Real-life 'Les Mis' in Addis

Those of you who know me at all will know that Les Miserables is one of my favourite films and I can almost recite it off pat! There are many reasons why I like it so much – the music, the brilliant dramatization, but most of all the story line and the various strands that run through it paralleling the gospel story of forgiveness and grace.

It occurred to me the other day, when recalling one particular story of a child and his mother that I met at Women At Risk, that in some ways you could say that W.A.R is a modern day, Ethiopian version of one of the storylines in Les Mis – here’s why:

In Les Mis, one of the characters, Fantine, is a single mother living in poverty near Paris about 10 years before the French Revolution and trying to earn enough to keep herself and her daughter Cosette alive. In order to have extra time to work, she entrusts Cosette to the Thenardieu’s – a good for nothing pair of scoundrels who own a bar near Paris (although Fantine doesn’t know how bad they are). She sends them money for Cosette and believes that her daughter is being cared for, not knowing that she is actually being treated like a servant.

Fantine loses her job, through no fault of her own, from the factory owned by Jean Valjean (the hero of the story, but also an escaped prisoner who jumped parole), and is forced to earn money as a prostitute. At one point, when she is very sick, she happens to be found by Jean Valjean, who as well as being factory owner is also the mayor of the town. He finds out that she was turned out from his factory, and also about Cosette, and filled with remorse he sets out to get Cosette back for Fantine.

He eventually finds Cosette at the Thenardieu’s bar, and has to negotiate and buy Cosette back from them, so that he can look after her as his own (because Fantine has died by now).

All very 18^th century, and something we would hope doesn’t happen nowadays – but it does.

On our last day at Women At Risk, we were having the final celebration event, and I noticed Wonde, one of the senior staff for WAR quietly arrive to watch the proceedings. I went over to greet him and he apologized for being late but said he had been to rescue the son of one of the ladies who has recently started on the programme.

It turns out that this particular lady had been unable to keep her son when he was born, as she was working as a prostitute and didn’t have the support, or ability to care for him. She was from a rural area and had come to the city seeking work and when the baby was born she entrusted him to the care of a lady (not sure if relative or friend) back near her family home.

Three years on, she found out about WAR and was accepted onto the programme very recently. As a result she got herself to a place where she wanted to have her son back, and give him the motherly love and care that she previously didn’t feel able to give.

Wonde went to the woman who was looking after the boy, age 3, and explained the situation so that he could start the process of taking the boy home to his birth mother. Unfortunately the woman decided differently and put up resistance to him being taken away.

The outcome was that Wonde had to pay money to get the boy back – he had to effectively buy the lad back so that he could live with his mother again. Just like in Les Mis; just like used to happen years ago, but we all like to think doesn’t happen now.

Thanks to Women At Risk, and Wonde’s tenacity and refusal to give in, the lad is now reunited with his mother, but how sad that in the process he was essentially treated as a commodity by those who were entrusted with his care – may he never know that, and may he be young enough that the trauma of his early years subside into the distant past, and doesn’t have a long term effect on his future.