On February 3 we lost Violet Mwansa, a much-beloved member of the cooperative.
In 2005, when Theresa lit the first charcoal fire to feed 25 hungry children outside the home where she grew up in Kantolomba, Violet was one of five neighbors who volunteered their time to assist. She has been with us from the start.
Violet’s life story mirrors that of so many in Kantolomba. She bore eight children and by the time of her death, she remained with two. Her hardships were all of those shared by her community and she had an additional, life-threatening element—she had no teeth. With no access to dental care, seldom receiving proper nutrition, she had lost every one of her teeth. By the time she joined Theresa, her health was suffering greatly.
Once Living Compassion became an established project and cooperative members began receiving a living stipend, Violet was able to sustain herself and her family. But with no ability to chew, it was difficult for her to rebuild her health.
During one of our visits in 2007, it was decided that Living Compassion would provide Violet with new teeth—a set of dentures. It was not a small investment. This was the first of innumerable, profound demonstrations of how Life provides for Life, Here, Now. There was no looking to see if funding teeth for “one person” makes sense in the scheme of things, no weighing the “value” derived from this investment versus another. Life encountered a woman who was going to slowly die of malnutrition. Life had the means to make a difference.
And so Violet lived the final decade-and-a-half of her life with the pleasure of chewing her food, of proudly smiling for photos and of experiencing the love of her community.
Violet retired at age 70 in 2017 and passed the baton into the capable and compassionate hands of her daughter, Emelda, in whom Violet’s legacy lives on.
Violet having been something of a matriarch of the cooperative, Theresa wrote in her email when telling us the sad news, “We all mourn for our dear Mother.”
Gasshō,
Jen