Exciting times ahead...... 11 acres of prime land purchased to build Light in Africa's very own Tudor Children's Village. Yipeeeee!!!
To all of our wonderful friends, supporters and sponsors of our children.Light in Africa has been blessed with a donation from the USA to purchase eleven acres of prime land alongside the river Sanya, where we are intending to build 27 individual bungalows, (to accomodate no more than 10 children with carer in each home), a disability unit so we can care for even more disabled children, an administration block with accomodation on the first floor for our many volunteers who visit us from around the world, cow sheds for a dairy herd and a fish pond to grow talipia fish, alongside an orchard and gardens to grow our own food so we can try to be self-sufficient as much as possible.
The purchase of this land means that we shall have all our facilities together instead of spread out and costing more overheads as we now have to double up on everything at each home
Praise God - Hallelujah.
Our homes will consist of a special care baby unit through to accomodation for the elderly, a true village with wisdom and cultural stories being handed down by the aged.
A portion of the land has been set aside and made secure (their are many monkeys which come down to the river to drink at sunset - if we encouraged them, no work would get done because they are just so cute), toilet and shower facilities - store rooms and a kitchen
area have now been erected and some of our volunteers have already moved onto the site and are living in tents.
Two volunteers named Johnathan and Silvan from Holland and Switzerland have been amazing hardworking young men. Our first problem on the site was how to access the water from the river, to place in a large container to enable them to have water to mix the cement and sand with to make the bricks for the houses.
After the chain gang theory did'nt quite work and was labour intensive, Johnathan had a plan.........he fitted a bicycle wheel onto an overhanging tree, threw over a long rope with a bucket on the end, and hey presto, water hauled up from the river....
Meanwhile, another better idea has now been adopted: a volunteer has paid for the repair of our generator and now a pump is bringing the water up......step by step the vision will come to fruition.
We have already been blessed with some funding coming into build our first house. One of them will be named the Shiller home from a donation made by a German school in Cologne.
Materials have also been purchased by a group from Camelot in the UK, it is just so exciting.
This is the project that our many medical students and individual parties will be involved in over the next few years.
As you are proberbly aware, Light in Africa does not solicit any funding from any foundations or charities or wealthy individuals and we do not send out proposals. It is totaly dependant on hearts being touched and inspired to help the orphans and our many community projects. Although we employ 60 local people, and require $1,200 each Monday for stores, we can proclaim that we have no debt, and even though our site plans may take some time to achieve - we believe when the tudor village is complete it will be a great achievement of hands across the world: teamwork - committment - endeveour - hard
work and for years to come - a place where our children will grow up with a sense of belonging - family committment and become worthy citizens of Tanzania with character traits which will enhance this beautiful impoverished country.
abundant blessing to you all
mama Lynn
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For sometime now we have been working in a remote maasai village which has enourmous water problems.... To access clean water, the maasai mama's have to walk for at least 1 hour, fill their buckets with water, and walk back for another hour. As you can imagine when you have the children to care for and the cows to milk, two hours out of your day can seem quite unnessary, especially when you have a well in your village?
The problem is that the well contains water that is high in flouride, and consequently, the children we are seeing have sever deformity in their legs. On out-reach, our medical staff give out calcium tablets to the children, as research has shown, this will make a difference... but that leaves all the children who are in the village severly deformed.
I enclose photo's of two amazing young children who have gone through so much pain and rehabilitation just to be able to walk up-right.....
Jalway had each leg broken in eight places and then spent six months in Munduli rehabilitation center ......
Before
and after the operation
The young man, Arishia, pictured here below is now back in his village, attending school.....
and walking easily and painfree
We sincerely thank the volunteers who paid for these operations, and gave these children a chance to be normal children again.
(mama lynn)
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On the 17th May the children and staff of Light in Africa where blessed with a visit from the President of Tanzania wife - First Lady - Mama Salma Kikwete.
