Christy

The Story of Christy Tam-is Pahiyom (means 'sweet smile')

Our story begins on November 17, 1997. After a friend of mine told me about a severely malnourished child, we decided to investigate. We went with our friend to an area just behind the local market. We were beyond shock when we saw the circumstances of the house. There was no floor and when Toinette tried to step inside, her foot got stuck in thick mud and rubbish. To our shock a naked and dirty bundle of bones stood up and began to walk!

Christy is number 7 of 11 children. When we found her she was already 12 years old but could barely see over the table. When she was one year old someone knocked her out of her sister's arms and she fell down. When she came out of the hospital, she was not normal anymore. After that she only received milk to drink. She went downhill from there to the point where she could only eat liquid food.

Her mother washes cloths and her father repairs old stoves. They are very poor but willing to learn. We repaired their floor and put Christy on a special diet. It was hard to teach her how to eat because her throat muscles did not develop. With God's grace she improved daily... now she is a fat little lovable clown.

Every time you walk into the clinic she is ready to greet you with a winner smile, and if there's music on she'll be dancing. But what really gets her going is the sight of a mound of rice. If you want to see an angel, pick Christy up, snuggle close and tickle her. An angel will smiling at you. We will never forget the first day we saw her and when we look back, we thank God that he spared her life.

She had another spill with death around the corner. This time when we saw her she was severely malnourish again. This time she had the deadly Kwashiorkor malnourishment going. We all knew that this was pretty serious and prayed really hard against her being affected badly. We took her to House of Joy for treatment.

Great was our joy when we saw Christy again. The same smile and same old Christy from when we saw her last. Thanks to the wonderful work at House of Joy and the Lord’s protection, she stood up from the Ashes again. Once more this little girl showed us what and how we can make a difference by just helping in simple ways.