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After seeing the desperate hunger of the disabled maasai child, Grace, LIA social worker the next day made a home visit. She walked at some length to the maasai encampment and found where the child lived.
She was shocked to find 6 naked children inside the one room boma (round house) and the child's mother herself disabled.
Grace then visited the grandmother in the next boma only to find in one room 13 children all varies ages, sleeping on a small cow skin stick bed.
As I mentioned on an early blogg we will be opening the dam doors when we open the Food Kitchen, and I think this is an example of how much help is required for these desperate children.
Mama Lynn
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With over 100 invited guests arriving for the opening of the food kitchen on the 25th September, I guess nobody can say that it did not take place.!
Light in Africa staff members where warmly welcomed into the community as each village chairman gave his speech of welcome, and cut the ribbon for their village to access the 'free' food for their orphans.
One of the nicest comments that the village Director made was that Light in Africa had brought the community together. As upto that day, some of the village elders and community members had never met! And I pray this is the seed that has been planted for co-operation and harmony in this most desperate of districts.
After the opening ceremony we invited the guests to lunch on the food that the children will be given six days per week. They will then have full knowledge to speak about the program. The many muslims present who were unable to take lunch, as they were fasting, were given food to be taken home and eaten later.
The following day, the children arrived for their lunch. Our social worker Grace was much needed as we saw children with severe malnutrition and disabilities.
Our one shock was when a disabled maasai child of approx 8 years, when given her plate, sank to the ground there and then, and with both hands stuffed as much food as she could into her mouth, we just stood watching this poor child.
We quickly fetched Grace to witness this impacting situation, and she is going to follow the matter up and do a home visit, it was pretty obvious that as the child was disabled, she was ostracised and starved.
So here are the long awaited photo's of the opening of the food kitchen.....
Praise God Hallelujah.......
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Dear blog-readers, here is a special request from the new parents of baby Christa :
Our little girl is adopted from Light in Africa, and we like to ask if anyone has information or pictures of Baby Christa, who was at LIA from January-October 2006, we would greatly appreciate it!
If there are any volunteers from that period reading this blog, we would especially value pictures or stories from when she was first brought into the orphanage.
We want to collect as much information as possible so that she knows her story when she is older.
Thank you!
Gil and Amy
pictures can be sent to the webmaster who will forward them to these proud new parents
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Hi everyone, greetings from a lovely warm Moshi...... lots of little
pieces of news update for you.....
We are first of all grately indebted to the amazing work of the medical students from Newcastle and Leeds University, they have worked so hard in fundraising to build two of our new homes on the 11 acre site. On the Newcastle House the roof is on and the Leeds house is waiting for the lintel to dry and then the wood will go on.
Our first time group from Sheffield medics are now busy on the site, sleeping in tents, and will now hopefully complete the build...... Team work and co-operation, two wonderful lessons to learn in life.
Everyone who comes to Mailisita knows the Soda Bar & Tumaini Gallery Manager, Doreen. She has such a placid and cheerful disposition that she makes everyone feel welcome, sadly last week she had a stroke which paralysed her down her right side. Thank God yesterday she was able to return home from the hospital, and Heaven Light our O.T visited her in hospital and believes she will make a good recovery, but sadly she will not be able to work for at least six months.....so we pray for a complete recovery.....
The two patients who had been operated on by the orthopedic surgeon Dr. Steve Meyers from the USA are making good progress, the three year old maasai child has the 'pots off' from her previous club feet, and has now returned home. The older maasai boy who was staying at Pilgrims House, who woke up from the operation to find both of his legs had been straightened instead of one at a time is hopefully having his pots off on the 14th. We are very gratefully to STEMM for the help they have given us with these two patients.
The Food Kitchen project is going ahead with the refurbishment of the property. We received the village chairmans from their respective villages on Saturday, - just to show them around LIA facilities - from singing songs at the boys home "Tell somebody that you really love them" over and over again, meeting with the girls, and finally arriving for lunch at Mailisita.
After lunch we visited the 'baby unit' where they wept. And said: "this is the heart of Light in Africa all these babies"........
The chairmen are already bringing some of the orphans from their villages to us who are not receiving their anti-retro virals which will be life enhancing for them, so we are fully aware that when we start the food kitchen for 400 orphans per day, we shall be opening the floodgates..., but in God We Trust......
Abundant blessing to each and every one of you....mama lynn
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I'm taking a short break before I go back into the fray with a visit to see my mother who is a 'sprightly' 98 year old.
(I just think that if I live to be my mums age, I have nearly another 40 years service ahead of me, what a sobering thought).
