News Updates from Light in Africa - Kilimanjaro Region - Tanzania

MY NEW YEAR�S RESOLUTION

LIA-Team — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 16:52:17 GMT

Hi Everyone,

Well, like most people, I am intending to start this New Year by making a resolution to be more multifaceted with the multimedia, and I can assure you this does not come easy for me. My first concern, or should I say, reservation, was �how am I going to fit more commitment into my already very busy daily life,� and with my attention focused at the moment in helping to get our THE TORCHBEARER CO. LTD. up and running to help train our older children in new life-skills as they, like me, have to learn to cope with new challenges.. So with the help of Nina who came over to help produce the documentary, she has kindly opened a Facebook page for LIA and with Ritha and Frieda, my two oldest girls,

we have today opened and started operating the ORIGINAL Light in Africa Facebook Page

So here�s to the draggggggging in of mama Lynn into the 21st century. I really hope it�s painless!

NEW YEAR APPRECIATION FOR OUR COMMITTED ORGANISERS OF OUR OVERSEAS LIGHT IN AFRICA SITES.

I would like to share the appreciation of Light in Africa�s Executive Officers, the staff, and our children to the many people around the world who unstintingly give �freely� of their time in helping to raise awareness and funds, which allows us to help so many more children and the surrounding tribes in our two working regions of Tanzania.

Firstly, our sincere thanks go to Paul our webmaster, who although an extremely busy guy still manages to keep the website operational.

GERMANY

Linda and Josphine have been involved in fundraising for Light in Africa ever since Josephine visited me when I started operating our first children�s home 6,000� up on Mount Kilimanjaro, that must have been around 2002. Linda Shultze is now visiting us again in Tanzania, she just can�t keep away from our precious children�� THANK YOU LADIES and your team of Light in Africa, Deutschland e.V.

THE NETHERLANDS

Paul (webmaster) started off preparing all the official paperwork to operate Stichting Light in Africa Nederland some 3 years ago together with the support of our past volunteers Christa Biegelaar and Dirk Geurts. Regularly returning volunteers Marijke Bakker and Jonathan Ploeg joined the board of the Dutch foundation in 2011 and are actively involved with our long time Dutch sponsorship. In 2010, thanks to the Dutch foundation and partners Wilde Ganzen and Rotary Amsterdam International we realized their brilliant idea of extracting the water from the river to cultivate our tropical garden, and vegetable field.

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Lee & Nicole Harding / Marilyn Kelly / Sue Gass have been constant supporters of Light in Africa in America for many years, with Marilyn and Sue coming over each year to visit with us. I would also like to thank Pastor Jean and the people of Iowa who have been so gracious to me when I have visited with them. Your loving support of our children is outstanding.
I wish to personally thank Phi and his team of � Friends and Family� who have fed so many of our children and the street children of Mirerani with the container of food that we have previously received. What price can you put on �saved lives� and how can the word � thanks� ever be sufficient? We bless you all and thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
A �big � thank you to Jessica who I know would want to remain anonymous, but you are forever in our grateful hearts.
Our dear friends Cindy & Jim, Rose & Phil, and Salina and all their team from California who have �always been there for us� and have enabled us to purchase the land at Tudor and now build a Day Care Centre. May God Bless you all Abundantly.
Joan Coleman and her group of friends will be joining me again in Tanzania next month, can�t wait to �chat over a coffee� our friendship is due to a wonderful Tanzanian man called Simon Mtey, who is quite an amazing athlete, and has a record of climbing up and down Mount Kilimanjaro in around 8 hours.!!! What a humble human being.

We now have some new shoots starting to sprout from the US East Coast with Corey Schmidt, a regular volunteer, initiating the necessary paperwork to the authorities to establish the 501C3 charity LIA-USA Inc. More details can be found on our donation page

Corey and his father Douglas are busy working with Molly, Stacey and Arlene and Nina in preparing events for my visit to the States around the end of Spring 2012.

Thanks also goes to Tony Hammac a.k.a. Tony the savior who enabled Kim to get proper diagnosis and treatment from a life threatening disease, or Tony the biker who cycled in support of an HIV/AIDS Campaign from San Francisco to Los Angeles or Tony the guinea pig who, during his recent stay for the 2011 holidays, trialed a unique Masai Moran survival adventure for the Torch Bearer Co.

