Firstly, we had quite an emergency 10 days ago, when Mathew one of our volunteers from Newcastle started with severe pain in his side. The most alarming thing to see was him literally fainting with the sheer force of the pain.
He was rushed to KCMC our local hospital where his appendix was removed at 1am. He has the proof of it sitting in a bottle which I am sure he will take home to show his mum. He is now recovered and we thank the medical staff at the hospital who where so attentive to Mathews needs.
At the request of a Ward Secretary I was asked to travel 35 kilometers into the bush in a remote area. The drive there was horrendous as I had to negotiate thick dust and river beds.
I was taken to meet the local maasai chairman and the director who made me warmly welcome. They showed me a locked up house where a school teacher who was pregnant had recently died in childbirth. 'How on earth do you access medical health care in this area' I asked 'We don't, there is no Doctor here' 'But how would you get someone to a
dispensary I continued, like a sick child or a pregnant women. "We only have a bullock and cart, that is our only method of transport ........ "
I was then taken to a mud/stick hut where I was shown 5 chiildren with their legs distorted due to drinking water high in fluoride. I left them food and knew I would have to return. I arrange to hold two dispensaries and these have now taken place.
Three of the older children are now to go into hospital at the end of this month for surgery on there legs, the smaller children are to come into care, as in the village they have no access to any fruits or vegetables and so their diet is so poor, the majority of the children are severely malnourished.
At the last dispensary which was held this week, a twenty year old man arrived with a tropical ulcer.
The volunteers were shocked to see infection clear through to the bone. He had tried to heal it by purchasing some penicillin tablets, crushing them, and placing them on the wound. Next week he will move to Mailisita so he can receive medical attention.
I really at the moment, do not know how I will impliment a food kitchen which is desperately needed there to save the lives of these children and adults, or how we can assist the village with desperately needed medical care, but we are praying that this can be accomplished.
Be blessed and refreshed,
mama Lynn
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LIA friends Josefin (Josie) and Linda are organizing a special Light in Africa summer-party later this month in Cologne, Germany.
They managed to put together a very exciting program including a video about their stay with LIA and more ... much more!
Everyone is invited so for those interested you can find more details here (in German)
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Hi Everyone, I do hope that all of our friends are enjoying the
summertime and the summer holidays.
Just some updates for you on some of the stories I wrote about
previously, which are now in the archives.
Firstly, the story about the mama who had given birth to twins at 7
months premature, and the mad dash that Pastor Frank and I had to make
to the hospital with the surviving baby and the sick mother........
I'm delighted to say, that mother and baby were released from
hospital last week and are both doing very well.
The story that Peter wrote about when he was with me in Mirerani,
where a mother who had given birth to a one month old baby and had no
support or anywhere to live and had become mentaly ill, is now living
with her mother and receiving medical treatment, her two children are
still in the care of LIA.
Once again, I was visiting Dr. Minja's surgery when we heard this
horrendous screaming coming closer to the surgery. Dr. Minja dashed
out to find a 2 year old child badly burnt front and back from boiling
water.....He asks me as I have the vehicle, will I take the child to
hospital..... 4 hours of immense suffering and pain, the child was at
last given an injection to numb the pain. This accident could have
been avoided, in my opinion, if a) the mother had been there with the
child, and b) the little round floor standing fires where banned, we
have three children in our centers who were all burnt by these small
kitchen fires, they are the same height as the children, and as they
start to walk and toddle they fall on these pans which are preparing
food and burn.
I am taken to a remote area in the bush, and see a family of 6
children, all badly disabled from drinking water at the village well
which is so high in fluor. They are just sitting there,
unable to walk, with no food to eat. I purchase some rice and fish,
and vegetable for the following 25 days where they can go to the shop
and receive 1 kilo per day. We are operating a new dispensary in this
village for the first time this week, so we are wondering what other
children we will see who are suffering. I was also shown the school,
where the teacher had recently died in childbirth, and the only method
of transport was bullock and cart to get to the nearest dispensary,
but unfortunately it was too late.
