MENTAL ILLNESS CAN BE TREATED, BUT WHO'LL LEND A HAND...?

FRESH VINE( WEIN ESHET),

It’s one girl’s name here in Addis Ababa. When I was a Sunday school choir member, she was a choir member of one orphanage house. I remember they sang one Sunday, and everybody was crying. The song was just one powerful song which praises Jesus. I remember clearly where I sat, next to the piano which the pastor’s wife used to play. I cried bitterly while they’re singing, but I still don’t know why.

Weineshet went to a college after she completed high school. She dresses neatly, but I used to see her in different parts of the city. It’s long time since I stopped to that church and joined the international church. She came once to our house with my younger sister and she was entertained well. She is always happy to see me and asks me about old folks of that church, which I had no information about them.

When I come to work for Ameher Trading, I started seeing her every day. She carries a small girl in her arms and men are abusing her always. I wanted to ask my sister who invited her to our house once, but keep forgetting.

I learned later, She was discharged from the orphanage house and she spend her nights in any friends’ or a church member’s house. She was raped and got a baby. She had been such a stressed girl, now she became mentally ill. Many of the church members tried to help her but after sometimes they all chase her away because she insult them.

What I see every morning while I walk to my office, the men who works in the furniture’s store always insult her. She had a big bucket and a bag to carry her child’s and her cloths. She fetches water and washes the verandah of the store where she sleeps at night with her child. She was there for about seven month with a child sleeping outside. The owner of the shop is a woman. She doesn’t want Weineshet to sleep there, but she buys her food sometimes as I heard from the parking girl. The owner of the shop kept paving her verandah with a black sticky liquid which kills ant. Weineshet disappeared. She had to look for a place to sleep.

One Saturday afternoon, I saw her surrounded by security guards, two policemen, and a crowd. She sat on a chair holding her baby in her arms, he face washed with tears. Her voice became deep. I can tell she was crying and speaking louder for hours. When she saw me; “Lily, please help me get out of this. Tell that you know me. Tell them that I was your sister’s friend. Call your sister now and let her explain to them who they are.”

My colleague was shocked. She was not able to believe her ears that I know a crazy woman in the middle of the town. Leaving my colleague for her confusion, I walked to the police and explained how Weineshet end up on the streets.

“I was raped by the federal police members. I was raped by the police. I was raped by …etc. I know men are the destroyers of a woman’s womb.” She was saying a lot of more scary stories while I was talking to the police.

The police told me, the owner of the shop accused her for the insults and they were going to send her to jail. More people came, the circle grew, I left when there was no solution. The following week, she was not there. I asked the parking girl if she saw her. I confirmed that she was jailed.

I meet her after ten days, I greeted her and gave her little money as I always do. I talk to some girls from a same church she still goes. “Why don’t we rent a small room for her and give her food? Are we not able to help her?”

Some of them said, she’s not willing to be helped. Some said she’s afraid of the helpers, thinking they’ll take her baby away from her and give the child to orphanage houses.

I meet her this morning. She bought a biscuit and tea, sat on the stairs of another shop, eating her breakfast with her baby girl. I stood and greeted her. Her clothes are shabby and dirty, her hair was shaggy, her baby girl always wearing tops, no pant or trouser, they sat together. I always pity the little girl for sitting on her bum on a cold tile. The cold is biting on that hour, even in the house.

The little girl invited me to sit with them. I sit on the stairs next to the baby. The baby girl gave me a piece of biscuit. Passerby is staring at me. The two young men are wondering why I was there. They always see me when I go to bank or walk to my office. I chat with them and told her to look for a small room. Someone took her bucket. That’s why her cloths became dirty. She used to be very clean while she lives on the streets either. The men steel her things and when she insults them, they insult her back. Sometimes she is beaten by them.

We have to lend a hand to her. I know, even mental disorder can be treated.

How to Get Involved

BY LENDING A HAND TO MENTALLY ILL PERSON, GIVING THEM PROTECTION, LISTEN TO THEM