THE UNITED KINGDOM

We have always been blessed with all the commitment that has been given by my own country the UK. I want to thank all of my dear friends & past volunteers who support Light in Africa Tanzania not just by sponsoring our children but also in prayer support. I am so blessed that there is just not sufficient pages in a book to write you all down, just know that my world is made so much richer by having you all in my life.
Thanks also goes to Tony Hammac a.k.a. Tony the savior who enabled Kim to get proper diagnosis and treatment from a life threatening disease, or Tony the biker who cycled in support of an HIV/AIDS Campaign from San Francisco to Los Angeles or Tony the guinea pig who, during his recent stay for the 2011 holidays, trialed a unique Masai Moran survival adventure for the Torch Bearer Co.

LIGHT IN AFRICA � UK

Pastor Graham and Elaine Jamson have kindly responded to our need to re-open a Light in Africa in the UK. We are deeply grateful to them for stepping into this position.

We now again have the facility of a UK bank account which can be used for local UK money transfers while cheques made out to LIGHT IN AFRICA UK COMMUNITY ORGANISATION can be sent to Pastor Graham. The details can be found on our donation page and the funds will be accessible by is through the Tanzanian ATM machines.

On behalf of all of us here in Tanzania:
May God bless you all Abundantly�
Mama Lynn

Light in Africa weblog

After Matthew (25)

LIA-Team — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 23:43:59 GMT

... We were hungry

and you all helped to establish Light in Africa

Click here to read about our faith

Thank you and best wishes for 2012

Oh Boy, oh boy ..

LIA-Team — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 22:59:59 GMT

Dearest friends and supporter of the children of Light in Africa, may I wish you all an abundant New Year full of all of God�s wondrous blessings, and may you know sheer health and joy in the coming year.

With 2011 now under our belts we look forward to a New Year of 2012 praying that this new year will not be so challenging as this last one has been.

As you can see Flo our Tudor dog has celebrated by producing 7 puppies to welcome in the New Year, at this point in time we don�t think the father was the German Shepherd Kuna but we have to wait and see.

We also want to pass on our congratulations to Tracy and her new husband and young son Euin. who have recently tied the knot. Tracy and her family when they volunteered with us provided the funding for Dr. Minja�s dispensary in Mirerani.

Some good news this month is that all of our children that have taken the Primary School Exam have all passed to go onto Secondary School.

This year the children did not receive their customary shoe box but Ritha and Freida and Anna in the dressmaking workshop produced cloth bags for them which we filled with the usual �goodies�. A big �Thank You� to all you kind sponsors who have supported our children with �small package gifts�.

From my visit to the UK I have been able to open a new Light in Africa bank account at Nat West which is going to kindly be managed by Pastor Graham Jamson and his wife Elaine,. Any cheques can now be made out to Light in Africa and Elaine will place them into our account for transfer over to Tanzania�.. Paul our webmaster is going to place all the details on the donation page� We are so grateful for your continued support to our children when we found ourselves �hijacked� in February (2011).

Tony Hammac who has left Light in Africa this evening to return to the States has just endured the EXTREME MAASAI WARRIOR CHALLENGE that TorchBearer, our sister organisation, is offering to the many tourists who come to Tanzania. He exchanged his western garb for that of the maasai shuka and had an individual pair of shoe tyres made for him, then went shopping for fresh fruit and vegetables with three donkeys;, accompanied by the maasai moran warriors he climbed up medicine mountain to see the medicine trees and unbelievably managed to start a fire with two sticks which he was totally thrilled about and then set about cooking a meal on the fire. His journey ended by swimming in spring water and dancing with 9 maasai who visited and competed against them with bow and arrow and long sticks. Rasta Sam was seen to do amazing gymnastics from the trees dropping straight down into the clear spring waters�.. Tony says he�s coming back next year to walk further with his maasai brothers and to bring his friends with him to experience the Extreme Maasai Warrior Challenge. All very exciting stuff.

