They say life is a story, and so here is Veronica’s version! You wouldn’t know what it means to be born to teenage parents and raised by an estranged mother until you were in Veronica’s shoes. She portrays a child whose dreams once hung by a thread, whose chances were once flushed down the drainage of hopelessness, and deeply scarred by exploitation and abandonment.  It is a tale of being born into the world as a result of a casual sexual relationship between two high school teenagers. Her mom and dad then were at fifteen and seventeen years respectively. The incident would later turn out to haunt them for the unexpected decision they had made and it spread to their innocent baby, Veronica.  Not ready to bear the consequences of pregnancy and responsibilities of a father, he disappeared leaving Veronica’s mom behind with a two month pregnancy. She was caught in the web of life to carry out an abortion and stay in school or sacrifice her education to sit at home and wait to deliver. Eventually she settled for the latter.  As they say, life is full choices, but for every choice, a decision has to be made and for every decision, a price has to be paid. Well, the price that Veronica’s mom had to pay carried a huge currency on the life of little Veronica. Left in the hands of a single teenage mother struggling to overcome the trauma of losing an education to a man she thought ‘loved’ her, clueless on parenting, and worst of all lost dignity in society, life became a double tragedy.

When Veronica was one year old, her mom moved from the village to Bugiri town in search for a “job.” Before long she met another man and moved in with him. He was kind enough to let her move in with her daughter, Veronica. She conceived four kids in the second marriage and the future seemed bright. But before long, the once a promising marriage turned sour! The husband started being abusive to his wife and kids, stopped providing, and sometimes would not return home. Soon he called it quits and abandoned the family in the house for another woman.

These horrible experiences of Veronica’s have deeply wounded her spirit. She often longed to meet her dad someday hoping her circumstances could change. That door opened two years ago, at twelve years, for the first time, she got to meet her dad who abandoned her mom at two months pregnancy. It was a scene of mixed feelings. Veronica was torn between embracing her father despite the ugly past he inposed on her mom or shun him. Her mother now struggles to raise the five kids in a single bedroom house in the slums of Bugiri. Her daily ‘job’ is to work on people’s gardens where she earns averagely two dollars a day to spend on food and house rent.

So much has changed when veronica found hope in the BU program. Her mother says it has helped Veronica to change her attitude towards her painful past to accept her current situation. It restored her esteem with a descent education which she couldn’t afford before. She’s optimistic that her daughter would use her personal experience of teenage misfortune to draw lessons and remain focused to her goals. In Veronica’s community, poverty breeds desperation among teenage girls, who are then often easy prey…lured into sexual relationships by promises of little luxuries that lead to a downward spiral of unplanned children and hopelessness in society.

“My mom’s life story has taught me what matters most in life, and I use it to try to shape the culture of my present life.” Veronica says. She aspires to be a role model to her siblings; have a family someday where love, respect, and communication would thrive.

With the awful past, Veronica’s family is striving to comprehend that joy shouldn’t be dictated by their circumstances in life. It’s a decision, a very brave one, about how they’ve to respond to life daily. It’s paradoxical that the wealthy tend to be joyful when things go their way and good things are happening in their lives. For the poor like Veronica’s homestead, such good fortune and good things almost never come. Yet laughter and smiles abound. The greatest weapon among the poor such as these is their ability to be truly joyfully and grateful.

There’s something magical in the heavenly realm that happens when the wealthy and the poor get together, each ends up meeting the desperate needs of the other. Ironically, one tends to die in need, and the other in greed. But when Jesus brings us together, the genuine needs of both are mysteriously and wonderfully satisfied. In God’s amazing economy, the rich and the poor need each other. We are all called to be Christ’s hands, Christ’s feet and Christ’s voice. We do not have the option of ignoring poverty. Even a simple cup of cold water given in His name, he said, is like a gift directly to Him. Who would skip that opportunity!!!? To invest in Veronica’s life today and make a difference in her life and future, click here: http://store.beyonduganda.org/product-p/nfnv1ms.htm. Your small sacrifice can truly change a life!