The Story.
How one unexpected encounter became the beginning of Arukah Global.
Arukah Global didn't begin with a strategy. It began with one little girl.
On my first trip to Ethiopia in 2011, I stepped outside a crowded church service to photograph the overflow of people listening from outside. While I was taking pictures, I noticed a little girl peeking at me from behind her mother with a curious smile. I smiled and waved. She giggled, waved back, and hid again. For the next few minutes we played a quiet game of peek-a-boo from across the courtyard.
Eventually she ran over, tugged on my arm, said something in Amharic, laughed, and ran back to her mother. She repeated this several times.
Curious, I asked my Ethiopian host about her. He explained that her Ukrainian father had abandoned the family shortly after she was born. Then he quietly said something I'll never forget:
"Mr. Mark... that little girl thinks you're her father."
I was speechless.
As our team flew home a few days later, I couldn't stop thinking about her. I kept wondering what must have been going on in her little heart.
Eight weeks later, during Compassion(International) Sunday at my church in California, I was helping organize sponsorship packets from that very same Ethiopian church we had visited. Ready to sponsor a child, I flipped through the stack of children's photos…I suddenly froze.
There she was.
The same little girl who had tugged on my arm halfway around the world was looking back at me from a sponsorship packet in my hands.
Her name was Yididiya, which means "Loved by God."
Needless to say, I sponsored her.
Over the years I've had the privilege of visiting her nearly every year. On my first return trip, her mother, Genet, shared something that deeply moved me. She said that Yididiya had finally found peace because many of her questions about fatherhood had been answered. Then she added,
"She is not only my daughter. She is your daughter too, because she loves you just as much as she loves me."