On the last blog I mentioned about little 5 year old Shadrack praying out aloud about the �economics� of LIA�..this month he has decided to go a little further with his requests by asking God to � please find a good good husband for Truefine, because I love her so much� one wonders what goes through their little minds. Truefine is one of his carers in Happy House, I wonder what she thinks to this request?

The documentary has now been completed that Mark Anderson and Nina have produced and is ready to be released in America. I wonder what will happen in 2012 for the good of LIA.

As midnight approaches, we just want to wish you all a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Mama Lynn

Picture story - LIA Update

LIA-Team — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 12:52:20 GMT

Well, where do I start with the blog. ? Such a lot has happened to the running of our organization. For one thing we have grown so much larger with more and more children being brought into our care, we are most certainly the largest children�s home in the area.

Two weeks ago Grace Kivuya - Light in Africa�s social welfare officer - was informed by the local social welfare department in Hai district that they intended to close an orphanage down due to mal-practice, and would we please help the department by taking in some of the children into our care.

After much deliberation and prayer we decided we would accommodate 33 of these children into Light in Africa's childrens homes; one child has a disability and is wheelchair bound and another small child had been sexually abused at a young age and has on-going physical and medical problems.

On Friday 11th November with children piled into the back of a social welfare pick-up truck, the children were moved into their new homes. Our children had tied balloons to the gate and were there to sing our welcome song�.�Welcome Welcome to Rosemary House" and Margareth our administrator asked the children: "Who do you now live with?" and they responded: "We are now Light in Africa children!"Jokingly she asked: "Are you sure...?" "Yes, yes! We belong to Light in Africa" came their joyous response, and with that they dashed off to try out the playground apparatus, so magnificently made by Project Ape group from Bristol UK a few years ago.

The children have all settled in remarkably well, and we have been assured by the social welfare department that they will help us to handle any issues that may arise, and we shall have continued financial support from a Swedish NGO who had previously supported the children before things went disastrously wrong.

When I look back at our photo albums which Jake Lyell has so diligently made for us over the years, it is such a joy to see the children grow into such lovely children. I thought you might like to see some (before and after) photo's.

Miss Upendo (before/after) wants to be a Pastor when she grows up; she and her sister Beatrice were the first children who came into care 11 years ago.

This handsome 'chappie' was my first abandoned baby (no 'before' picture) and he is now 11 years of age.

This beautiful girl is one of a family of five who all came into care on the same day after I found them severly malnourished and their hands and feet full of Chiggers (a skin eating parasite). I had to take them to the local hospital to have there fingernails removed.

We do not only provide for the children in our homes. During one of our medical outreach dispensaries, we found this child suffering from severe distorted legs (due to the high concentration of fluoride in the ground water her family is forced to drink from). This young lady had to go through major leg surgery before she could look as lovely as this with straight legs.

This water situation obviously affects many more children, here is another one waiting for the next opportunity to have her legs straightened when the means will be available.

Whilst delivering Xmas presents to a maasai school, this young man was brought to us with a diagnosis of cancer, luekemia. He had stayed in his village for the previous year without so much as an aspirin tablet for pain relief.
Tony, one of our Xmas volunteers asked if I would help the child. Not wanting to take him to the cancer hospital for chemotherapy, I
agreed to take him to Kenya to get a proper diagnosis. After many tests the child was found NOT to have cancer but to have treatable closed TBC and he was given proper medication for six months where now you can see the amazing result.

Famine was hitting hard and this baby had just days to live as his mother had no milk to give him as she too was desperately hungry. Our carers have now nicknamed him 'meaty meaty' due to the large rolls of fat he now posseses. (This picture is just for you Said!)

This picture is of Julianna who now has a wheelchair instead of
going around walking on her knees. Julianna is hoping she will be allowed to go to America for her right leg to be amputated and the other to be operated on which will allow her to have a pair of prosthetic legs to enable her to walk straight for the first time in her life.... We'll hope to post the 'after' picture after a successful procedure.

Most visitors to Pilgrim boys home remember Rogarty, who has been with us for many years... Thanks to Tom he now has a brand new wheelchair as he had outgrown his other one.

And our last picture is of Mark and Nina - the two producers who are working on a documentary which will be released before this Christmas. We thank you so much for coming over to visit with us and showing the work that we do on a daily basis. Bless you both.