The bungalows at Tudor Village are going up at a tremendous rate, it
is just so exciting to see all the volunteers hard at work, the
children are getting really excited about the eventual move. I have
just purchased the curtains for the first house so when they are made
and up, I will take photo's to show you all how wonderful the site is.
be blessed and refreshed, mama lynn
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Karibu Sana!
We're delighted to share the volunteer stories of Marilyn and Peter who both visited us earlier this year.
Please visit the main web page at http://www.lightinafrica.org.
From there, click the lovely children picture and then select from the menu: Volunteers - Volunteer Stories
and read the new pages (marked with an asterix)
We know you are all eager to read about what goes on so you will certainly enjoy these pages.
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I like to recommend to you for reading a new page in the 'Stories' section of the website
This Link: http://www.lightinafrica.org/stories.html takes you directly to the Stories page and there you select Loving Education from the left-hand menu.
Warm regards to all
Paul
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Hello dear friends!
IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A QUIET SUNDAY, WITH QUALITY TIME WITH THE CHILDREN but I should have known better when I had a lay-in and slept until 9-30am, which was quite unusual as I am up quite early to start the days chores. I had spent the night in a tent at Tudor Village Site, and it was just so comfy that I had crashed when I hit the deck.
All the volunteers had disappeared, either to church, or to have a Sunday service at the children's homes, so there was just Pastor Frank, myself and Maria and Upendo. As we have only one vehicle it is quite a difficult job to spread it over all the work that we have to do, so I said to P. Frank, that if he would take me back to Mirerani, he could then have the Serf for all the jobs he had to do the following day. He readily agreed, so two hours later we pull into Fleeze House, to the many children singing the chorus of " Welcome, Welcome to Fleeze House, we’re happy to see you, happy to greet you " etc etc.
No sooner had P. Frank switched off the engine, and then Dada Manuer was at the driver’s side, explaining she had an emergency. The very sick lady who I previously had written about, needed urgent help. We drove to her 4' x 4' single room, and as often is the case, we were shocked.
She was laying on the mud floor, with no mattress, no blanket, just a piece of material wrapped over her and her 7 month old baby. I picked up the baby and her other 3 year old child waiting outside the door and placed them in the car, whilst P. Frank, assisted the mama onto the back seat of the car. She looked back at the mud/stick door as we drove away, probably knowing it would be the last time that she saw it.
We pulled up outside Fleeze House and I took the children inside for bathing and feeding. I said to the mama: 'You know this is a God incident that Pastor and I are here today, I never expected to come to Mirerani today'. She replied: “I have been praying all night that mama wazungu would come and take me from this miserey and care for my children”. I asked P. Frank to take and admit her into Dr. Minja's surgery for medical care.
Whilst sat having a cup of tea, I watched our staff to what they do so well, and change these two little ones into clean and polished children. I was shown the malnutrition of the smallest child and now knew that, whilst in the care of LIA, she would never go hungry again. Twenty minutes later, P. Frank dashes into the gate, "Mum" he shouts, “get into the car quick, we have a real emergency on our hands"...…He pulls up outside Dr. Minja's surgery and I'm whisked into a room where a mama has just given birth to premature twins. One of the babies had already died and was laying at the end of the bed, a heat lamp was warming the other twin who must weigh approx 1 lb. "Please take this mother and child to the hospital as quick as you can” requests Dr. Minja, so he gets a piece of cloth, warms it with an iron, and wraps the little bundle in it, he then wraps cotton wool around the outside, and I place the baby under my tabard. We now have a journey of 1 1/2 hours to get to the hospital, to try to save this child's life. With headlights on full beam, with horn honking we passed though the police check points without stopping, until we arrived at the hospital.