She arrived on the invitation of the District Commissioner - Mrs. Hasna and the Member of Parliament for Hai District - Kilimanjaro Region Mr Fuya Kimbita.
All the children from the homes, gathered at Mailisita to await her arrival, they could hardly contain their excitement when the entourage of white landcruisers arrived carrying the First Lady.
After receiving bouquets from two of our children she continued to the nursery unit and asked many questions on how the children came into the facility and the background of some of the children.
Explaining in detail about LIA operations, Anthony Kimaro led the party into Tumaini Gallery, where she met with Eliaza, a 22 yr old disabled man who is being self-supported by making baskets from local reed materials, and selling them through the gallery to visitors.
Mama Salma was familiar with basket making and was able to give Eliaza advice on strengthening the handles of the baskets.
Next she moved to where one of our volunteers Becky Garcia, has been teaching our children the art of patchwork quilting. They had made a 'first attempt' hanging wall quilt, which was later presented to Mama Kikwete as a gift from the children of Light in Africa.
The party then moved to the table to sign the visitors book, and further gifts where offered to her of a pair of african made pictures.
Mama Salma (second from the left) is presented a gift of two pictures
The District Commissioner was presented with a box of new school books for the Secondary School that is being built in Hai District, and she was asked to present to the Regional Commissioner, who was not present a box of items which are sold within the gallery.
The children sang a song as she departed to another venue to hear the children from Light in Africa and St. Francis School, sing a song to her representing "Family Day". Our children sang expressing words which said "please don't forget about us". Some of the guests present started to cry.
Mama Kikwete then spoke to the guests present about caring for the family unit. The DC and MP followed with futher statements.
A gift was offered to Light in AFrica of 400 kilos of rice and 200 kilos of sugar and cooking oil which was gratefully received. The First Lady then departed for lunch........
A wonderful - exciting day for everyone concerned for the recognition of the work of Light in Africa.
Mama Lynn
[See All Pictures]
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"Have you heard the story of how mama lynn went to meet a large group
of volunteers from a medical university in the UK, only for them to
walk straight passed her, get in taxi's and be at the White House
accomodation, whilst she is still waiting until the airport closed for
the night, believing KLM had lost her volunteers. "How does she do it"?
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Here in Tanzania, if you have no family support, than your life expectancy can be pretty precarious. This is true for the elderly as well as the ophans. If you have no one with a heart of compassion to care for you, then your chances of survival are minimum, this is one reason that we do not refuse to take a baby into our nursery, even though the formular milk alone cost 100 dollars per week plus all the special care staff that is required.
Two years ago, Laura (my daughter) was in the bush assisting in the out-reach dispensary program, when she was asked to visit an old man who was sleeping under just two iron sheets. His food was when someone thought about giving him a meal, and so she put him in the car with the village leaders watching and brought him to live at my house, as my guest........
Babu Richard, has one eye, suffers from sever athritus and believes the witchdoctor cursed him. He was severly malnourished but after medication and three meals per day, he started to feel much improved and wandered around the garden taking cuttings and growing them in all the empty water bottles that the volunteers used.
He had "green fingers" and soon we had a large amount of flowers growing. Some kind volunteers paid for a flower stand to be made. It was then painted: "Babu's Flower Stall", and each day he now sits and waits for passing customers to come and purchase his flowers... After Babu Richard, Babu Gabriel arrived. He was in a very neglected state and it looked like he could have his big toe amputated, it was so full of infection. But our caring medical staff sorted that problem out. And now, last week, I have another guest arrive. This babu was brought by our youth pastor who found him laying very sick in a shack.... he was so neglected, that all the windows had to be down in the journey to my home!!!! After a shower and clean clothes, I took him for a medical, and the doctor found a large tumour on his thigh. So now I have three guests, and I wonder, "God" is this the start of another project?!!!!!
mama lynn
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This week there has been great excitement with the school staff and our children, as three of our boys who have been with me since 2000 have done so well academicaly that they are now transferring to an International School in Dar es Salaam, which uses a curriculum that take them on to University level.
