In my village, there was a wealthy family that had an only girl child called Sikitu. This one was an albino and as it is almost common everywhere in Africa, albinos are the people to whom many other people give less value and consideration due to their albinism.
Seeing that the family of the girl was wealthy, her relatives could not reveal the hatred they had against her, as the parents of the girl loved her so much. When the war started in 2006, the rebels attacked the home place of the girl and killed both her father and mother when the girl was not there. At that time Sikitu was 10 years old. Tthen after all the funeral ceremonies of the parents, the siblings of the dead persons gathered and had a meeting to discuss the wealth and the child left by their dead siblings.
In the meeting, they easily agreed on the point of sharing the wealth, but none of them wished to look after the albino girl for different reasons. When the albino child noticed that none of her uncles and aunts wished to keep her in their families, she also decided to go and talk to the pastor of her dead parents’ church about her problem to find where to stay after being rejected by her uncles and aunts due to her albinism. Then the pastor also gathered her children and wife to explain to them the problem of the orphan albino in order to find how to assist her and this meeting resulted in the agreement to sympathetically allow the girl to come and stay together with other children in the pastor’s family.
Wanting to know the main reason the pastor came up with such sympathy towards Sikitu, the pastor himself argued that in reference to the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 13 that tells about true love. He also described Sikitu’s challenge as a place for him to practice the true love said in the Bible. In addition, he showed that actions speak louder than words, and that’s why he took the time to practice true love rather than keeping on teaching it through words. What I mean is that the pastor wanted to prove his teaching through such help.
Three years later, the war started again and the rebels killed many people and this made most villagers to flee the country including Sikitu’s uncles, aunts and the pastor’s family to Malawi. Arriving at Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Malawi in 2009, Sikitu’s uncles and aunts refused to register the lady as one of their family members at the Refugee Status Determination Office that is in charge of registering new arrivals at the camp. Before the refusal, the pastor together with a community leader met the uncles and aunts in order to advise them about including Sikitu in their families, but none of them accepted to do so.
Then, the community Leader referred the case to an organization that promotes human rights called ‘Plan Malawi International’ for help. The organization also invited Sikitu’s uncles and aunts including the pastor to give a solution to the problem. During the session, each uncle and aunt gave personal reasons to refuse to stay with Sikitu. When the officer noticed that none of the relatives showed to welcomed Sikitu in their families, he therefore asked the pastor to say something as a spiritual parent of the lady. From there, the pastor asked the officer in the presence of the uncles and aunts to award him custody, allowing him to adopt Sikitu as one of his children. On the side of the officer, he also asked the uncles and aunts to agree or disagree, and all of them agreed with the idea of the pastor to adopt Sikitu. Few days later, the officer introduced the case to the court for a custody document process, and the court provided it, allowing the pastor to become the father of the lady, and this is how Sikitu became the daughter of the pastor. Being in the pastor’s family, Sikitu kept praying, and the God of Heaven opened a door for her together with the pastor’s family.
So, the uncles and aunts registered their own children, and the pastor registered Sikitu as one of his own children at the government Refugee Registration Office. Then reaching the year 2014, the Canadian migration came to the camp and selected all the families having albinos to be resettled in Canada for their durable solution. In such selection, the pastor’s family that accepted to look after the albino orphan, also got the chance to be selected and went to Canada for their resettlement. This process of selecting the pastor’s family went well thanks to Sikitu and the Officer of Plan Malawi International, who also referred the case to the UNHCR protection officer for help. On the side of Sikitu’s uncles and aunts, their daughters got pregnant and this made them stay at the camp until today. This is to say if they would have accepted to welcome Sikitu in their families, the pastor’s chance could be theirs, but the wealth they easily shared ended in destruction by the rebels.
10 November, 2023