I dashed into casualty, ran down the corridor to the post-natal ward and delivered the little bundle into the hands of a nurse to place in an incubator. "Whats his name” she asked, “I don't know, I'll go and ask the mother who is being admitted....”. \By now the mother is being pushed in a wheelchair to the ward for examination. “They need to now the baby’s name” I said; she weakly replied that she would call the child Mohammed. I went back to the ward to give the file and name to the doctor. It was now 6pm and we had not eaten since the morning, so we had a quick bowl of soup at the hospital canteen and then it was back to dropping P. Frank off at Tudor, whilst I returned to Fleeze House. It had been quite a day.
Two weeks ago, I received an email from a girl guide group leader who said her troop of girl guides had raised thirty pounds for LIA. I responded with thanks and told them that this would be the first donation towards a desperately needed maternity centre in Mirerani, where in the district 60% of the mothers die in childbrith, or other related conditions.
Since I made that commitment, I have received nearly 2000 pounds to build a maternity centre on our 15 acre site at Mirerani. Yesterday’s incident could perhaps have been averted if a) the mother had received regular medical check-ups, b) there was specialized medical care available and, as in the previous case of Mary the disabled lady, a facility for caesarean operations to be carried out. The cost of transport to the main hospital by taxi amounts to $100 dollars, so if you are poor, there is no way that help can be given.
Yesterday, we were there and with a vehicle to assist. I wonder what would have happened to mother and child if we hadn't been there...God only knows.
Blessings.
Mama Lynn
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Hi Everyone,
Lots of things are happening at Light in Africa at the moment, with lots and lots of volunteers helping us to make a big difference in the lives of children and unsupported adults.
Some of our volunteers are working very physically hard at the Tudor Village site where our 5th house has started to have the foundations dug.
Some volunteers are enjoying there trips to Kenya living in a maasai encampment amid the warmth that is shown to them from these impoverished nomadic people.
Everyone returns from this trip, which is very basic indeed, actually living in a boma in a manyatta encampment, with no home comforts at all, but they love it!
Medical Students are heavily involved in medical out-reaches dispensaries, and the 5 electives return home exhausted but thrilled having delivered 4 babies on the maternity wards......
I myself have had a busy day that started in Mirerani this morning with a seriously sick mama arriving with a tiny baby on her back. She attends our daily food kitchen, but I don’t think she will be able to care for the child for much longer and so our social worker will go and do an assessment on Thursday to bring the baby into care.
Then pick up a Landrover to drop me off at the top of the road, and then a coaster to Mailisita. Whilst eating my breakfast at 11am a vehicle arrives from the local hospital bringing a 2year old little girl who is disabled and has been abandoned by her mother whilst a doctor was looking at the child.
So another child joins our ever-expanding family of Light in Africa.
I will be posting more updates shortly on the Tudor Village and a story about an amazing child who has exceeded all expectations after such a bad start.
Be blessed,
mama Lynn
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Time for an update so another 100 or so images are ready to be shown on your screen for you to enjoy, while mama Lynn is busy attending to the almost 50 volunteers (and lost her voice answering their many questions).
We have been blessed with the visit of Jake Lyell this past December and January. Jake, professional photographer, returned to Light in Africa where he previously took some impressive shots of our children and work.
This time Jake shot well over 850 pictures which is simply too overwhelming a number to place on the website. But we still aim to share Jake's point of view with our faithful blog-audience: you.
Every month a slideshow of approx 100 pictures will be shown on this weblog. Here is part 2
But there is more:
also visit jakelyell.com and also check out his blog jakelyell.com/blog for a story about AIDS and Light in Africa
And there is even more:
1) the complete photo-series will also be available on DVD. If you would like to reserve your personal copy, send an email message to donations @ lightinafrica . org and then we can work out the details.
Just imagine: an hour full of adorable smiles and happy faces, the wonderful "Lights of Africa", ready to show to your friends and family
2) a new volunteer experience from Ron & Sue has been documented by them and added to the website. Select their story from this menu
Enjoy!
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Hi everyone,
It's lovely to be writing to you all again after my recent trip to The Netherlands and the UK.
