Short story: Restored hope
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Esi was born into a family where most of the young people were not able to complete basic school. Due to poverty, the young boys in her family worked as farm hands while the girls were street hawkers. The harsh economic conditions had taken their minds completely off the possibility of acquiring education. For them it was all about how to make ends meet.
However, right from the beginning Esi was hopeful that she would not end up like the other young people in her family. Luckily for her, her parents, despite their economic hardship, shared the same view. They believed that if at least one of their four children was educated, that person could help the others and that was why they wanted to give Esi all the needed push in her education. Unfortunately, just as Esi finished writing the Basic Education Certificate Examinations, her father kicked the bucket.
Her father’s death brought untold hardship to the family because he was the breadwinner. Though her mother wanted the best for Esi she did not have enough to pay for the fees but she promised to do everything in her power to see Esi through school.
Her mother managed to raise the admission fee; the problem, however, was how to provide pocket money for Esi’s upkeep in school. Esi agreed to eat at home in the morning before going to school so that she would not have to take any money to school.
At school, things were difficult for her as sometimes at lunchtime her stomach rumbled from hunger, but because there was nothing she could do, she resigned herself to her fate.
One day, however, things were really bad at home, to the extent that there was no food so Esi went to school on an empty stomach. She felt so hungry by lunchtime that she could simply not concentrate in class. She, therefore sought permission to go home with the excuse that she was ill.
On her way home Esi accidentally kicked a leather-like pouch that turned out to be a wallet. She took it, opened it and found some documents including a passport and some foreign currency in it.
The owner of the wallet had his complimentary card in it; therefore, she used somebody’s phone to call the line. It happened that the owner, who was based outside the country mistakingly dropped the wallet and he had searched everywhere for it, to no avail. The man was so grateful to Esi for her honesty and when he visited her at home to express her gratitude to her and realised the condition in which Esi’s family lived, he decided to sponsor Esi’s education.
With his help, Esi was able to continue her education she was so happy that God had restored hope to her life. Every opportunity she got, Esi asked people not to give up on their aspirations but have faith in God to provide their needs.
By Faustina Nyarkoah Ferguson,
Child Evangelism School,
P.O. Box 273,
Akim Oda, E/R/Ghana
