A letter from Doug Orbaker in Nicaragua
April 2011
Jenifer
Before I write about Jenifer, I probably ought to admit my preconceived notions and prejudices. Here in Nicaragua I am frequently confronted by someone, usually children or teenagers, who are out raising money for some program that claims to be a Christian program to help street kids or youth on drugs. Sometimes they are trying to sell something useless, other times just begging for money. A few of these are obvious frauds — the person trying to “help get kids off drugs” is obviously stoned and the only drug user being helped will be him — helped to buy more drugs.
Most of these projects, however, are in some way legitimate but I still have some objections. I object to sending children and young people out to work the streets for money to pay the salaries of the people who run their program. I guess it is an inevitable way of fund-raising, but I still don't like it. But then a few weeks ago I saw Jenifer again.
I’m not sure what to call Jenifer, a street kid who grew up but is still on the street. Is she a “street adult?” When she was still a “street kid” Jenifer used to work one of the stoplights near where we live. She had a dirty old rag that she used to wipe off a little of the dust from the front of cars and then beg for money. One morning I asked her, “How are you today?” and she replied “I’m really hungry.” I went out and bought a little food and brought it back. After that I usually carried a piece of fruit and a few crackers when I was going to pass that stoplight. Then one day she wasn’t there.
Several months went by and I had not seen her, and then one day she was at a different stoplight, still wiping the dust off of cars and begging. I stopped to talk a minute, and she looked even hungrier than ever and obviously was stoned, probably from sniffing glue. (A lot of people, especially street kids, sniff the glue that shoe repair people use because it kills hunger pains. It also kills brain cells and nasal passages.) I don’t go through that area as often, but I saw her there off and on for several months and noticed that she was pregnant. I talked to her about the danger that the glue causes for her and her baby, but I don’t think she ever heard me. Then for a while she was gone again.
She showed up next holding a drastically underweight baby at a different stoplight. Each time I saw her, she looked skinnier, hungrier and more stoned than ever. She was still working at that stoplight when I returned from the Unites States two months ago, but after a few weeks she disappeared again.
A few weeks ago I saw her in the town of San Benito, about 30 kilometers out of Managua. She recognized my truck and came over to sell me some cartoon character stickers. She has been taken into a church-run program. She says that she is not sniffing glue or using any other drugs, and she didn’t act stoned in any way. She is eating regularly and is even putting on a little weight. She said “Mire, estoy gordita!” “Look, I’m a little bit fat!” Her clothing was clean, and (for the first time in a long time) she was smiling. She told me that her baby is doing well and also gaining weight.
I guess we are stuck with this style of fund-raising, both here in Nicaragua and in the United States. I still object to organizations that require the children or youth in their care to go out and raise money, especially when I’m sure that most of it goes for the salaries of the leaders. Whether it is child or adult labor, it still is coerced labor and exploitative. I object to the coerced labor, and I object to being coerced into buying something I don’t need or want just because it is for a “good cause.”
But, while I am objecting, Jenifer and her baby are eating regularly. She is clean and decently dressed. She isn’t sniffing glue. I don't know whether or not it will last. I pray that it does. But even if it doesn’t last, at least for a few months, Jenifer and her baby will be healthier.
I hugged her and told her how happy I was to see her in this condition. Then I bought some stickers that I didn’t want. Does anybody want some “Little Mermaid” stickers?
I hope that she makes it in the program, that she stays off the glue and finds a way to make a living. I hope so. But this week I was in San Benito again and I didn’t see her.
Doug
The 2011 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 289
