Would you cross the road?

I hope you had a lovely Christmas. The team here at cbm is very excited about the new year. We can see that the world is changing – and people like you are leading that change.

Until now, most people would have walked away from a girl like Rigat. Rigat says “everyone would walk on the other side of the street. They thought I was cursed.” Just because this Ethiopian girl was born with a twisted spine.

Jesus’ tale of the Good Samaritan is coming home to me again and again in these troubled days. Like the traveller beaten and robbed, people’s attitudes to Rigat’s disability could have beaten her and robbed her of life’s potential.

cbm’s partner in Ethiopia is asking schools to open their gates to children with disabilities. At first Rigat was very afraid. “Children near my home used bad words and even punched me. I was scared this would happen at school.” Sadly, Rigat had no mum to take her to school. She had died because of the same dire poverty that makes disabilities like Rigat’s so common. Her dad worked every hour there was just to feed them. So Rigat had to pluck up her courage or face a lifetime of nothingness stranded alone at home.

I am so glad she chose to go to school were were our partners had set up an amazing fruit and vegetable garden for children with disabilities. Ranging from blindness to cerebral palsy, their disabilities made it hard to help their families survive. Principal Tay Degefa says “if the garden wasn’t here the children would not have any food or nourishment.” The children also sold their produce to pay for school books - all, while learning lifelong skills in farming and business.

Staying late every day to tend the garden, Rigat avoided bullies and taunts. Her broken heart began to heal. That garden changed Rigat’s destiny completely. Rigat has become a leader and top student. She runs the garden team and tutors the same children who once abused her. “ The other students come to me for help now. It makes me feel very special. I want to be a teacher.”

The girl who was once ”cursed” is now such a blessing. Amazing-yet we see it all the time. At cbm we believe every child with a disability has so much potential in life. They just need someone like you to be their Good Samaritan.

Your gift of $85 can change a whole nation, allowing cbm community workers to spread the message that children with disability need support, not rejection.

Bless a group of children like Rigat with a gift of $155 towards a livelihood and education project similar to her school garden in Ethiopia.

A gift of $50 can provide mobility devices such as a prosthetic limb or a wheel chair.

To your gift I ask that you add your prayers. In fact, will you become our Prayer Partner? Please let us know and we will send you a Prayer Diary. Your prayers would be a huge boost to our courage in this difficult work.

Today the heart of a child like Rigat will be crushed as people walk by on the other side, calling her cursed. Please don’t pass by. Stop today and help create a lifetime of respect, independence and dignity, by giving a gift for new livelihood in the new year.

Yours in God’s service

Darren Ward
National Director

PS. Rigat was totally rejected but became
a leader, top student and a helper of others.
What great power you have to change the
world, by sending a gift today.


Blindness	Orthopaedics	Deafness	Community	Emergencies	Rehabilitation

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Would you cross the road?

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