When I look back at how these three boys have progressed, I cannot help but become emotional. They have worked so hard to get to this place in their lives, when I first met the oldest boy he came one night in the dark, knocking at the door of our home on the Kili mountain, begging for food. His father had beaten him and thrown him and his mother and younger siblings out of the house, the mother had then returned but his father would not have him in the house, all this at 8 years of age, he came to see if I would give him a chance.......... I did, and now his life is on track. His family is still very disfunctional, and only three months ago, his crazed grandfather, cut the head open of one of his younger brothers which meant Light in Africa picking - up the hospital bill for the child's recovery, but where believing in this young man who aspires to be either a doctor or a lawyer..
The Second boy to go to Dar, is a very quiet, unassuming young man, I found him and 4 other family members starving. They had not eaten for three days, a grave had already been dug for the youngest child who was very sick and malnourished. They had really bad infestation of the parasite known as 'chiggers' and medical assistance was required. Theirs is a long story to tell, - perhaps another time - but needless to say, after being repeatedly beaten at the local school, (he had very little education and did not understand what was written on the blackboard) he became the very first Tanzanian child to start the ACE program that Laura my daughter was tutoring my grand-children with. Three years ago, he attained at our School Celebration, 94% overall student, and his younger brother - who the grave was meant to hold - attained 98% overall. He walked out so proudly to receive his certificate, that tears just streamed down my face... as you can imagine, the staff are always well prepared for my emotions and kindly place a box of tissues for me on my seat as I blubber through the ceremony.
Our third boy to go to Dar, is the youngest at only 14 years. He is very bright and a confident young man. After his parents died, his relatives took over all the property and ousted out him and his sister. A kind aunt, brought them to LIA, and then set about regaining their property through the courts for them. She has been successful. One of the new idea's LIA is looking at is an Advocacy service for child rights, as many of our orphans are denied their rights when their family die.
So as you can see, an exciting week for the boys who we gave a chance to...........Praise God, Hallelujah
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In June 2006, a baby girl -- Tumaini -- was adopted from Light in Africa.
Her mother has asked me to reach out to past volunteers to see if they have any pictures of Tumaini from October 2004 - October 2005. If you were a volunteer during this time and have any pictures from the nursery, it would be a great blessing to Tumaini and her family in filling in the blanks that first year.
The best gift would be any pictures from the day she was brought into the center (October 31, 2004).
You can reach out to Mama Tumaini by contacting her at
walton_sl <at> yahoo.com
(more info on Tumaini at our Celebrations page
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Every visitor and volunteer to our boys home, could never miss Julius.
Firstly, because on your first appearance, one was shocked that he looked like a walking skeleton, with his rib cage always exposed.
And secondly, for his ravishing smile that would sometimes be so spontaneous - it would disarm you, and you would feel all warm inside and you would conclude his smile was just so angelic.
That this young man, with a severe learning disability could exist and walk around was always an amazement to the caring staff who looked after Juli.
In the seven years that Juli lived with us, he only grew taller but never put on any weight, that was because we only 'just' saved his life, but the damage that was done to him was just so severe for him to make a complete recovery.
Whilst living on the mountain and opening our first children's home, I was asked by the local village chairman to assist an orphan to remove some 'chiggers' from his feet. (A chigger is a parasite that burrows into the skin and eats the flesh, it is very painful, and most active at night).
I walked to the village accompanied by a porter, and was directed to a locked hut. A young women, appeared with a key and unlocked the padlock. The door swung open and a boy came out crawling on hands and feet, and then tried to stand. I assisted him up, but his legs could not hold his torso, so the porter carried him to an outside table. I started to remove the chiggers and the child started to cry.
Next I was aware of the young women who had opened the door appear with a branch in her hand and started to strip the outer layers of the branch off, she then came to the table to beat the child, for crying in front of a 'wazungu', (a european).
