so much more than she thinks!
When you give a gift from your heart to hers, you can help her regain her hope.
All she wants is to provide a better life for her niece and children than she had — which includes finishing school.
She doesn’t want Salamatu to live with regret and untapped potential...always living with that uncertainty of what if?
They never have to nag Salamatu to get ready for school. She bounces right up the moment she knows it’s time to go.
She’s just grateful for the opportunity — because she knows that one day money could run out…
…ending her education and shattering her big dreams.
Salamatu wants to become a nurse to serve and heal others. But money is getting tighter and tighter.
Fatmata and Mohamad fear they won’t have enough to afford food, let alone school. “We feel sad, actually, because we don’t have money to pay her school fees,” says Mohamad.
You can help girls like Salamatu get the education they need, heal week children like Emmah and support parents like Fatmata and Mohamad, who are losing all hope despite how hard they work.
Will you be the hope they need?
Thank you for your faithful service to families in need around the world.
