The Family That Helps
Andrew and Leonora Obara on a recent visit to Toronto. Leonora is the volunteer programme administrator for Kijiji Cha Upendo and Andrew is the volunteer administrator.The community knows the Obaras’ front door as belonging to “The Family That Helps.”
Any time of the day or night people will knock on the Obaras’ door bringing their needs: to be taken to hospital, to find help for an orphaned or vulnerable child, to find a safe place to stay. The list of needs are endless, and the Obaras’ door and hearts are open to all who come knocking. Indeed Andrew will say that the founding of Kijiji Cha Upendo was in response to the “many knocks on their door.”
Once Andrew came across an intoxicated man who was was beating his wife. Boldly, Andrew intervened and separated them, but in a few moments the man was following his wife down the road and beating her even more.
Woman with her three children finding safety in the Obara home.Late that night, there was a knock on the Obaras’ door. There stood the woman clutching her three children. Knowing that there was someone who would stand by her, she had the courage to sneak out of the house while her husband slept. The Obaras did indeed give her and her children a safe place to stay, while Leonora counselled her.
The boy on the left in the picture is the eldest. It seems that the father would beat the boy every time he came home in the evening. In order to avoid the beatings, the boy got into the habit of going to bed immediately after supper every night. After staying for a week the woman opted to go to her parents upcountry about four hundred kilometers away. Yet again the Obaras reached into their pockets and saw that she had the means of getting home.
Village of Love Canada is privileged to be partnered with an organization run by people with such generosity and integrity, who are able to help so many people with the little they have. We know that in their hands every dollar will help more people than we can imagine!
