A Simple Act of Kindness can Make a Huge Difference

It happened when I was fourteen years old. Coming from Uganda, it is not unusual to have house help. My mother was blessed with nine children. We were a big family and she was used to doing most of the work around the house. She always had everything under control. My father on the other hand worked at a bank. Since he was not home during the day, he came up with a plan to help my mother out. He was going to get extra help.

During one of his visits to the country side, he stopped to check in on one of his many cousins. He met a young girl whose name was Alice. She was fifteen years old and in desperate need of a job. He talked to her, fully describing her roles and how she would have to move from the country side to the city to live with us. She clearly did not have a choice, although she was certain that she was going to earn a living.

I met Alice while on my school break for Christmas. She kept to herself and focused on her chores. “Hi my name is Doreen,” I introduced myself to Alice. But she did not answer; she seemed shy and also looked sad and miserable. Her coldness toward me made me mad and I wanted to say something unkind to her but because of all the lectures that I had received about kindness and not letting my emotions get the better of me, my best bet was to calm down and try and figure out what she was all about. I never got the chance to talk to her again and since it was a few days to Christmas the holiday there was a lot going on around the house.

Finally it was Christmas; we went to church and later got back home and enjoyed a late lunch and since Alice was considered part of the family; we all sat back and enjoyed a lovely lunch. The Boxing Day and as a tradition in my house it is the day that Christmas presents are opened. We took turns opening our presents but when it came to Alice, she was nowhere to be found.

Moments later, I went looking for her so that I could give her a present and also finally get the opportunity to talk to her. When I found her, she was in her room crying profusely. I sat next to her, put my arm around her shoulder and waited for her to calm herself down. I asked her what was wrong. She told me that she missed her parents whom she had tragically lost when she was only eight years old. They had died in a horrible car accident when the taxi they were traveling in collided with a huge truck. She was too young and she did not fully understand what had happened. The one thing she knew was that her whole world had changed now that her parents were gone.

At the age of eight, Alice was struggling to understand what it meant to be responsible. She was left with a burden of taking care of her two younger siblings. Some of their neighbors gave them some food every so often just to get them through the day but Alice was smart enough to know that this was not going to be the case always. And so here she was trying to earn some money so that she could be able to look after her siblings.

I asked why she had not asked for a few days off so she could be able to check on her siblings. She told me that if she had mentioned the possibility of leaving her younger siblings in search of a job, my father would not have given her the job so she chose not to tell that part of her story. Since she was given the job, she did not want to miss out on the opportunity to provide them with a much better life.

When my parents heard about Alice’s story, they made plans for her siblings to be close her. She managed to rent a little house next to our home so she could be at work but at the same she would be able to go home to her siblings. With a little more financial help from my parents, she managed to put her siblings through school. She later got married and started up a family of her own.

No one could ever comprehend what she went through when she was younger, but in the end, there was light at the end of the tunnel for her and her siblings. Alice’s happiness rubbed onto my family members and I, which is why I believe being kind and doing the right thing makes the world a happier place in one way or another.