Elifrida
Elifrida is 40 yrs old and mother of three children, a thirteen month old baby boy, a nine year old boy and a six-year-old daughter. She became a widow in 2023, when her husband passed away from heart failure and her life became very difficult.
They were living in Moshi, her husband was a farmer, he grazed cows and chickens and grew crops. After her husband died, the family had a meeting to discuss the future of the widow and the children. His brothers took everything that belonged to her husband including the farm and they left her with nothing. Her brother-in-law wanted to inherit her as his wife, and he wanted her to give birth to his children. She refused to do this, and he became angry. The family wanted to keep her children, so she decided to escape to Arusha.
Elfrida used the small amount of money that she had to rent a room. She didn’t have any money for food and the family was starving, so she went to every house and asked if she could sweep their floor, clean their house or do their laundry to get some money to feed herself and her children. When she would pass people’s houses they would laugh at her.
One day, she was going to wash clothes for a woman but when she arrived, the woman didn’t answer.
Desperate now Elifrida saw a sign that said Neema Village, so she followed the sign and asked a woman for directions along the way. She met Anna, the MAP Director at Neema and had an interview. When Anna went to her place, she was sleeping on the floor of the room with her children. The MAP program purchased her a bed and is giving them money for food each month. She wants to start a business selling vegetables.
The plight of widows in Africa break my heart. When they become a widow they can lose their home, their land, the cows and even their children. Neema’s Inherit Your Rights program taught every month at Neema is struggling to help widows understand they do have rights.
With God’s help Neema will help Elifrida start a business so she can support her family.
James 1:27 tells us that we are practicing “Pure Religion” when we help widows and orphans. www.neemavillage.org