She picked a small piece of trash from the dirt where she squatted on the side of a busy road. Beeping car horns, stray dogs and a hoard of people zig zagging across the lanes of traffic. She was silent, almost listless as her fingers moved along the ground. It was the same as before. Always the same.
Her mother was a short ways off, keeping one eye on her while she tried to sell firewood she had gathered that morning, the other eye desperate for a customer. Perhaps today she would make enough to buy them a real meal. The meager food they survived on was barely enough, and they both felt the depth of their plight.
If you entered that busy street and started to zig zag your way with the crowd, you would likely miss the invisible girl on the edge, never seeing the potential that lingered behind that listless movement of the hand, never thinking that the world might be missing out on this bright little girl whose mother could never dream of being able to send her to school.
But what if something changed? What if the little girl was given a chance to learn? What if she and her mother could have some of their basic needs provided for, find the support they desperately needed and begin to see their lives improve? Who knows what potential lies in the dirty hands digging a piece of trash from the sidewalk. Who knows unless she is given the chance?
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