By Fred Deya
Travelling to Europe or Western world is a dream of many, thoughtfully to land a good job and have a better life. But , for Rosamary Odhiambo, it was her best opportunity to save lives.
Out of kindness and generosity, offering a bottle of water and some snacks to a street boy at the road side of Athens, Greece turned around things For Maria, as she is well known by many.
It is a couple of years now since Maria left her home in Kano to follow her career husband who secured a job in Greece.
“My husband was a banker at an insurance company in Kisumu just before he landed a new job abroad. I decided to follow him to Greece since I did not have a regular job”, narrated Maria.
After a short struggle to acquire her travelling visa for a couple of months stay in one of the world’s oldest cities, Maria joined her husband and lived happily in the ‘promised land’.
In dismay, something awful followed; losing her husband through death just within three months of stay in the foreign land. Maria’s husband succumbed to pneumonia.
Tough moments and sorrow engulfed Maria after she buried her husband in Migori. However, the humble woman remained firm and focused:
“Losing my husband just within three months of starting a new life abroad was the most tragic thing ever happened in my life. Anyway, I went down to my knees and prayed God for strength and wisdom to continue with my life and to carter for my young family”, paused Maria.
Maria’s husband was a long time banker under Kisumu based Jubilee Insurance Company but later resigned to secure another job abroad.
“The death of my husband was a shock of life to me. But what could I do as a young mother of three? I remained focused and prayed God to open ways for me”, added Maria.
Before waiting for grass to grow on her husband’s graveyard, Maria returned to Athens with her family. This time around not to live a ‘flashy’ lifestyle but to do any kind of job that could come her way to carter for her little kids.
Out of good gesture and love she had for Greek neighbors, Maria got many friends around her. This helped her got a host on her return, a Greek woman who remained dear to her for a long time. With the help of her host, Maria landed a house-help job.
A job that many could refer as lowering a dignity, the House Help job for Maria was a good start for her with a monthly salary of over 700 Euros.
After a couple of months, Maria rented her own, affordable apartment where her generosity and good gesture for love turned around her life.“I can remember I was having a street walk with my three kids then one of the street boys approached us. The boy looked weary and hungry and asked for water. I offered him a bottle of water and he drunk as fast as if he wanted more. This pricked my heart and I felt for him”, recalled Maria.
Her generosity and kindness to others extended to her household. Maria said that things just happened fast that she could not comprehend.
The young mother of three started hosting different people in her apartment afterwards saying,“I actually asked my son what I could do with these street people flocking my house daily. He told me one thing at his tender age that I will live to remember: let us feed them, my son told me. With such a big number, in my small apartment, how could it be possible? I asked myself”, added Maria.
Out of empathy to these street people, mostly immigrants living in the streets, Maria had to dig deep into her pocket and budget well with her little monthly earning.
The wise, young woman got a solution to handle her ‘visitors’, something according to her almost got out of proportion. Thanks to her then 15 years old son for the brilliant idea, Maria family had no otherwise but to fulfill what God required of them to do: ‘feed my people’.
“This is what my family and I resorted to do for the less fortune. Out of my little income, with the help of my family I started preparing some light meals from my home and offered to the street people; morning and at lunch hours”, adds Maria.
Maria’s heart to help has so far gone notch high. The exercise that started at her door step and in her tiny kitchen turned into a charity centre: Love and Serve Without Boundaries (LSWB) under the sponsorship of Sunset International Bible Institute , organization based in Texas, United States of America.It is over seven years since Maria started to restore life to heart feinted, Athens Street people.
“I can tell you without fear or contradiction that there is God’s power. The little water I offered to that boy has made me famous in Greece. Above all, has led to life restoration for many”, reckons Maria.
Maria started a charity centre in the street of Athens five years ago. She opened the centre purposely to have a space for cooking for the street people, store received items from well-wishers and also conduct free language classes offered by volunteers.
“We are doing well here and everything is rolling on perfectly. We conduct classes for free to those who wish to perfect their languages. As you know many of these street people are immigrants, most of them have had problems with language so we offer English, German and even Greek classes to them. We receive items from different parts of the world, mostly European countries. We have a number of volunteers, mostly researchers and University students who come to volunteer at our centre during summer”.
The centre hosts tens of volunteers every summer from other European countries and a good number of local volunteers. Maria has also employed a few people to help her at the centre who are under monthly pay.
We managed to visit her centre and everything looked amazing: children taking their language lessons, volunteers preparing meals for street outreach and other activities.
“Here we work with passion and we love serving the less fortunes. I have been here for just few years but I have witnessed a lot in regards to needy people”, notes Christine Wangoi (not her real name), one of the Kenyan ladies working at the centre.
Maria received a new van for the centre from Rachel Jane Boot from United kingdom. The van helps the organization to transport food that feed street people. She has also established a football club at the centre that nurtures talents.When asked the destiny of the charity centre being that she operates in a foreign country, she said that the locals have embraced her effort to help people and there are no elements of opposition and racism.
Maria has echoed the power of social media. She said that most of offers the centre receives are due to social media (Facebook, twitter, YouTube) network.
According to United Nations agency (UNHCR), there were about 60,000 refugees and migrants in Greece as of June, 2018.
UNHCR confirms that most of these asylum seekers are from war prone and economic havoc countries. Thousands of them reach the country by land and sea monthly.
According to European Migration Network (EMN), over 5 % of European Union population consists of citizens of no-member countries and about 2% are citizens of other EU member states.
