How Shunem Changed Her Life

Jvothi Laxmi has lived at Shunem for eleven years. She always gets the best grades out of all the kids at Shunem, and wins the girls’ Kabbaddi championship at school. She is really sweet, beautiful and kind, making all the other children love her. She is certainly the most popular girl at Shunem.

Every year for her birthday Jyothi dresses up for school. This is on her 16th birthday.

The first time that I spoke with Jyothi we were walking back to Shunem after the van had run out of gas. As we were walking she was complaining of her feet paining. She then told me that she loved her feet because they reminded her of her mom. I just thought that it was a cute way she thought about her parents while she was away from home. She then said that she had lost them. I was confused because the way she said it made it sound as if she had lost her feet, but I could see them right there on the ends of her legs. I then asked her what she had lost. My heart sank as she told me that both of her parents died when she was very young.

Later on I asked Sarah Mommy more about it. Jyothi’s parents both had leprosy, and just after they were cured they died. It was assumed that it was AIDS that killed them, and that the two of them just didn’t know that they had it. She then told me that Jyothi had a younger sister, so she still has some family. I asked why her sister didn’t live at Shunem. Sarah told me that she did for a year until they found out she was HIV positive when she was just 4 years old. She now lives at a children’s home that can properly care for her in her condition.

This is Jyothi and her sister, Mary. Mary is 4th rank at school; it seems brains run in the family.

Thinking too much about it makes me want to cry, but I can’t help but think  about where Jyothi and her sister would be without Shunem. Seeing kids wander the city streets, hair caked with dirt and bones all too visible, makes us realize just how much she has been blessed. She is healthy, getting a good education, on a strong path to university, and loving all of her friends and guardians at Shunem. She still gets to see her sister sometimes, too, and they’ll be spending Christmas together this year.

The best part of being here, if you couldn’t already tell, is watching Shunem change lives.