Women At Risk – stories to give insight

Yesterday, Tuesday, was the first day of home visits for the team, and we also had a talk by Berekte and Seble, two wonderful women who head up a lot of the childrens work side of things for E-WAR.

The outcome was an emotionally charged afternoon and evening and I’d like to share with you some of my thoughts and reflections, to try and give slight insight into the remarkable work of this organization. I’ll write the home visits up later, but for now here is a summary of what Berekte and Seble shared:

The full name for the organization is Eliita Women at Risk: Ellita means ‘into the light’ and reflects the fact that the focus is to help bring women out of a place of extreme darkness and into the light of God’s love.

The women they work with are all prostitutes, and E-WAR works with those ladies who are at the lowest end of prostitution. Outreach workers come alongside them on the streets and win their trust before introducing the thought that there is an alternative lifestyle available to them; a lifestyle of value and worth, of love, of different income options, where they can find space to love their children, and give the children a life that so many of them missed out on themselves.

Once on the programme, the ladies get trauma counseling, rehabilitation, food baskets, medical access, access to training, educational support and Christian discipleship and there is also a package for the children to ensure they can get to school, have medical and nutritional support, and access counseling, as the children too are often very traumatised.

The children are supported until they are college age, to remove pressure on the ladies, and to make sure the children don’t miss out on school.

It’s an amazing organization, with a very high success rate of 95% of ladies staying the course of the programme and getting into alternative work; and I am not doing it justice at all in my writing.

E-WAR is about taking the ladies on a journey from the dark place of prostitution to the light of hope and knowing God’s love. Its an emotional and spiritual journey, from being shunned, abused, worthless, an object, despised; to having hope, knowing love, being valued.

Berekte also spoke of the impact we have by coming here, and what it means to the children to have us coming – to sow love, and show love, to show affirmation and belief in them, to show how worthy they are.

She spoke of how abused and traumatised the kids are: Y, 6yrs old and raped by her mum’s pimp and others, whilst mum slept in the day after a night of work.

And she spoke of the older ones, and their stories – just so much hope that people should never experience. Children who ought to be able to be children, who smile on the outside but hurt so much on the inside.

And she spoke of God, and His love for them all, and the hope they find in Him and the love they find in Him, and through his servants who are serving these ladies in the work of E-WAR.

It was a powerful evening, and whilst painful to hear, it was also important to hear. The team now have a much greater understanding of the background to the children they are serving this week, and it was a powerful testimony to God’s Kingdom being worked out here, and the battle that goes on between good and evil.

The work here is inspirational and humbling – and as I’ve said so many times on CRED trips, it is a privilege to be linking in with God’s amazing servants, and to seek ways of providing some small measure of support for them. This wonderful team, and the input it is giving to the kids of E-WAR is, I pray, one small way.