Hygiene kit a blessing to refugees

Mariama Kollon, who once stood in line to have her legs chopped off, could be the poster woman for Salt Lake's Humanitarian Center.

Mariama Kollon, who once ran through the woods with her niece tied on her back to escape killers, can tell you the value of a bag of beans, soap and toothpaste.

Mariama Kollon, whose parents were shot in their home by marauding rebels, will tell you that the kits from the Humanitarian Center are so valuable that it was the only thing she grabbed from her burning house.

She lives in Utah now, a lonely refugee from Sierra Leone, working three part-time cleaning jobs. She arrived in this country a few years ago carrying only a plastic bag filled with two changes of clothing, scriptures and her hygiene kit.

Every year the Humanitarian Center sends out millions of hygiene kits, school kits and newborn kits, as well as clothing, food and medical supplies. It is a popular project for Eagle Scouts and LDS Church wards. Anyone can assemble and donate the kits. They aid millions of people in need around the world in ways we can't really comprehend.

One of those kits found its way into Mariama's hands. She used a blanket from Salt Lake City to cover herself while sleeping on the ground. She later used it to wrap an elderly woman for burial. She shared her hygiene kit — soap, shampoo, toothpaste and brush, comb — with others who were on the run, giving them a pinch of toothpaste or a dab of soap to wash in a river.

Mariama's life was turned upside down by a brutal civil war in her West African country. The rebels shot her parents as she and her siblings fled on foot. The next day, the rebels caught them and placed them in line to have their limbs severed with a machete. Mariama's sister was fifth in line. She had her legs chopped off. Mariama was 10th in line. She prayed to be spared. When they reached the seventh person in line, U.N. forces began to arrive. The rebels fled with their bagful of severed limbs. In another area, her brother was forced to stand in a line when he refused to join the rebels — he couldn't kill, he told them. He died after his arms were chopped off.

For seven years, Mariama ran from village to village to stay ahead of the rebels. They caught her again. They beat her with a stick. They forced her to carry their things on her back for miles. They sent her to fetch water from the river and she escaped.

She survived by eating mangos, oranges and bananas from the trees. She slept on the ground with others on the run, one of them always staying awake to keep watch. When the torches shined in the distance, it was time to run again.

She saw burial grounds by the roadside in which arms and legs protruded from the ground, with dogs and vultures at them. She saw houses set on fire with people locked inside.

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