Please, come before I
die…
By JOSSY DAM
Saturday,
September 23, 2006
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•Esther
Humphrey with baby Menasi
•Photo: Sun News Publishing
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An earlier story done by Saturday Sun made
it possible for our reporter to be allowed into the inner
recess of Mashiah Foundation. The health of the subject of
our story, Esther Humphery, an HIV/AIDS-positive widow degenerated
and she demanded to talk to our reporter before passing on.
And there was no mincing of words about her call,; ‘please,
if you don’t come soon, I might die before you come’.
When several calls and text messages got to him, he quickly
wrapped up an earlier assignment in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State
capital and headed up North. It was in the heat of warning
strike by oil workers and crippling scarcity of aviation fuel.
Dilly- Dallying
On getting to Jos, Pastor Bayo Oyebede and his wife, Marybeth
warmly received the reporter but wondered if it would be wise
for him to be allowed into the home they run for HIV/AIDS
widows, teenagers and orphans.
After dilly- dallying and discussing with the foundation’s
support group, the reporter was given unfettered access into
the home officially known as Mashiah foundation.
Decoding names
Tucked away into the rocky crops in Tudun Wada area of Jos,
the plateau State capital, fenced round with a high wall and
black gate stands a milky story building. The Mashiah Foundation
Ministry is also known as “Bezer Home”. As pastor
Bayo Oyebode explained the name “ Mashiah” is
a Hebrew name for Messiah. He also says that “Bezer”
in Hebrew means Mercy.
Asked why the joggling of names, Bayo told Saturday
Sun that a name like “ Messiah” will
outright put off Muslims. They will think the home is exclusively
meant for Christians, stay away and suffer in silence. We
are a Christian Ministry but we don’t discriminate.
We meet people at their different points of need.
Widows of hope
Over fifty widows constitute the outreach group classified
as “Women of Hope”. These are women whose husbands
at different times contracted the HIV/AIDS virus and died
making them widows. They live their normal lives here and
undertake vocational training in the home.
Under the supervision of Marybeth and her Lieutenants, Sarah
Abidan, Faith Muya and others, the women learn how to make
quilt bedspread, pillow cases, baskets, earrings, table tops,
book marks and so on. What they produce are often shipped
abroad and sold. Everyone of them gets paid according to what
she produced every month.
Last month, Esther, a mother of four smiled all the way to
the bank. She told Saturday Sun she earned
N40,000 from making quilt bedspreads. “Here, we all
make money. Everyone makes money and use it as she likes.”
She said.
Esther further says that the money she sends the money she
makes to her relations in town and as extra pocket money for
her children who are also being taken care of by Mashiah Foundation.
Esther is fondly called “matron”. She supervises
the purchasing of food items, cooking and feeding of the house
mates.
Spreading the word
The women are not ashamed of their status. They openly tell
you everything you wish to know about them and even more.
Occasionally they go out to sensitise people on the streets
of Jos and other localities on the dangers of reckless sexual
lifestyle.
Despondent
Esther Humphery, the widow whose story Saturday Sun
ran is a member of the Women of Hope. Of late, her health
deteriorated.
It may not be unconnected with the fact that her neighbours
at Utam Village where she lives are heckling her for giving
them a bad name. “I don’t care about what they
say. Did I make myself a widow or give myself the disease?.
I just want the government to allow my children to be adopted
by those who want them,” she said with defiance.
Hope for the helpless
Children abandoned or orphaned because both parents have succumbed
to the dreaded virus also live there. Adults there take care
of them like their own. Some widows like Larai even live there
with their children. They eat, play, pray, go to school without
bothering about their woes.
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