Well, as predicted, the out-reach dispensary held at the Food Kitchen this past Saturday was a very moving experience for our medical and social worker team.
We think we have seen and experienced most things over the last 7 years, but even we can be shocked at the utter abuse of one party over another at times.
The door swung open and a bent, severly disabled young women, slowly walked across the room and sat down. She was accompanied by a good samaritan who was helping this poor young women with accomodation after she had been raped and is now 6 months pregnant, then chased away by her family........ Dr. Ninja who was our Doctor for the day, examined her and said she needed expert medical assistance.
After the home assessment on Wednesday, we will have her medical condition monitored at a hospital, where decisions will have to be made. This really is a life-threatening situation.
....
I have waited over 1 year to bring you this amazing update on a young married couple we found living on the streets when we did our pilot research as to what assistance we could offer the Mererani community in September of last year.
Pastor Frank Titus, Janet and Steven. And Steven now.
Grace, our newly-employed social worker from Dar-es-Salaam, was on her first out-reach visit. She set out her table to receive the many people waiting to be seen by the social and medical team. Steven walked in with this huge tumour on the side of his face. He explained that he was playing a game of football, and collided, and a tooth came loose. He asked someone to pull it out, and infection got in, and as he had no money for antibiotics, his face just kept growing bigger.
He and his pregnant wife where now living in door-ways as his mother had 'chased' them from her home when his face began to swell, and they were so hungry they were sucking on stones, to try to allay the hunger pangs.....
We held a meeting and made the decision to help this young couple in any way that we could. They came to live at Mailisita where the volunteers are based and whilst Steven was being assessed by the local hospital, Janet gave birth to their first child, Lyndsey, ( Lynn said).
KCMC decided this tumour was too big for them to help and advised that he be referred to Umbili Hospital in Dar es Salaam, but it would be a very costly operation. Having spoken to Paul our webmaster about the situation he spoke to a friend in Italy who agreed to fund Steven's operations, Praise God.
Four biopsies on the bone and the tissue had 9 surgeons in disagreement. We sent off Sister Grace to the hospital for a medical analysis. She rang me as the 9 doctors where at Stevens bedside. "I just don't know where this is going", she said, they can't agree what to do, but they have explained the dangers of the operation to me and Steven has agreed he has no choice but to go ahead. The operation was successful, when they removed a piece of bone from his jaw. Now with medication, each time we meet with him his tumour has receded.
We had to keep his spirits up during this difficult period, and I kept jollying him along that he had to get better because I needed him to be the Project Manager for the Food Kitchen. And this is what he is now doing: running and monitoring the kitchen, whilst his wife Janet is in charge of our three cooks......and Lyndsay is beautiful, so a happy ending to a story.
Blessings and thanks to all who were involved in prayer support and the recovery of Steven.
Mama Lynn
[ 2 comments ] ( 90 views ) | related link
Hi dear friends and supporters of Light in Africa,
On Saturday (24/11/07) we are preparing to operate a dispensary at our Food Kitchen Program where we are feeding approx. 390 - 420 malnourished children 6 days per week. Our medical team have previously visited the center and have distributed worm tables and anti-fungal creams for the many cases of scabies and ringworm the children have.
On Saturday it is to test the children for HIV/AIDS. We are expecting a large number of the children to test positive, this will then be a huge operational program to access the anti-retro drugs and give education on their use, and to ensure the children receive the correct dosage, as well as finding a way to transport them over 1 hours journey on untarmaced roads. But, In God We Trust, that we shall receive provision for this new program, for without the orphans being able to access the anti-retro drugs they will surely have a limited life expectancy.
New photo's of the children accessing the food kitchen have been added to the website.
Mama Lynn
[ add comment ] | related link
Hi everyone,
A thought from little Geoff to Gudilla on the arrival of his new baby brother Christian..
"If you say that you are the mummy to Christian, then where did my mummy go to?"
Some good news regarding Doreen our manager for the White House, Mailisita. I visited her on Sunday, and was thrilled that she has now gained some use in her right arm and sufficient in her right leg to now be able to sit up unaided and is slowly walking with a stick.
Bless you and thank you so much for your prayers.
I have just scanned a picture of volunteers sat preparing food for one of our "cook-ins" which would feed over 160 children and mothers.
The team gets down to all the preperation of cooking outdoors on three stones for a cook-in at Lerai, next to the dispensary.
Doreen is pictured standing to the right of the picture.
And this is a picture that Victoria posted to one of our girls,but
it is so nice I thought I would share it with you.
Mama Lynn
[ add comment ] | related link
Today our new webpages about the development of LIA's Tudor Childrens' Village have gone live.
Click here to go directly to the new pages and pictures.
While still a lot remains to be realized, we are very greatful for already so much that has been accomplished during the past several months, thanks to the contributions of our many volunteers and overseas supporters.
The village, once completed, will provide a safe and stimulating development environment for all the children in our care as well as for our staff.
Asanta Sana!
[ add comment ] | related link
At last, it's arrived here in Arusha!. Couldn't believe my eyes when I first saw it, but there it was staring me in the face. A pack of Lurpak Butter, but I'm afraid too costly for me at 7,000tz but we can hope the price will come down eventually, and the first set of traffic lights on the Moshi to Arusha Road, the finer things in life have arrived. Praise God.
This true story will help you to perhaps understand how difficult it is sometimes to work with people who have limited knowledge on how medicines work.....
