Norma Nashed has been running the Restore a Child organisation for more than two decades, helping 4,000 children in ten African countries.
Norma’s life could be the subject of a film: she was born in the West Bank city of Ramallah, but grew up in Jordan in an extremely poor family. She was chief secretary to the adviser to King Hussein of Jordan and spent ten years in Cairo working for the Jordanian airline. After emigrating to the United States of America due to religious persecution and being diagnosed with cancer, she founded Restore a Child, which addresses the physical, educational, and spiritual needs of children in Africa.
Can you briefly introduce your organisation, Restore a Child?
The organisation was founded 25 years ago when I was working at the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists and was diagnosed with cancer. The year before, I had rededicated my life to God and I didn’t see the illness as an obstacle or a problem because I believed that God would not allow this cancer to harm me. God is good and does all things for the good of those who love Him. So I knew something good was going to happen, but I didn’t know what.
Because I wanted to dedicate my life to God, I quit my job. I was left without a job, without health insurance, without a husband to take care of me, but I knew God would do it. And it was a wonderful experience because I had time to study the Bible more, about three or four hours a day. God is amazing: He inspired someone, a friend from Egypt, to call me to find out where I was, because I had left my apartment, and I had no place to stay.
He was a very close friend of mine; his wife was my best friend and she had died of cancer. He said, “I won’t forgive myself if I don’t help you. Go and rent a place. Rent a really nice apartment with a pool, a good location, and I’ll pay for everything until you’re completely cured!” For three years he offered me $3,000 a month to cover my expenses. God took care of me through that person.
Tell us about the beginning of your work.
I was living in Maryland, near Washington, D.C., where African-Americans are very poor. I lived in an expensive area thanks to my friend who paid for my expenses, and to my surprise there were a lot of African-American children where I lived. When I asked the mothers how they could afford to live there, they said: “The authorities pay for food, rent, medical care, everything.” But when I’d come back with food, they’d run after me: “Please give me an apple, a banana, anything.” It broke my heart. I knew I had to help the people in my neighbourhood and I started buying extra food for them, but it was difficult for a person of a different colour like me to go to their house because they didn’t trust me. However, because I was nice to the children, they let me in. They had no furniture, nothing. They were living in very poor conditions.
I wanted to help the children, to teach them about Jesus, so I asked the mothers, “Will you let the children come to church with me?” I think there were four or five children, and after a few months they gained trust in me, so I bought them new clothes and shoes, they came to my house, I washed them, put them in the new clothes and we went to church. Their families were very happy with what I was doing; we had a good relationship. That’s how I started my work in the United States.
What was the next step?
After that, the work developed. I was allowed to leave a cart at the big stores where people would put food as donations. I had to empty it every day, but I had nowhere to store the donations. Then a friend helped me with a large donation. I wanted to do more for Africa because all my life my mother, who was a very poor widow, when she had $20, she would give it to me and say: “Feed the children of Africa!” I knew I wanted to do more there, and Ethiopia and South Sudan were closest to my heart. So I started with Ethiopia, then South Sudan, then Egypt. I’m trying to reduce the number of countries so that I can manage the situation, so now we’re only doing ten countries, but we’re helping 4,000 children.
What are the main areas of help? There are so many charities in the world. In what ways is yours similar and in what ways is it different?
Children have some basic needs. Jesus loved children. Do not forget that He said, “Let the little children come to me” (Luke 18:16). As a child, I was very poor and I became an orphan, so now I wanted to help poor and orphaned children. I wanted to do what Jesus wants us to do. I read in Matthew 25 that when Jesus returns there will be two groups, one to His left and one to His right. He will not ask them if they have preached or given out books, but will say to them, “I was hungry, I was thirsty, I was sick, I was a stranger [and you took care of Me].” Only after that will He say, “Go and preach.” We take care of the basic needs of the children, not just the physical needs, but the spiritual needs for eternity. We want them to know Jesus, which is very important.
You’re also interested in education, I think.
Yes, we’ve built 20 schools.
Fantastic! If you only feed children and heal them when they’re sick, they have no future. Their future lies in education.
Only if we invest in them and give them a chance. So that’s what we’re doing.
You started on your own, and for a while you did everything from your apartment. But because the project is so big now, I suppose you need a bit of help, otherwise you might leave things out, cause problems or exhaust yourself. So you have some collaborators or helpers now, right?
I do, but not full time. For 20 years I worked in my own flat, mostly on my own; a volunteer came once or twice and that was it, so I couldn’t rely on others. But it’s not my work; it’s God’s work. So God has always guided me and brought people to me who have helped me financially to do this work.
God has helped us to find the best and most reliable partners who work with children in different African countries, because I cannot send money to strangers. Most of them are missionaries who have left their homes and jobs to take care of the children there.
How did God prepare you for your most important work, which you started quite late and in very difficult personal circumstances?
I was born in a city near Jerusalem called Ramallah. But I grew up in Amman, Jordan, where I have lived most of my life. I am Palestinian by birth, but Jordanian by nationality, and now American.
I was a sickly little girl, I was always sick, I needed attention, but there was no one to give it to me because my father was an alcoholic, he did drugs and never talked to me. My mother was very busy, she had to sew to feed us.
I was lucky to have a wonderful mother who was interested in spirituality. She was very poor and became an almost blind widow at 38, with seven fatherless orphans and no money. We lived in one room, no bathroom, no kitchen, but she trusted God to help her. My mother used to sew, but since she didn’t own a sewing machine, she would borrow the neighbours’ at night, so that when they went to bed at 9pm, she would bring it home and sew until midnight. We didn’t have electricity and she could hardly see, but she used the money she earned to buy us food. It was hard because sometimes we didn’t have enough to eat.
