Sunday, July 17 has been set as a day of giving to help thousands of disciples in the Ivory Coast who are suffering in the wake of the civil war. Below is the story of one of the families you are helping.
Click here for more information on the Ivory Coast Crisis.
Joel and Solange Droh live in the one road, neighborhood of Williamsville in one poorer areas of the city of Abidjan. During the post electoral crisis, it became a hot spot because of its location sandwiched between the National Guard base at one end and the Government’s Elite Forces camp at the other end and a university students’ housing in the middle. All these were intense targets of the opposing forces entering to take control of Abidjan and oust the incumbent regime.
Many weeks before the final fall of the city, the disciples of this neighborhood experienced hours and sometimes days of shooting reminiscent of the legends of the American Wild West – unfortunately, I am not joking. Families could wake up to constant exchanges of gunfire and not know how and when they could get out to get food for their families or go out to earn a living or resume their lives.
For the Droh family, all this came to a head on March 14th when the shooting was so intense; the family had to stay laying on the floor from 1pm to 6pm paralyzed with fear. Solange had to literally pin her 1 year old daughter, Debora, to the floor to keep her from standing up. The next morning the family packed what they could carry to flee the city. Joel sent Solange and the kids to his relatives in a village in the interior, while he stayed in Abidjan – at the time it was very dangerous for men to try to leave the city – so Joel moved from one disciple’s house around the city to another fleeing the conflict.
On April 30th, like many others, the Drohs felt it was safe to come back home to Abidjan. Unfortunately, on their way back into the city Solange, her sisters and children were victims of a road accident which overturned their bus. Everyone in the vehicle was hospitalized with injuries of varying degrees; Solange herself spent a month in the hospital and was only reunited with her husband last week, early July.
It only at this time that Joel mustered the courage to inform Solange of the state of their home; that is that it had been completely looted; everything from the copper pipes, faucets and mirrors in the bathroom to their son’s bed and literally every piece of clothing had been stolen. Furniture had been overturned and ripped apart; books and paper were strewn everywhere. The front door knocked off and all the furniture stolen or destroyed a bullet hole pierced the ceiling.At this moment, the Drohs are trying to piece back together their lives. They sleep on the floor on a mattress with their two children under a fan given to them by disciples. In fact the few clothing, cooking utensils and small wooden table and stools – the entirety of their possessions, come from the generosity of their brothers.
Joel earns a living selling clothes in the market, and Solange is the pharmacist’s assistant at the HOPE aids clinic, CASM, so at this time their income is very meager. When I went to see them both of their children, Nathan 4 and Debora 1 were ill.
Nina Toyo, Abidjan