A lot of changes are ahead of us in the mission of Light in Africa, the first one being that my daughter Laura - otherwise known as mama gemma - and her children are leaving the mission after 6 years of service, to start a new life in our home town.
It is Laura's ideal to open up and make available for school children, or children with 'special needs' or other's with teenage problems to come over to Light in Africa and have the 'real' experience of helping other's with different projects.
We have already had a great response from a school in Kent who came over and tented and made a wonderful difference with our baby unit by building a fence around our outdoor area of the nursery, and painted some parts of our gallery. For some students it was their first time to hold a baby, or play with a toddler. They finished their working holiday with a safari tour to see all our wonderful wildlife, already some of the students are returning at Christmas.....
Laura has decided to call this new venture Nations Together which aptly sums up what we are....
My oldest grandchild Gemma has gained a place in a local University and is going to train as a teacher, Sophie is coming over to complete her education as is Jarrod. But I think it is not going to be without its problems, as anyone who knows them will understand, as they always speak in Kiswhahili to each other, not in English.....they even dream in swahili... so a big change for them, but we have been so blessed with all the imput they have all put in over the years, and they will all be greatly missed.
After my last update, regarding the amazing blessing we had received with the food delivery, I went to meet the 4 chairmans of the respective villages. After the uproar had subsided with the news of the food being delivered we got down to business with how it was going to be distributed. We now have the premises which is at present being improved and we have the previous experience of feeding many children, but how many orphans did each village chairman have in their
village. The first chairman spoke on behalf of the others and wished for me to pass on their heartfelt thanks to the providers of the food, and then he shocked me by saying in his village alone their were over 400 orphans...... wow......
We had documented 511 at a dispensary that we had held, but 400 in the fist village alone. The numbers as each man spoke grew to a huge number. In the end the agreement is that each chairman would supply me with the names of 100 of the most needy, malnourished orphans in their village making a total of 400 orphans per day, 6 days per week to feed and that is the number where we would start the food kitchen with of which I am hoping to start sometime next month.....
We also welcome for the very first time this year the medical students from the University of Sheffield: Karibu !! We believe you will have a life-changing experience....
see you soon.
mama Lynn
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An Invitation was extended to me via the Hai District Commissioner -
Mrs Hasna - this week to take lunch with the Hon. Mirisho Kikwete, the
President of Tanzania and his Wife, the Hon. Salma Kikwete,on his
recent whistle stop visit to the Hai District Area. He had many stops
enroute to the Hai Club for lunch, which included, opening a new
district, the new market at Kwasadala, an orthopedic wing at Machame
Hospital, with visits to Same and Rombo, a hectic schedule.....I think
one of the most endearing features of the President is the warmth of
his smile and bonhomie that eminates through his presence. I'm sure a
very special gift that has been given to him.
Sometimes we are asked by God to step out in faith, and when we do He
has the ability to not only shock us but to make us gasp with the
awesomeness of what has been achieved.
From previous blog messages that I have written you will be aware
that I am working in a very deprived area where their are many
children without parents and without food.... I stepped out in faith
when I informed 4 village chairpersons that I would provide a daily
food kitchen for children upto 16 years of age. Discussions led to me
renting property to enable the food to be cooked and a place where the
children could eat. On Saturday, due to some amazing american
friends, 248,000 pre-packed meals where delivered to me for use at the
food kitchen...enough food for me not to worry for the next year where
I am going to get the food from. Praise God Hallelujah mama lynn
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today an update (dated Aug 3) and a new story (dated July 31) were added to the blog.
And please click here for a new story about the LIA Medical Assistance .
Happy Reading!
webmaster
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About Winter in Tanza, Volunteers, Maasai in Kenya, a baby-boy, snail mail and e-mail and a remarkable doctor Minja
Greetings everyone from Moshi as we are coming to the end of our winter period.Winter here is nothing like being in the cold and snow of winter in the UK and now I'm told about the devastating floods that are occuring....tragic. For winter over here in Tanza the most we have to contend with is putting on a sweater in the evening if the temperature drops....I love it..... I guess I really am a hot house flower or weed!
So what has been happening in LIA over the last few weeks??....
Well we are extremely busy with the medical students from the UK universities who are doing some amazing work from assisting on the building site where we have started to construct the first home for our children, to assisting Dr. Mushi and Sister Grace on the outreach dispensaries ( he saw 145 patients on Tuesday and ran out of drugs so he could not attend to anymore) this is where the volunteers get "hands on" with assisting the medical team. They are also very busy with seminars and workshops on HIV/AIDS and nutrition and helping out at the children's homes. (Two hours at a time folding nappies and clothes for the next day's use for the many babies and toddlers.)