Our prayers are for the new children in our care that they will settle quickly as after christmas they will all be changing schools to enable them to attend the same school that our children attend. They are very happy about this as they had to walk 7 kilometers to school and back each day. In the new schoolyear, after Christmas holidays, they will move to local schools with their new Tudor village friends, which is within walking distance. And meanwhile they will enjoy a daily car ride to their old school to finish the year.

We hope you enjoyed this little peak into our daily lives here in Tanzania. Amazingly, at our morning service Shadrack - 5 year old - was heard to pray: "God help us with our uchumi!" (swahili for economics)

I am writing this blog in the armchair of Paul our webmaster's home in Holland, before moving on to the UK on Monday where I shall be visiting the Universities to meet with next years volunteers.

Warmest wishes, mama Lynn

TUDOR VILLAGE GROWS AND OPENS ITS DOORS FOR DAY VISITORS TO ACCESS THE CRAFT SHOP

LIA-Team — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 00:17:14 GMT

Hi Everyone,

Once again, thanks to our amazing volunteers we have now expanded and opened our craft shop and physically challenged workshop. We are now able to offer BED & BREAKFAST and a CAMPSITE facility for the backpacker or overlander vehicles.
As we are so close to Kilimanjaro airport, accommodation is available for the guest who would like an early or late pick-up without a further long journey into Moshi or Arusha, and Torchbearer Co. Ltd., website will be up and running shortly with its dashing logo created by a very talented young lady from the States called Nina. I hope to share some new photo�s of our new facilities soon on this page. In the workshop is Anna, Lucy and Eliazer the shoemaker whose development has been supported by LIA for the last 6 years.

WE REAPED JUST 5 BAGS OF MAIZE FROM 5 ACRES OF LAND
We have been blessed with some recent downpours of rain which has turned the scorched earth into a wonderful shade of green. Unfortunately, it is a case of too little too late and as we harvested our own maize which lasted us just two weeks, we were very much concerned as to how we would cope with the future of feeding the children as the price of a sack of maize had escalated due to the famine (Horn of Africa).

We are very grateful to our volunteers who used their project money to have welded two silo�s to hold maize and beans. And also to our friends who left funds for food provision for us, we have bought straight from the farmers who were harvesting their crops and we have now filled the largest silo up with maize which should last us along with our packet food for 1 year. We are deeply grateful to everyone who was involved in sustaining our food supply - thank you.

The older children have now completed Primary School and are anxious about their results to see if they will pass to enable them to go on to Secondary School. We have just heard today that the Government has taken away the subsidies to the schools so instead of just a little amount the poor will have to contribute, it has increased dramatically; for us alone with 30 children in school it will cost a whooping $1,000.00/- Over the last 11 years I have been impressed by the efforts that have been made to get children into school (education for all) but now with this increase it could be a retrograde step, just like the dramatic cost increase for the Immigration Resident C Permit.

We have been very blessed to receive two Producers from America, who came to prepare a documentary on the work of Light in Africa.. Mark Anderson and his associate Nina Bouphasavanh were with us for 13 days and had 14 hours of filming when they departed. It is hoped the documentary will be completed just before Xmas.
Among the many things that the team filmed was a �miracle� of how one of our 7 year old children who has the virus fell asleep at school and the teachers thought he was resting, but he was actually unconscious. Mark filmed the nurse in this dramatic life-death situation at the local hospital where his veins had already collapsed�..sorry�. you will have to wait until the documentary is completed before I tell you more, but I will comment that one part of the situation shows me crying in relief as he comes back to us�.. can�t wait to see the completed documentary.

I shall be in the UK from the 19th � 29th November, just a short trip but I am looking forward to meeting all the new University students who will be joining us in 2012 for a �real-life� positive experience�.you are all most warmly welcome.

Be Mightily blessed
mama Lynn

PS: visit our www.lightinafrica.org webpage for an important video impression by Mark & Nina

Changes Continue ....

