Sleeping in the cemetery
'I don’t even have a place that I call home'
This is Part 3 in a series to create awareness about orphans in Tanzania. Honorina Honorati tells the story of a homeless child in Tanzania.
I am so happy for other people that during the night they will have to close the door and sleep, most of you might have more than one door, you have a main gate, a seating room door and a bed room door. Others have an electric fence, security guard, dog and camera all over the premises to keep you safe during the night.
In the morning you will get to enjoy breakfast together and have a schedule for different meals for afternoon and evening, or decide to have a meal at the restaurant where you all join together and discuss family matters. What a blessed life that God has given you that you only need to thank Him for provision. Let’s ask ourselves, do we really give thanks to God for all that?
I was raised in the street where there is no permanent shelter. My friends and I could sleep in front of people’s shops, but we need to be careful and wake up before the shops opens. Sometimes if they find us sleeping, we will end up beaten and suspected as thieves.
Sometimes we have to stay where trash does.
During the cold seasons, its comfortable for us to sleep in the cemetery to keep ourself safe from cold and getting pneumonia because we don’t know who will pay for our medical bills if we are not even sure of or daily bread. We are not sure of what we are going to eat apart from left over from Mama Ntilie. But who gives you free food? We will have to wash the dishes and clean the hotel just for left overs from the last night.
It’s so painful when you think of how other people lives. They said you have not seen it all until you see this, but every time you see something strange it’s like something else bigger than that is coming. Imagine a child raised him/her self, sleeping in a cemetery.
We don’t need a house inside the gate, only if we could have a place that we can call home, even if it’s just a room without bed of even a roof where we can keep ourselves safe from rain, or someone we can call family so that we even know where we belong our life could have been different.
Just like other children, we could have a chance to go to the church on Sunday with other children or during Christmas we can have that family gathering where we get to see how old everyone has gotten and share a story of what is happening in each other’s life.
Children don’t have to sleep in the shops or cemetery, they need a place they can call home. Let us join efforts to tell parents and family how important for a child to have a home and other children to appreciate the life that they are given by their parents.
You can help prevent homeless children by supporting the work of Food for His Children.