That was enough for me, I asked the porter to pick the child up and he carried him all the way to the center.
For the next 4 months I did not have a full nights sleep.
I would go to bed and be woken by the watchmen knocking on my window with "Mama, Juli's out". I would put on my dressing gown and go outside to see Juli on all fours trying to pick tiny pieces of food from off the ground, I would take him into the kitchen and give him a drink of milk and a slice of bread and put him back to bed. Two to three hours later, the same procedure would be repeated, until his brain told him that he was going to receive three full square meals per day, and he did not need to scavenge anymore.
Throughout the years, Juli had many admissions into the hospital for treatment.
At the buriel, to our shock, his mother appeared, social welfare investigation and local neighbours assumed he was an orphan, as the only relative he saw was a grandmother who appeared over the last year.
We held our own service at the home, where all the boys were able to write their feelings and thoughts and goodbyes to Juli,and tie them on to the wreath. His blue trunk where he "squirreled' all sorts of things, (even my grandaughter's new pair of trousers) is to be dug into the garden and filled with plants, so we can always remember him.
It was our blessed priveldge to care for Juli, as he showed by example true humility and forgiveness, which was a lesson to all who knew him.
Mama Lynn (2nd April,'07)
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Hello!
Here we have space on the weblog for all stories about events you may be organising to the benefit of the children and all the good work of Light in Africa.
We welcome your stories (and pictures) to be posted on this weblog so please send them to webmaster <at> lightinafrica <dot> org
Asante Sana
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The following article is taken from the allafrica.com website. As you may have read in our Maasai Story FGM is unfortunately still being practised.
Fortunately, there are also positive developments as demonstrated by this news article:
FGM Practitioners Down Their Tools
Arusha Times (Arusha)
NEWS
March 24, 2007
Posted to the web March 26, 2007
By Edward Selasini
Arusha
In Tanzania Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) also known as female circumcision is among health problems affecting women and girl-children. Adverse effects of FGM can lead to death, pain shock, hemorrhage and damage to the organs in addition to HIV/AIDS infection and other communicable diseases.
Last week on 14 March an FGM activist from Canada Muhoza Hakizimana, was handed over some circumcision apparatus by a group of women known as Enashiva Child Relief from the Ilkirevi village in Arumeru District. A gesture indicating that they have abandoned the practice.
The group had been earning a living by practicing FGM to the Waarusha Community girls in the village. The group comprises nine elderly women who promised not to engage again in the said practice.
Maria Thomas Kivuyo (65) who has meted out FGM for more than 30 years told the Arusha Times that she had no idea that the FGM had adverse effects on women. "I never knew there were such horrible things caused by FGM. All I knew was that this is one of the rites of passage for girls into womanhood".
Mama Kivuyo said that it is true that many people were contaminated with HIV/AIDS infection and other communicable diseases mainly because of lack awareness. The instruments used are shared by the victims of mutilation without any sterilization causing a myriad of infections.
She said that they became aware of the hazard after an activist on FGM Mama Margreth Mjema, a nurse by profession, started visiting them and training them on the effects of FGM.
Hakizimana, Executive Director of International African Child Relief and Peace Foundation of Canada handed over 9 dairy cattle to Enashiva Child Relief Group as a way of generating income after shunning the FGM routine.
" The dairy cattle project, I believe, will work out better and that will help the former FGM practitioners improve their lifestyles , " said Hakizimana.
The Tanzania Sexual Offences Special Provisions Act, a 1998 amendment to the Penal code, specifically prohibits FGM. Section 169(1) of the Act provides that anyone having custody, charge or care of a girl under 18 years of age who causes her to undergo FGM commits the offence of cruelty to children.
The penalty for this offences is imprisonment of up to 15 years, a fine up Tsh. 300,000/= or both imprisonment and fine. The law also provides for the payment of compensation by the perpetrator to the victim of the offence.
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Copyright © 2007 Arusha Times. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).
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