LIA-Team — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 06:49:02 GMT

So much is happening this month in preparation for the opening of Gideon House in Mirerani � Manyara Region. This will be Light in Africa�s third home for the children in that area� With the help of this years volunteers we have managed to turn a derelict mud building into a home with a kindergarten school�.. We are delighted to have a Regional Official from Babati headquarters who will fulfill the opening ceremony in front of the local district leaders of Mirerani�.The little �tot�s� 24 boys under the age of 6 are already getting excited as their new school uniform is being made and tried on�..the little girls will walk from Fleeze House to the school each day.

We are also very busy preparing for the opening of the Torchbearer Co., Ltd., curio and workshop. Anna and Lucy and Eliazar are already working hard in their brand new workshops. Eliazer repairing the damaged chairs and the ladies making the new school uniforms for the children. Lee Harding is with us from the States, his family adopted one of LIA�s children over 4 years ago now. We also want to congratulate Sammy Walton and her new husband Abe Suleman from Arusha on their wedding nuptials this month, and pray their new family will be bursting with joy and happiness.

Here is a photo of an extremely brave young lady, who was found in a village and brought to us for assessment. She has been brought up by her father for the last 11 years and has had no education at all. Her disability is such that she walks on her knees, she is having a new wheelchair made just like Lucy�s in the workshop which will enable her to get around the site. I think the smile says it all�.

To save on one lorry load of stones for our new Makuti Cottages that our being built for our tourists, we rounded up all the children from the village and Pilgrims House, and had a �fun� day picking up all the stones around the site, I have to say the girls, - even the toddlers � worked extremely hard trying to see who could make the highest mound of stones, the boys at times were found to be taking a �rest� behind the buildings�.mmmm

I thank all of my friends who have been praying for my health as I have had two bouts of illness recently, and I�m now just getting over shingles,

Take care and be abundantly blessed.
Mama Lynn

Just call me Mister Maganga.

LIA-Team — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 18:10:53 GMT

The school bell rang and all of Lighthouse English Medium schoolchildren ran into line.

I sat in the car until they had completed the Tanzanian National Anthem, and the Assembly. When all the children where in their respective classes, I then started the car engine and the day watchman opened the two large gates for me to pass through. With a wave to him I cautiously moved out onto the dirt road�.

As I turned the car into the direction I was going I saw, coming down the middle of the dirt road, a man who looked as if he was in a pretty hopeless situation.His hair was long instead of the usual bald head, that the majority of Tanzania men preferred, his shirt was open to the waist exposing his torso, and his trousers, what was left of them, was just covering the essential parts. He wore no shoes, not even the shower-malapas, or Masai shoes made out of car tyres.
For some unknown reason, I stopped the car, and .... click here to read full story

LIFE IS CHANGE

LIA-Team — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 21:38:47 GMT

Hi Everyone,

The old adage that �life is change� has never been more apparent than in Light in Africa at the present time. Not only do we now have Light in Africa, - The Netherlands, and Germany, but also for our American supporters we now have Light in Africa � USA whereby any donations given, tax relief will be able to be re-claimed.
We thank Correy Schmidt and his father, for arranging all the legalities for Light in Africa to be recognised in the States.

No doubt you will have all seen and heard about the famine and drought that is hitting Africa at the present time, and it was with great despair that our food supply stopped in February, which meant that we had an awful strain on our finances to keep the food kitchen going which for some children in Mirerani it is there only source of food for the day, but in faith, we kept it open, and thanks to our volunteers who purchased maize for our centers and the food kitchen we have managed to weather the storm.
Each day we prepare over 1000 meals. The situation was so serious that I even visited the World Food Program and the Government District Offices, but each said there was no food available. We are so grateful to our friends in the USA and the UK who have stood with us in prayer for the food supply to be re-established. We have heard from our Friends and Families in the USA that we are to receive 990 boxes of food this month � a whole ship container just for LIA which will provide thousands of meals to feed the hungry, This is an awesome response to the many people who have offered up prayers for our desperate situation, words cannot express our gratitude to you all, but God Knows.

