Blog
…“I will share a story of a case that I was reunited with this month, which was fascinating and encouraging at the same time. I met Nyabo in 2021 at The Safe House. He had disappeared from home that year but was rescued and placed in the safe centre pending his family being traced. We related with him and he was open to help so we asked him to give us directions to his home to reunite him with his family.
…With the excitement of reuniting one more child with their family, we decided to trust his information and take him home without tracing first. Little did we know that there was no home and this would be the beginning of a 2 year journey in search of his family! No matter what direction we took, we could not find his family. We decided to visit the school he claimed to have been enrolled in but all the teachers did not know nor recognize him. Tired from a long day, with no information of Nyaboga’s family whereabouts, we took him back to the Safe House.
While at the centre, the probing to find his extended family continued. He kept giving us different directions and our Community volunteer in the said Counties would attempt to trace his home but with to no avail. Over time and in the confusion, we realized that the boy wanted to stay longer at the Centre and hence focused on building trust with him. For two years he stayed at the safe house, with us relating to him and praying for him.
In July this year, he requested to speak to one of our team members and opened up that he was ready to share his family location and ready to go home. Just like that, he gave the right information and explained that he was scared of going home for fear of being punished! He had stolen a USB disk from a teacher in school, was discovered and sent home to get his parents to deal with this… so he decided to run away to the streets….but 2 years later…
We began to trace his family and it was successful!
At first they thought we were people who wanted to con them. We had to show them a photo to confirm that he was alive and breathing. For two years they had gone through the worst trauma of their lives losing a son; they had tried using social media, local radio and TV stations to announce his disappearance but were unsuccessful. They reported him missing to police stations near and far, but still there was no hope. The last option they had, was to visit the mortuaries near his home… They had given up hope of seeing him alive and were praying that they could at least find his body so that they could give him a proper burial.
However, the day came, and a miracle happened…! It was a tearful reuniting as his parents and relatives travelled to the Safe house from another county to pick up their boy. They called it a miracle, as God had answered their prayers of seeing their son alive. This was totally unexpected!
Today we look back at this case and realise that our God who sets the lonely into families has done it again. It has taken us 2 years to find Nyaboga’s family. All this time He was working in Nyaboga’s life and also in the lives of his family. He was also working on me too. After all this, we know that He is faithful and what He says He will do, and He will do it at the right time…
