He’s All She Has

Ndjerane Frederic is a boy who never had the chance to live a normal life. He lost his mother,Elise Yondiguimal,in 2012 after a long illness.He never knew his father,Djiangar, who left thevillagesoon after his birth. Nobody knows where he is.

After the death of his mother, Ndjerane became the head of the two family member household—his grandmother and himself. Ndjerane lives in southernChad at about 340 kilometers from the capital, N’Djamena.

Every day, he does chores such as fetching water or cleaning the hut beforegoing to town to look for food. It is difficult to get enough food for two consecutive days. So he has to work in order to get it every day.

Ndjerane lives in an old hut with thatched roof built by his mother four years ago.The roof is old and needs repairing but Ndjerane is still young to do it and the grandmother can’t afford to have it fixed.

“We are not sure if this hut will stand up to the next season,” says the old woman in a soft voice. “We cannot sleep at all when it rains at night. The roof leaks like a stream when it rains. We have to use a plastic sheet to protect our head only because the floor is full of water,” she explains.

Life would have been a real challenge for the old and weak grandmother if Ndjerane does not exist in her life. He is all this old woman has. He helps her to find her way when going out.

“This boy is all I have,” said Ndjerane’sgrandmother, “I rely totally on him because he feeds me, helps me to walk to the toilet, or collects water for me to drink and take a bath. I don’t know how life would have been if Ndjerane had never existed in my life” said Ndjenombaye Marguerite, his grandmother..

Life starts every morning at 5 AM for Ndjerane. He has to go to the well to collect water that he will use to cook millet porridge if they have some flour left, or just to wash their faces if the there is nothing at home to be cooked.

“During the raining season like now, I work in the people’s farm to get some money. I just look for people who hire casual laborer and I join them. At noon, I could get 200 fcfa, (the equivalent of fifty cents) that is needed for our meal. As soon as I come home, I would go to the market and buy sorghum and take it to the grinding mill to get flour we need to prepare the boule,” explains 10 years old Ndjerane Frederic.

“My grandmother is blind and weak and cannot work at all. She depends on me all the time and when I go to search for food, I close the door on her because some people may come and steal the little food reserve that I secure in the hut,” he continues.

Despite his young age, Ndjerane knows that he is the bread winner for hisgrandmother.He is the only one to do everything for her. He has to work in order to get money and care for his grandmother. He cooks food for her, carries water and washes her clothes. And because he is all she has, Nejerane cannot go to school.

“He left school two years ago at levelone because nobody could pay his school fees. The other reason is that he understands that nobody gives us food if he doesn’t work to get some for us. He is just a precious gift from God to compensate my blindness,” the grandmother says.

Even if life is hard for him, Ndjerane is optimistic and hopes to be able to resume schooling one day.

“I wish to be able to go back to school and study like the other children. If I finish the secondary school I hope to become a teacher, and build a better house to live in,” says Ndjerane.

Besides school, the two people pray to God for a better hut because the grasses that make the roof are old and can no longer protect them from the rain. When it rains, they cannot lie down. Instead, they must sit until morning comes.

“We desperately need a hut or at least a change of our roof. You can see the sky from inside the hut because the roof is old and can no longer protect us from rains. If the rain falls at night then, we cannot sleep because huge quantity of water pour in the room becomes and we have to sit on the bench until the next morning,” said the grandmother.

Ndjerane is an orphan because his mother died when he was still young. “I was like this little girl when my mother died and since then I am with my grandmother here,” Ndjerane explains while showing a little girl among the onlookers standing around us during the interview. His father also went missing as he left the village just few months after the child’s birth.

Ndjerane’s story was documented by a Korean television crew last month who was moved by his difficult circumstances. “We are going to work with the laokassi ADP team to help this child to go back to school,” said KukJinkil one of the team member.

The team provided clothes, mat, and food for the family and plastic sheet to put on the roof to protect the old grandmother and the young boy from the water leaking in the hut.

“I am thankful to World Vision because this is the ever first animal we own in the family. I will keep it until it brings me more sheep that I could sell and buy oxen to use in my land cultivation when I grow,” said Ndjerane gratefully after receiving a she goat from the team.