We reckon that over the next 5 � 7 years we shall have around 50 children leaving school seeking employment. The academic amongst them will hopefully go on to higher education, but the older children who came into our care with limited education we shall have to find training programs for them to enable them to escape the poverty trap. With this fact in mind, we have initiated a �for profit business� called �The Torchbearer Company Limited. This newly recognised company will be there to support and provide finances for education for our children in our care.
With The Torchbearer Co. Ltd., we will be able to provide hotel management courses, IT, Child Care certificates, dressmaking, floristry, mechanics, welding, tiling, safari and tour operations, all possibilities for life skills for the next generation. At Tudor Village we are once again initiating plans to help our friends with physical disabilities, by providing a venue for them to sell their wares. We thank the students from Canford School in Dorset for the funding to enable us to complete the Curio Shop which will enable THE BAG LADIES to sell there beautiful bags that visitors love to purchase. Eliazer who has lived with us for many years and is severely disabled has now completed his �shoe making� course and will also have a workshop to sell the many fancy �flip flops that volunteers and visitors to our site like to purchase, eventually, when our Torchbearer website is up and running we are hoping to sell these items on-line which will also give skills to our young teenagers in IT and marketing.

�Mama� �mama�,�look at me!� - �mama� �mama� �watch me�! �mama� �see me! �mama� look at this shell, the cries go out and my eyes roam over the twenty children splashing about in the Indian Ocean, For most parents you know your looking at your child�s newest achievements, as they cry out for your attention, but for me it�s much more than that. This week, along with staff, and three volunteers, I have taken 20 of the newest arrivals into care to Tanga which is the nearest point to the coast line, and it has been a real joy to see children who have come from traumatic backgrounds squeal with sheer joy at seeing the sea and the sand for the very first time, and of course they all want me to take notice of there new skills as they first paddled, then went up to there waists in water, and today, 4 days later they are splashing about and learning to snorkel, thanks to my son Marcus. I have to admit, I was still shocked when one of the children who was seriously malnourished and whose mother had left home because there was no food to eat, and the father had disappeared for three days, took off his shirt, and his rib cage showed, an ever present reminder of what I have left behind.

Here are some photos of our happy children. I am back again next week in Tanga with another 20 very well behaved children.

Our prayers are one of thankfulness and gratitude to a loving father who has provided food once again for His mission.
Be abundantly blessed and filled with overflowing joy and excitement with life like our children on holiday this week, Mungu Akurbiriki, mama Lynn

URGENT NEWS = URGENT NEWS = URGENT NEWS

LIA-Team — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 23:32:01 GMT

Hi Everyone,

Well, I�m going to get this absolutely awful news out of the way first, so that I can give you all the other great news thereafter!
The really bad news is that the Tanzanian Immigration Department, has seen fit to increase the volunteering status of a Resident C Permit, for volunteering with all NGO�s from US$120.00 � to a staggering US$500.00 fee.
I�m speechless on this subject, and just cannot �get my head around� the understanding of it�..so I will continue before I get on my �soap box� and say something that I shouldn�t. Please impending volunteers be aware of the new increases.

GREAT � WONDERFUL � AMAZING � ATONISHING � STUNNING BRILLIANT � IMPRESSIVE �SENSTIONAL � BREATHTAKING -
VOLUNTEERS. ( I do hope I haven�t gone too far overboard with this)

But what can I say: the volunteers have just done some absolutely amazing work.

There is always a choice of projects to do for the volunteers and they get to choose what to fund� Our first priority was the electricity� A temporary system had been installed and the electrician told us it could be dangerous (overload) if we didn�t lay underground cables�.thankfully Tom our co-ordinator who did a sponsored bike ride from Lands End to John 0� Groats (approx 1000 miles) has paid for the installation so soon Rosemary�s House will be able to enjoy electricity. �. The groups were seen with pick axes both boys and girls, some with broken nails and blisters on there hands, and I�m sure they all thoroughly enjoyed all that �nice hard work� digging the troughs for the cables to go in, we don�t call it the Hard Labour Week for nothing!!.

Our second priority just had to be Gideons House, the 3rd house for Mirerani as we are receiving children in on a weekly basis now that the famine hits harder. This week it was a 3 year old abandoned little boy, whom the leaders brought to us.
Gideon House will be the home of 24 little boys under 7 yrs, and it will also double up as a kindergarten school for Fleeze House girls�. Here are some shots which I�m sure you will enjoy.

