We’ve had a hard time helping 15-year-old Gotifrey*. The habit of stealing scrap metal, by which so many homeless youth survive, seemed almost impossible for him to break. The Our Father’s House brick business hired him, but he worked only one day before going back to scrap metal. Returning him to his own family wasn’t an option, as his father had left and his mother had died. Uniting him with a foster family hadn’t worked; no one would accept a boy with a habit of stealing.
Gotifrey did have an older brother, Rafael. When their mother had died, Rafael had gotten a job burning music. It paid almost nothing, but it kept him off the streets. Things changed one day when Rafael started working for the Our Father’s House brick business. He made a little more money and rented a larger place, so Gotifrey could stay with him. Gotifrey no longer needed to steal as much scrap metal. This gave him a chance to break the habit (photo credit: Shelby Cook).
Around this time (September 2018), Our Father’s House hired Moses Nyamhanga full-time as the new Director. Since Moses could put more time into his work, he got to know Gotifrey better. He could tell Gotifrey wanted to stop stealing, and he knew a family in town who owned a small restaurant. Moses asked Gotifrey if he would like to wash dishes at this restaurant instead of stealing. Gotifrey jumped at the opportunity, and he has been working there ever since. Here he is, hanging out with a couple other homeless youth.
A year ago, an Our Father’s House volunteer took me (Davis Rhodes, OFH volunteer) around town, after dark, to see the children sleeping on the streets. One of the children we saw was Gotifrey, sleeping under an overhanging roof on a slab of concrete. I remember feeling so frustrated that we couldn’t help him. A year later, he has a place to sleep and has broken his habit of stealing. Thank you, friends, for making this happen.
Our Father's House 