Annet’s Story

Before Arise encountered Annet, she was making a living with a small business in our community. Annet is a good business-person and was succeeding until COVID arrived and everyone began to struggle. When her business failed she could no longer make a living and pay her rent. Eventually she and her three children were evicted from there home.

A local church knew Annet and allowed her to find shelter ina small tin shed attached to the church. This was a blessing but it leaked very badly during the rain and the family had almost no means to buy food. Annet got work wherever she could to feed her children.

Arise was at this church to visit 8 homeless kids when they met Annet. Even in her difficult situation, Annet was finding a few scraps to share with the 8 children. Arise asked Annet to share a meal with the 8 church kids each day in exchange for food for her own family and Annet was happy to do so.

Later, when Arise had traced the mothers for the 8 children, Annet offered more help. She allowed the 2 returning mothers to stay with her while Arise found a way to help those families. What amazed the Arise team was that in the midst of Annet’s struggle for her family to survive, she found grace in her heart to help 2 other families and asked nothing in return.

When Arise met with the 2 returning mothers to consider business options that might provide for their families, we also invited Annet to join in on the conversation. Arise had decided that Annet’s family deserved to be included in the process. Annet was thrilled to have an opportunity to startup a business again.