You might have wondered what happens to all of the water bottles that get thrown away. Well not so at Light in Africa, we cut them into two and grow trees from seeds and plants for all of the houses�

I am looking to visit the USA in October � followed by a trip to the UK in November, if anyone would like me to come and talk at any meetings, university, school or church, please email to Joan Coleman for the US Westcoast ( jcoleman harborday org ) or email Lee Harding for the Mid-West ( lahinmg hotmail com ) and use my email account for contacts for the UK. Many thanks.

Our Prayers this month are for all of the �children and adults� who have no food to eat and are seriously malnourished in Africa, you only have to have read my previous blog to see how very serious the situation is in the developing world.
And also, for my dear friend Paul, our webmaster, who took a fall and has broken his elbows and wrist, which I am sure is limiting his keyboard skills, we wish you well.

Be Mightily Blessed, mama Lynn

Volunteering at LIA - Spread the Word

LIA-Team — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 23:38:42 GMT

Volunteerinf at LIA is a very rewarding and moving experience as numerous volunteers have already experienced.

But LIA can always accomodate more and share the daily Tanzania life with friends. You want to go yourself, or you know someone who is interested?
Jake Lyell put together this very compelling movie avout volunteer life at LIA. If this doesn't convince you over....:

Africa Calling from Jake Lyell on Vimeo.

Thanks to Jake and we look forward to hear from you

LIGHT IN AFRICA'S VOLUNTEER CO-ODINATOR SAVES THE LIFE OF A 7 YEAR OLD MAASAI CHILD

LIA-Team — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 19:36:42 GMT

Sophia Mollel was so hungry that she decided to eat a plant that she knew was deadly toxic but with no food in the home to eat she was prepared to take that risk.

Rushed into Calvery Dispensary, in Mirerani, Manyara Region, by her frantic father, she was gasping for breath, as the round yellow ball � like plant lodged in her windpipe. Jake Lyell the International photographer was interviewing Light in Africa�s out-reach dispensary Doctor Richard about the previous day�s dispensary out in the bush, where another child was brought into LIA care who also was suffering from hunger and was severely malnourished.

The plant which no one knows its name, is highly toxic, so much so that even the goats and cows know not to eat it, and as a maasai child Sophia would have been taught not to allow any animals to graze near the plant for fear of losing there lives.

Knowing the maasai father had no money for the child to be taken to the nearest hospital 50 minute drive away, Dr. Minja the Director of Calvery Dispensary, requested the help from mama Lynn to rush the child to the nearest hospital to try to save her life.

With mama Lynn at the time was Tom Dowsett, a medical student from Leeds University who is this years acting co-ordinator for the many volunteers about to arrive at LIA Tudor Village site. He was assisting with the filming and interviews Jake was conducting for a dvd he is producing on the work of Light in Africa, when the child was rushed in.

With instructions from Dr. Richard to keep giving the child cardiac massage, she was placed on mama Lynn�s knee with her head tilted back to allow air to enter her airways, and to enable Tom to continue the massage as the car was driven at high speed like a rally car through police check points along the way�.. Three times the child�s breathing stopped and Tom massaged even harder to bring her back to life. After a journey of 50 minutes to the nearest hospital, the child was rushed into theatre where the offending plant was removed, if it hadn�t had such a hard shell, with all the pressure that was applied it could have split open and the toxins would have been released and spread rapidly through Sophia�s body and she would most certainly have died.

Sophia is one very blessed child for her to have had a dedicated medical student on hand to give her cardiac massage to keep her breathing until the obstruction was removed. She will be discharged from hospital tomorrow, and she will join the many children who are accessing Mirerani�s daily food kitchen which is such a life-line to the area�s vulnerable hungry children�.

The offending toxic plant removed from Sophia's windpipe

Tom who continued with cardiac massage for 50 minutes to save Sophia's life...back on the ward after removal of the object

MAY AND JUNE � THE MONTHS OF CHANGE

LIA-Team — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 22:45:16 GMT

Hello Everyone,

The months of May and June this year have been very interesting to Light in Africa as we have undergone a lot of changes, and new ideas have been put in to practice as our every growing family expands on a weekly basis.

