Yayra

I remember the day that I truly realized how blessed I am. Blessed and undeserving.

It was the day I became friends with Marion. In crossing the line from caregiver and nurse to friends who found genuine similarities between one another, I became starkly aware that (if God had willed it) our two situations could have been easily reversed. From that point forward, it was impossible for me to view my upbringing, my geographical home, my family, my education, or my experiences as anything more than cards dealt to me by my heavenly father – not at all haphazardly or arbitrarily – yet similarly without obvious cause or warrant.

It has been this type of thinking that has prevented me from being able to settle into a self-serving life. But, as it turns out, it seems that it has been this type of thinking that is also making “this time around” feel so natural so quickly.

On Tuesday, at the reception we hosted for our Togolese hospital translators to welcome them to our healthcare services team, I met Aida. My new sister and I spent the better part of an hour learning about eachother’s lives, histories, and passions. For those few precious moments - for which I was scarcely aware of the other one hundred something people in the dining hall - I became truly connected to another person in that unique, rare way that I used to think would only be possible with someone whom I had invested copious amounts of quality time. But, as Aida told me her story, it was impossible to deny that we have been cut from the same cloth.

“….I know that I am blessed to have received an education…I consider it my responsibility to bless others with my skills…when I look at little children, I know I need to help because I see them as innocent……it is so important to teach people skills that can be used in the future to support their families… people sometimes question whether I am capable to do the job because they think I am too young…God called me to do his work and I had no choice but to go…”

Aida received her post-secondary education in Business from a University in England. She returned to her homeland and, despite initially finding a fairly well-paying, prestigious job, Aida chose to give up her job to create an NGO. God gave her the name Yayra for her organization– which means blessing in her native language of Mina. She and her 5 coworkers travel to rural areas where many groups put little to no value on formal education. As Aida explained to me, education is paid for by the government up until the end of the equivalent of elementary school, but many children do not attend due to a lack of cultural value on school. Aida’s passion is for children to be able to go to school, even if only to obtain the foundational skills they can acquire in the first years of being in the educational system. Her team does teaching, and raises money to pay for school uniforms or supplies, if that is the inhibiting factor. In addition, they try to do agricultural training for families that are currently farming on a small scale, but have yet to expand to a level where their farming can provide a regular income. In Aida’s words:

“I want to help both groups. For the children, they have the opportunity to receive an education, and I want to help them with that. But there are many people for whom school is no longer an option. We want to provide something for them as well”

Aida and her team live the definition of their namesake. In comparison, my life’s vision probably fails miserably. But her life’s work spoke to me - because I saw her, and felt her passion, and understood her vision. And, the ability of the two of us to connect in such a unique way is yet another miraculous blessing.