Justina is 9 years old and doesn't seem to know what a birthday party is, firstly because she has never been told her exact birthdate and secondly, even if she had, the chances of having a birthday party would be virtually non-existent.
I was touched by her life story, as she humbly told me she had never met her mother, who according to relatives abandoned her at an early age. She doesn't remember her father either, although I was told he came over once to see her as a child, to soon go back to France where he lives. She is being looked after by an aunt, whom she is thankful to for having accepted her, but the truth is this aunt of hers, whom I had the opportunity to talk to, uses her to look after the young cousins, do the housework and anything else she may be capable of doing. The fact she is allowed to go to school is just because the Cape Verdian government has imposed it, once her aunt told me she considered it a loss of time and money.
I'll soon be flying to Cape Verde to organize her a birthday party. I have found out she will be 10 next June, the 10th and even if this will be the only birthday party she'll ever have, I'll make sure she will blow the 10 candles ... that she will be surrounded by the 11 girlfriends who attended the same workshop as she did and that we will all sing her "Happy birthday" ... This child deserves to be happy ..., not only on her birthday ... but throughtout her life. She has suffered enough ... and yet ... she is still capable of smilling.
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