The Victorious One

There was a swift knock on our car window. A beautiful young girl was standing firmly by the car. Her presence was instantaneously captivating so anyone would have stopped and acknowledged her.

“I want to give you this letter,” she demanded while looking straight into the eyes of Selam Terefe, our East Africa Regional Director. It was a makeshift envelope that she had decorated with simple drawings.

Her letter was detailed and emphasized her deep desire to focus on her education and change her life. She wrote that she was smart, ambitious, and able, but poor. She wrote that she needed school materials and support. “I don’t have a bag, I use a plastic bag to carry my school books.”

Everyone on our team in Ethiopia read the letter, and we all agreed that the author, Dibora, was someone very special.

We currently have 260 active scholars here in Ethiopia in our scholarship program, and we are not accepting applicants. Still, Dibora started to come to our office two to three times a day after submitting her letter. 

“Dibora is here!” soon became a familiar phrase. For the following three days, she kept coming. She wouldn’t depart unless we provided her with sufficient time to discuss her letter and what we thought. When we finally told her to come back with her mother, it took her 15 minutes to rush back.

We sat with her first to hear her story. Dibora began to share about her life, a life that no child should ever endure. At the tender age of 11, Dibora is sadly the co-breadwinner for her family. She lives with her mother and her twin sisters, who are five years old.  

When the twins were born and their father passed, Dibora started to sell napkins on the side of the road to help her single mother. Sadly, she was the only one who could take care of her mom after she had the twins, and for a few months, she took on the full responsibility of providing for the family as the sole breadwinner. As the twins grew, her mother started making spices from leftover peppers. Dibora is the one who goes every day after school to collect the residues from the local market.

“There were many times when the police would find me and they would hit me,” she told us. “But I could not go home without the peppers or my mom would hit me.”

After collecting peppers, Dibora would take her sisters and go to hotels to ask for scraps of food. She told us, “No one would give my mom leftovers, they would tell her to go away. But they feel sorry for us so they hand us some food.”

At some point during our conversations, we asked her, “What is something that bothers you the most in life?”

“Pepper,” she replied with tears in her eyes. Most kids her age would probably say something trivial like bedtime or homework. 

Although Dibora faced challenges that would break any grown-up’s spirit, she is soaring so high. “My mom reads the Bible to me every night! She tells me that I am strong and that I should speak my mind.”

Dibora told us that she is named after the biblical prophetess Deborah (Judges, chapter 4) who led the Israelites to victory against their enemies. “My mom tells me I am victorious! And so I introduce myself as such, the victorious one.”

Well, indeed she is. Dibora certainly won over our hearts. She’s a strong lioness who wants to let go of the burden of life and just learn to be a normal child. Your support is helping to make that happen.

Selam Kahsay, Health & Wellness, Ethiopia

Selam is a public health expert passionate about working with vulnerable communities. She has many years of experience working closely with neglected patients from the poorest sections of the city, which consequently set the tone for her professional decision to always work in close proximity with overlooked communities. Selam holds a Master’s in Public Health from Addis Ababa University.