Later, my mother became an Adventist. Being attracted to spirituality, she wanted to study more and know the truth, but the only thing that happened was that she started praying with us every morning and evening. She would tell us a story or read us some Bible verses, and we would sing and pray. So those were the most beautiful moments. I really enjoyed them.
Living in the Middle East, the Bible wasn’t a book about far away places, but a lot of them were there where you could see them.
That’s right. The places where Jesus walked or preached or was baptised and crucified, they were all close to us.
You said that your health was not very good as a child. Why was that?
In my family, many of my uncles and cousins had tuberculosis and asthma, lung diseases that I inherited. Of all my brothers and sisters, I was the only one with lung problems, and I still have them.
It was also cold in the house because we didn’t have enough money to buy coal and the fire in the house only burned for a few hours a day. When I was eight years old, to go to the Adventist school, I had to walk almost five kilometres in the morning and another five kilometres in the afternoon because I had no money for a bus. I did it rain or shine or in the freezing cold, without boots or an overcoat. We all came home wet, with no heat to dry our clothes and no change of clothes for the next day at school, just one uniform. Luckily, we wore warm pyjamas at night, but we slept on the cold cement floor.
Really?
We had no beds, nothing.
Not even a blanket?
We had one and a very thin carpet to sleep on.
Given that you had such a difficult start in life, how did it prepare you for your life, including your work with children?
It’s certainly not by my strength or fortitude, but the Holy Spirit, as He says. I didn’t finish college, some of my sisters didn’t finish high school, but I was fortunate. God blessed me in that an American family, the pastor of our church in Amman, Jordan, took me into their home after my father died.
By the time Dr Darnell took me in, he had moved from Amman to Beirut, Lebanon, so he took me to his home there and I lived with them, finished high school and then went to college. Dr Darnell’s family fed me well, treated me well. I had my own room. They had three kids sharing a room, and they gave me my own room. They gave me pocket money, bought me the best clothes, treated me like their own daughter. And they helped me with my spiritual life and my studies. I learnt a lot from them.
I went to college, but after the second year my mother went blind and said, “I need you. Come and work for the family.” So I never finished my studies as I had to look for work.
What were your first jobs?
There was one job I didn’t even apply for: the Adventist Middle East Organisation called me to work there, which I did for two years. But I wanted to be with my family, so I went back to Jordan, where I ended up working for Mr Ghandour, who was a friend and adviser to King Hussein of Jordan.
I keep the Sabbath because it’s one of the Ten Commandments that I believe in. But the only day off in the Middle East at that time was Friday. So when I went for the interview, Mr Ghandour said to me, “We work on Saturdays and the only day off is Friday.” I said, “Sir, I’m sorry, but it’s a matter of my conscience and my beliefs, so I can’t work on Saturdays.” He said, “But your family needs your support. So if I don’t give you the Sabbath off, what will you do?” “I replied, “I will refuse the job.” He said nothing, so I left. Two days later, the human resources department called to tell me that I had gotten the job. I was the executive secretary to a very influential man.
What opportunities did you have while you were there?
I worked with a very smart man who was an aeronautical engineer and we didn’t have that kind of professional in Jordan. He was originally from Lebanon but was a political refugee in Jordan. The king asked him to set up an airline here because there was none, and he set up an airline called Alia, the Jordanian Royal Airline. Because he was close to the king, he used to come to the airport where our office was. He visited my boss three or four times and had to go through my office to get to him because there was no other entrance. He knew me by name and greeted me, but one day he stopped and asked, “Norma, what can I do for you?” I was a young woman in my twenties, coming from extreme poverty to a job where I could meet the king of the land. I couldn’t answer anything.
You then moved to Cairo to work for the national airline.
Yes, I worked there for the Jordanian Airline and it was a great job because I did public relations, so I met dignitaries and very important people. I developed a very good relationship with the American ambassador, who invited me to his house three times for private events, not just public ones. I also met the French and British ambassadors and developed a friendly relationship with the former Queen of Jordan. Delays and technical problems are common on Middle Eastern airlines. So what do you do when the travellers are celebrities? You have to fill their time. So I would sit with them for two or three hours until they could leave. I became very good friends with the former Queen, invited her to my house for dinner and she came. I think God was slowly preparing me for the work I’m doing now because He gave me a lot of experience in different areas.
After a while you moved to the United States. Why did you move?
After ten years, my boss left the airline and the person who took his place was a fanatic who didn’t like Christians. When I got to the office, I found a note on the table from the lawyer: “You must come to work on Saturdays.” I was going to be fired, so I quit. I took steps to emigrate to the United States, and God helped me.
I would like you to mention a key moment in your decision to dedicate yourself to children’s mission.
When I had cancer, I didn’t know how long I was going to live, and I wanted to visit my country, my family, my friends, so I went to Jordan and I went to the school where I had not only studied, but where my sister and I had been cleaning for a couple of years to pay our tuition. When I got there, I saw two children leaving the school in tears, so I asked, “What happened, why are they crying?” The person in the office said, “They don’t have any money.” They had been sent home because they had no money; they were being punished because they were poor. I said, “No problem, here’s the money. The children need school.” That week, on the way back to the United States, I thought, “If these children are suffering, I’m sure there are many more in this situation. I have to help them.” And so I started.
Norma Nashed heads the Restore a Child organisation, which, among other things, has built four schools in Ukraine. According to the latest news, three of these schools are now home to more than 700 refugees.