Adanna’s story continued…

"So she goes to this place
frequented by these men to ask for food, maybe they will have compassion and
help her. They look at her, they grab her, they fondle her and they all laugh.
She feels more like an animal than a human being. They refuse to simply give
her food. “Why should we give you anything you ugly little mongrel?” they
shout.   

They tell her to go in the back
room of the store and wait. “We will take from you what we want and we will
give you what you want!” She steps into the room and she is shaking. It smells
like urine and mold. There is a man sleeping in the corner, it looks like he is
very sick.

Suddenly, three men come in
drinking and shouting. One of them grabs her, forces her to kiss him, then
slaps her. He smells like smoke and throw-up. They put their hands all over her
and rip off her clothes. She cries and screams but nobody cares, nobody is
listening. They systematically rape her for what seems like an eternity.

They throw her a bag of food and
yell that if she was better in bed, they would have given her more food. She
leaves humiliated, violated, and destroyed. What Adanna doesn’t know is that those
men who just traded food for sex have just passed the HIV virus to her. Though
she won’t die of starvation, her dreams of marriage and a family will never
come true. She will die of AIDS within three years."

These are the realities for far too many African children. But they can have a different reality! Programs are currently being established by Children’s HopeChest that are changing the future for girls like Adanna for the better. They will be safe, healthy, discipled and educated. Their future will be filled with hope because people like you and I are making a difference.