hope for a little girl far away

Today I received an email from a friend of my grandmother’s that touched my heart so deeply I cried for the next three hours. Rather than do his email an injustice I have copied it below.

For some reason I cant get this thin little child with all these scars on her face and body, loving her scruffy little puppy out of my mind. So this Thursday I am going back to find her, to see if I can make her life a bit more comfortable.You see she has never had a new pair of shoes or new clothes or Kentucky…all the things we take for granted.

No child should have to go through life with scars like this but that would need a world of people to help. This photo would need to go around the world to find the person who can fix her, or maybe we can all change our profile picture on Facebook to her so she can get help, or if we can get her on Idols people can vote to save her life.

But none of that is going to happen. At the end of the day its me and the other person who is reading this e-mail that can help change her life in a small way, because I cant delete them because I held them.

Never Give up on Life

Mike

That little girl lives in a township in South Africa and I don’t even know her name. But I do know that when Mike finds her on Thursday I want him to be able to tell her that someone who lives very far away from her wants to buy her a new pair of shoes. 
I hear many stories of poverty and regularly expose myself to these in order to maintain an outward focus and ensure I don’t get caught up in my own world. Yet something about this little girl really struck a chord. I think it is harder to ignore just one than it is to turn your attention from a problem too big to handle. And as I cried over her photo and looked at her smiling face, despite the obvious pain she once must have endured, I knew I could not turn away from this one. I know that this time I don’t just want to send a bit of money to clear my conscience, I want to know this child’s name, I want to know her story and I want to know how I can help to change her life. If anyone reads this and you too are interested in getting involved please contact me. As I type this I feel energised at the thought that, for once, there is something we can do to change someone’s life for the better.