Sister Grace and I where manning two seperate out-reach dispensary tables at a big maasai celebration meeting, and after the initial rush of patients, I settled myself down to watch some 400 maasai morans start their amazing jumping techniques. After a while, a maasai came over to my table and picked up the water jug and a throw-a-way cup. Still intent on watching this spectacle, I just happened to turn around just in time to see a handful of tablets been placed in this guys mouth and swilled down with water......'Sister Grace', I shouted, 'what tablets have you given this man'? 'Why', she said, 'Because I think I've seen him swallow a full course of tablets in one go'. 'What?!' she asked incredulously. She waltzed over to him, took the plastic bag from his hand, and laid into him about what had she just explained to him about taking the medicine........?? 'What is he saying Grace', I said, breaking into the conversation, "He says; that he didn't want to wait 5 days to get better, so he thought he would take all the tablets in one go and get better quicker, he's just said, "Why would I ask such a 'silly' question?
mama lynn
[ add comment ] | related link
For a new webpage on the subject of the development of the new Tudor Village project the webmaster would appreciate receiving any related picure files that our 2007 volunteers may have available.
Please send your entries to webmaster <at> lightinafrica.com
Asante Sana!
Paul
[ add comment ] | related link
For the many volunteers who know my daughter-in-law Godilla, who is Light in Africa's co-ordinator based at Malaika House, I'm thrilled to be able to inform you all that at 6am today Godilla gave birth to
a 10 lb. baby boy by caesarean section.
AND TODAY'S MY BIRTHDAY!!! wow, WHAT A BIRTHDAY SURPRISE.
Marcus and Godilla have chosen the name Christian for him,and mother and baby are doing well. So I have just dashed the 90 Kilometers from Seliani Hospital - Arusha to Dot Cafe in Moshi to share our joy with you, of this wonderful news, and also let you know that Sophie and Emily are being filmed today for Calender news in the UK. A blessed day for us all.
mama Lynn
[ 2 comments ] ( 57 views ) | related link
Just some weekly updates for you, and to thank our webmaster Paul for the great job he is doing in updating the site, I have received so many comments from previous volunteers who are following all the news about the different projects that they were perhaps involved in. So many thanks Paul in keeping everyone happy.
On Tuesday, Sister Grace (LIA medical midwife/nurse) visited the Food Kitchen site to prescrive over 360 worm tablets for the many children attending the program. She was also able to spot some physical handicaps which could be improved by surgery and she found a small maasai child with a swollen fractured arm. After consultation, the child had received no treatment and she was brought back to our main center for x-rays and treatment. How these dear sweet children suffer due to lack of money that their families do not have.
The disabled maasai child who we found using both hands to feed herself. Well, our Chairman, Vincent Songoi who is himself a maasai visited the encampment, and their are a lot of issues involved. The elders did not want us to help the child unless we were prepared to help all the other children!! Not a problem for us, we worship a God whose bank account wont break..... We are now going to fund at least two of the children to go to school with fees paid and uniforms bought, and to hopefully see all the other children attending school also, Sister Grace wants to do seminars on Health and Hygiene in the area, as the encampment was in a really bad state...... but now for a
story of a different kind.
I do not wish to get embroiled in the abortion issues, but I do want to bring something to your attention which might just give you an insight into the abortion issue.
This is a photograph of a beautiful little girl (whom I will refer to as Lucy) and she is part of our family at Light in Africa. She has reached all of the milestones of a normal child, but her's is a very special story indeed...... At 15 yrs of age the childs mother tried to abort her. As a result the mother died in delivery and the baby which was born at 24 weeks was taken to a local hospital and placed in an incubator, no one thought that this child would survive, how could she with the limited medical facilities available for special needs babies, plus she was carrying the deadly virus, her immune system would not be able to cope. After a short time Lucy was brought to the baby unit at Mailisita, she was so small, we had to cut nappies to fit her and for her to wear dolls bonnets to keep the warm. Today Lucy is over two years of age and doing very well and we thank God that she survived all the many obstacles that she had first to endure.
Mama Lynn
[ 1 comment ] ( 26 views ) | related link
Hi everyone, I am happy to give you the good news that dada Doreen is making good progress and she can now sit unaided and has movement in her right arm and leg.
Thank you so much for your prayers, we are just so pleased that she did not lose her power of speech, and she is now quite 'chirpy'
mama lynn
[ add comment ] | related link
Hi everyone! Greetings from Moshi in Tanzania.
We have now nearly two weeks of the Food Kitchen under our belts, and we can see where improvements need to be made, and how much food needs to be increased. How have the staff coped with such a large amount of children? Do we need to change the system we originated, etc., etc..
The first issue that was decided upon after the social worker visits to the maasai encampment was to have three full days of home assessments, to see if we were reaching the very vulnerable children.
A team of 4 visited homes and shacks and found a further 200 desperately needy children. These are now included in the Food Kitchen program.
One of our immediate problems is that we have no vehicle in the area which requires a landrover for the untarmacked roads with its horrendous pot holes. The only means we have of transporting the food and water to the kitchen is by a Kockatani which is a steel wheelbarrow with motorcycle wheels, so this is our major problem at the moment as we cannot transport the vulnerable children who are too young to walk to the food kitchen.
Warm regards,
mama Lynn
[ 1 comment ] ( 41 views ) | related link
Back Next
Archives
