As we go about our day-to-day lives, most of us don’t have time to pay attention to those around us. We’re too busy with plenty of things on our mind to notice little things around us.
For instance, if you were leaving a grocery store and a random homeless person shouted at you, would you pay attention to them?
Most of us wouldn’t. But one woman did – and now her actions are inspiring countless people.
Wanja Mwaura, a nurse from lower Kabete, Kenya, was leaving the market when she “met this shaggy, dirty boy” who “called [her] by [her] name.”
Wanja was understandably shocked that this person knew her by name. At first, she thought he was a “mad person” until he began reminding her of their primary school days such as their classes and their friends.
Before long, Wanja recognized her old friend Patrick Hinga, and realized he wasn’t a “mad person”, but instead someone suffering from the effects of drugs.
Wanja’s inability to recognize Patrick at first is understandable. She hadn’t seen him in several years.
The last time Wanja had seen Patrick, he was a shining student and “one of the brightest boys in class,” she recalled.
But sadly, his life was full of struggle. After his grandmother’s death, he got expelled from school for smoking cigarettes and marijuana. Shortly after, he dropped out of high school and began living on the streets. Patrick eventually turned to drugs in 2004, as many homeless do to cope with the hardships of living on the streets.
His mother tried to help him, including taking him to a mental hospital so he could overcome his addiction. But he escaped the hospital frequently, running away and being re-admitted several times.
“He complained a lot and said all they did was give him medication and treat him like a mental patient and yet he was not mentally ill and that is why he kept running away,” Patrick’s mother, Nancy, told SDE. “But when he was out of the hospital, he would walk around the neighborhood completely naked, or he would rummage through garbage.”
At the mental hospital, Patrick’s drug habit grew worse when he discovered a drug called Attain.
“It isn’t supposed to be used daily, but because it got him high, he got addicted,” Nancy explained. “It was only Sh2 (a few cents) per tablet. He even stole prescription papers and got them from chemists.”
Despite Patrick leaving the hospital and roaming the street of Nairobi, Nancy still looked after his son and helped him as much as she could.
“We were always a spectacle; people would call each other to come and stare, laugh and point at us as we ate. I was known as Mama wa wazimu” (i.e. the madman’s mother).
Then, Patrick happened to reunite with his old friend Wanja, and his whole life changed.
He confessed to Wanja that he would do “anything he would come across” just to get high.
Wanja knew that she had to do what she could to help her old friend.
After catching up with him, Wanja helped convince Patrick to go to rehab.
He also shared with her that he had aspirations of going back to school one day. Wanja was determined to help him realize that goal.
As a nurse, Wanja knew that Patrick needed a strong support system to avoid a relapse. So she did what she thought was the best way to really help: she turned to social media to reconnect with other primary school friends and give Patrick the support system he needed.
She also gave Patrick her phone number with the assurance that he could call her anytime he needed her.
“It’s all about love,” she said. “If I didn’t show him love, he wouldn’t have gone to rehab.”
To show her love, she would eat from the same plate as him so that he didn’t feel like a reject.
Over the course of the next month, Wanja continued to look after and care for her old friend. And Patrick’s transformation over that time speaks for itself.
Patrick looks like a brand new man, and it’s all thanks to one selfless, caring woman who gave him a hand in his time of need.
Not only is Patrick healthy and thriving, he also has his very own business to focus on: a shop called “Hinga’s Store”. Wanja helped Patrick set up the business.
“I feel like I am a new man,” he told Daily Nation. “I pray daily, asking God to deliver me so that I am not pulled back to that life of drugs.”
What an amazing gesture Wanja did for her old friend. Truly inspiring.
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