We are also delighted that our first venture into Kenya is really being enjoyed by our volunteers.....For two years I was receiving elders from a Maasai village in Kenya who had heard about our work with the local Maasai in our district (the LIA chairman is a Maasai) and they wanted LIA to assist them too. After visiting the tribe and seeing their desperate needs, I relented and this year with the help of Jack our Project Manager, we have been given a coral where we have built two Maasai boma's and a toilet/shower block and a cook house. But how could we help this nomadic tribe who are very illiterate..... After sitting and speaking with the elders we made an agreement, and on my side they had to stop practicing Female Genital Mutalation, if they would agree to this, I would come up with a plan to help them..... or if I found the witchdoctors were still practicing this mutilation I would pull the plug and leave.
So this is the plan, which is proving very beneficial.
Everyone makes money out of the Maasai but not the Maasai themselves due to their lack of education, so we have to consider how can we empower them. Now that the structures have been built made by the Maasai mama's of branches and cow dung, each time a volunteer sleeps in a boma (round house) we give the committee 5 dollars, Jack is there to train the Maasai mama's on rotation, so they are being trained to wash the sheets and keep the environment clean and tidy, and also Jack is teaching them how to cook European food in the most safest and hygenic way. The men are now being tought the skills of book-keeping and administration which is empowering them. The agreement is that at the end of September we shall have a pow wow and discuss how best to use all the 5$ accumalated to the betterment of the community, whether part should go to education of payment of school fees, or a fund for medical use, or whether a building should be erected..... For the part of the volunteers they are enjoying a unique experience living within the confines of the Maasai camp, and helping out with education, health issues and dispensarys, something that few European are privvy too. What comes out tops by the volunteers is the 'tree walk' this is the elders walking them to the traditional trees which they use for medicines, like the quinine tree etc., very useful when your considering becoming a doctor!!!
A young heavily pregnant, disabled young girl sheepishly arrived at Mailisita three weeks ago. She had been thrown out her home by her brother who would not accept her pregnant state. She had nowhere to go and had not seen a doctor over the last 8 months.....We welcomed her into our home until our social workers could go and speak to the family. Today, she has given birth to a baby boy , and the family is still adamant that she is not to return home.
So what to do........???????
Helen Fergusson, here is a message for you..... we thank you for the parcel that we have received today which you posted on the 6th November, 2006!!!!! Gratefully received.
Can I just please mention that our wonderful friend and travel agent Shafiq at Emslies has changed his email address, it is now: emslies@emsliesglobal.com
And the last piece of today's news is this.....
At Christmas I placed some information on the blog that we had just opened up a children's home in a desperate - dangerous - mining area, and that as soon as we had opened the centre, cholera struck.
It was our honour to work with an amazing doctor called Dr. Minja who was on call at his dispensary from January to April until the last patient was cured. He lost only one child to this devastating disease. With over 200 being cured, due to his dedication!
He has not received any recognition for his services to this community where people would not go due to the high risks involved.
One day after a visit to see him and deliver some drugs, I heard that he was building his own dispensary out of mud bricks. I visited the site, and it was raining, and the newly laid bricks were disintegrateing.... I came home in the evening and spoke to the volunteers about this remarkable man... In the morning, some of our volunteers decided that they would help build a new dispensary for Dr. Minja - on one condition - that the dispensary was built of mortar bricks and not mud... The dispensary is now nearly built and on Dr. Minja's behalf, I would like to express my thanks to the wonderful volunteers who participated in this project. An amazing job, well done girls.
Abundant blessings to you all, Mama Lynn
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This story is about the commitment and courage that one 12 year old boy showed towards the survival of his two younger siblings, (his name has been changed)
Peter had received very little education. Both his parents were severe alcholics, spending any money that they earnt on drink. His two younger siblings often went without food, and their home was a shack built onto the end of a house. In order for him to find food to feed himself and these children, he did what most other unwanted street kids do, find a way......
One night his parents went out on yet another drinking binge, and on their way home a fight ensued. The father beat his wife, left her on the ground and then went home. In the morning, he went out to look for her, and found her dead. He pulled her all the way to the house, closed the door with the children in and refused to let them out, with their mother decomposing, until a neighbour three days later, smelt a dreadful smell, and found the body and the children in the house.
The mother was quickly buried, relatives took the younger children to live with them, but nobody wanted Peter, because he was 'street' wise.
There was no prosecution against the father.
Light in Africa was asked to take care of this young teenager.
And so started a program of care and counceling.
Two years later, Peter can now read and write, and he is the most wonderful, thoughtful child that anyone could wish to meet, we love him to bits, and what a prayer. When he looks towards heaven to pray, you can see a real connection. Something very special is happening to this young man's life. It will be interesting to see where his future lies.
mama Lynn
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