I am sorry it has taken me so long to update the blog but when I returned there was just so much 'catching - up to do' that only now can I happily chat away on the keyboards.
There are just so many people that I need to thank for the wonderful welcome that they gave to Mama Koupa - (Light in Africa's Treasurer - making her first visit to the UK and to myself as we visited two schools in Huddersfield and where mama Koupa was able to demonstrate her "carrying a bucket of water on her head" to gasps of awe from the children to visiting Leeds and meeting once again our dear friends, where we enjoyed a game of bingo, another first for mama Koupa, then off to Scarborough University to visit Gemma and see her new flat, and of course whilst there we had to take a walk along the coast and try out the cockles and mussels (sorry Laura, we were late back, and I received a parking ticket on your car - all sorted though) An African evening at Laura's new home meant that mama Koupa was able to cook some real African food to our friends in the Grimsby area, and then it was off to the South of England for three days via London where we were able to see some historic sites. We were met by a previous volunteer who drove us to our lovely accommodation - and the following day we had lunch at a Grammar school. All I can say is school dinners where never like that when I went to school: poached salmon and prawn sauce for lunch or a choice of food, amazing.
We met some wonderful people during our tour, I cannot thank everyone, or express our gratitude, but you all know who you are. Thank you for everything.
Then the great event that Laura, Lou, Allison and Deborah had so carefully planned, for such a long time: THE BALL. I think the photo says it all. A wonderful memory for Mama Koupa and myself - Bless you all for all the effort that you put in and for all the guests and previous volunteers who attended.
Thank you once again!
mama Lynn.
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Hi everyone,
I am so delighted to show you the picture of the disabled mama with her new baby she has named 'Lightness', (she tells me she wants her to grow up and be a Light in Africa). Mum is just so happy that she now has a child of her own, which was something utterly unconceivable with her severe disability.
The taunts and the neglect that she had to suffer until we rescued her and placed her safely at Mailisita until her delivery are now all a thing of the past. She only has one desire and that is to show her family her wonderful baby, and then return to LIA.
Mama will be employed to repair the many torn clothes and make new clothes for our children, as she is a seamstress. A great ending to a very disturbing beginning. Just a thought; abortion is not an option here in Tanzania. How different this situation would have been if the lady had lived overseas: professionals would probably have told her to abort the baby. She would have Rape Counselling, and be given all the reasons why she would not be able to care for the child.
Comments like, 'it would be in yours and the babies best interest to abort' given your disability, probably would have been said. I think sometimes people forget about the power of love that a newborn brings into the world.
Having witnessed the love and care this mama has for her new child reminds me of the adoption party that I attended at the weekend. A new young adorable life has come to a couple who thought it could never happen to them because of their age, their lives have completely changed, new plans must now be made and they see the adoption as an amazing gift of a child that has been given specially to them. A gift made in heaven.
A new baby is born out of the misery and tragedy of Mirerani, and as the photo's show, the desperate plight of the people who lost there homes in the floods. We are very grateful to our present volunteers who have responded magnificently to their plight and have assisted the people of Mirerani in many ways.
One of the quotes I often use is that "I am sold out on the youth of today" and I quickly receive the response that a lot of people would not agree with me. Perhaps not, but the young volunteers that we receive at LIA, are young people who often have to take on one or two jobs as well as study to enable them to come over and make a difference to children's lives and the community where we live. We have with us at present two young 16-year boys, who briefly visited with us last year in a school party, and made the decision to save up and come over by themselves. What remarkable young men Tym & Matt are. They have built a pig sty - tomorrow they purchase the pigs - they have helped in the disaster at Mirerani, they have given unstintingly of there time, as I write, I am waiting for a call to say the children they have taken to the HIV/AIDS hospital clinic have completed there assessments and they are ready for collection. Tomorrow is their last day with us, and so they have arranged for a Sport's Day to be held. What compassion, what love for our children! As I say; 'I'm sold out on the youth of today'.
Be blessed
mama Lynn.
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