Elizabeth has been living in the SOS Children’s Village Lusaka in Zambia for the last 5 years. She wants to be a journalist when she grows up, so she set herself the task of interviewing her Grandmother, who had raised her until she ran away from home aged just 6 years old.

It was soon after her and her younger brother ran away from home that a social worker found them walking in a rubbish tip.

The social worker who found Elizabeth and her brother on the tip took them to a government transit home, where abandoned children are taken into temporary care. From there, Elizabeth and her brother were settled into the SOS Children’s Village Lusaka, Zambia – housed in one of 15 brick-built homes with facilities, where in each house 12 children are loved and cared for by an SOS Mother.

The facilities there were a long way from the surrounding that she had run away. She had been living with her Grandmother and other extended family members in a traditional Zambian home, a small circular hut made of mud blocks dried white by the sun, roofed with dried grass, and an outside set-apart area used as a latrine. No plumbing; no sewage pipes and no electricity.

When Elizabeth decided she wanted to see her Grandma again, it meant a trip back to that same hut where the family was still living.

Potentially, it was a hugely emotional experience for her. But Elizabeth was determined to face up to it. With her camera in hand, she was out to prove, even at such a young age, that she could be stoical and could live out her dream of one day becoming a journalist. She would find her grandmother; she would interview her grandmother about her own younger years; and she would do so without crying.

Patiently, she waited outside the hut as her grandmother appeared from working in the fields. And then, suddenly, there she was, bounding forward, smiling broadly, welcoming Elizabeth and remarking how much she’d grown. Her grandmother is aged 52, a quite remarkable age in a country where life expectancy for women is in the early 40s.

She said she couldn’t afford to eat more than one meal a day; and that she hadn’t eaten bread for two months. The chickens running around were beginning to reduce in number as they were slaughtered for a special meal. But it wasn’t just herself she was struggling to feed; it was also the 10 grandchildren who lived with her in the clean and tidied hut where grandmother slept on a mattress and all the grandchildren slept huddled together on the dirt floor.

Grandmother had had five children herself, but only one had survived HIV-AIDSs. Every time she went to a family funeral she brought home another grandchild or two. She had so many, and there was now so little room, that grandmother was building a second hut nearby her own – block of mud by block of mud. She didn’t know when it would be finished. Her plan was to house the grandchildren there.

Elizabeth said she was shocked to see how desolate her grandmother’s living conditions were compared to her own at the SOS Children Village. But she was pleased that her grandmother appeared happy – like so many Africans living in desolation, grandmother smiled big, beaming, white teeth smiles, sang out loud ‘I’m so happy today’ in her local language, and danced for joy outside her home, celebrating Elizabeth’s visit.

Elizabeth did her interview; asking grandmother about what life was like in Zambia when she was Elizabeth’s age; how her grandmother lived now; and what her grandmother’s hopes were for the future. And, if there had been in Elizabeth’s mind before she went any follow-up questions about how she came to suffer so terribly as a younger child; or how she could have ended up on a rubbish tip with her brother; that was all swept away by her emotions: the shock and the joy.

Back home in her SOS Children village, Elizabeth said she hoped to go to see her grandmother again.

It is only with the help of generous donors that SOS Children’s Villages is able to provide such opportunities for children like Elizabeth. You can do your own small part to help by sponsoring a child with SOS. You will receive regular updates on your chosen child and see exactly how much of a difference you are making in their life. Just click the button below to find out more.