I would very much like to thank our UK sponsors and donors of our children who have had to change bank details as our UK bank account was closed down unexpectedly. We greatly appreciate that this is a tiresome job having to switch bank account; we thank all of our friends who have rallied to the changes and have given there continued support to our children, some of them having sponsored our children for many years. Without your continued support we would not be able to achieve all the programs that we initiate. The �special need�s unit is very costly to operate but we know if we did not take these most vulnerable of children into our care, their chances for survival would probably diminish greatly.

Our dear friend Joan Coleman from the USA has been a sort of conduit connecting various people together for the benefit of our children. So it was with great pleasure we welcomed Bonner Paddock and Dr.Afshin Aminian to our centers which was just a two day visit due to their commitments in America.
Bonner is an extraordinary young man, having been the only person with Cerebral Palsy to have climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, a tortuous journey which was filmed every painful step of the way, and that film has now won awards. Bonner came to see where the new unit for �special need�s children was going to be built, which is being paid for by his NGO One Man One Mission.
Dr. Afshin came along to see what assistance he could provide for our physically challenged children, and I had made arrangements for the ones that we see right out in the bush to come for an examination�. One child, (13 years) will have to undergo 3 major operations, one with an amputation before she will be able to walk, at present she gets around on her knees.

After all the arrangements had been made for the operations to take place in November when Dr.Aminian will bring a team of medical personnel out, we then drove to Mirerani to meet with Dr. Minja and Dr. Richard. Then we drove on to the Food Kitchen to assist with the feeding of the many children arriving for their daily meal.
And then on to visit the children�s homes, where they were surrounded by happy singing children. At Lighthouse, we found leaders of the community waiting for us. They had found an abandoned 7 year old disabled child (it looks around 3 yrs) whose mother had died and the father absconded.
Another older child was covered in Scabies, as her new stepmother refused to allow her to go to the doctors for treatment. What appeared to amaze Bonner was that after 20 minutes we had the little girl in the car and we were on our way to place her in the �special needs� unit�. �I�m amazed how you can just do this� said Bonner, and I replied: �You have to realise that the nearest district office is 200 kilometers away, with no gas station or anything along the dirt road. The Regional Office is a journey of 6 hours, it is very difficult to manage social welfare issues from this area, so local leaders write us a letter, stamp it, and then our Social Worker will visit the police, inform them the child has been abandoned and then they too will make their investigations, but we can�t leave the child or else she may not survive�..
And then it was straight to the airport with these two visitors for a quick �goodbye�. We look forward to renewing our friendship in November when they bring a film crew to film the Light in Africa operations and the new center

I have just been blessed with a 4 day holiday in Zanzibar, by our friends Marilyn and Sue who are our regular volunteers each year. We had a great time, going out to the reef in a cut-out mango tree with out-riders, and snorkelling and swimming with the dolphins, eating freshly caught King prawns and all manor of sea food at the fisherman�s park. It was just a great trip before the summer volunteers from the UK medical Universities arrive in June and July.
Thank you so much ladies, it was a wonderful treat for me�

Warmest wishes,
mama Lynn

Message for UK sponsors, donors & volunteers

LIA-Team — Mon, 23 May 2011 07:34:43 GMT

We have been blessed throughout the past 11 years with very committed supporters from the UK for child sponsorship, donations and volunteering.
Your support has been instrumental to keep our programs running and to expand the much needed care to currently 245 children in Light in Africa�s children�s homes and allowed us to provide additional services and support to thousands through our out-reach programs.

Less than 2 years ago the UK charity offered its support to our programs through sponsorship administration and fundraising. As you are probably aware, Light in Africa does not actively ask for money, but we totally depend on the generosity of those whose heart is touched by the needs and by what we achieve.
By mail the UK charity notified several of you about their decision for a change of course, causing some confusion and creating some administrative challenges for you and us.

Like you we were caught by surprise with the said letter and were not fully prepared on the website to answer all your questions. Meanwhile we have enabled additional options (www.lightinafrica.org) and we will do all we can to respond to any additional question or concern which we encourage you to send to our �donations� email address or directly to mama Lynn�s �africa� email address (@lightinafrica.org).

We are grateful for the many messages we received over the last few days expressing your continued friendship and assistance for our children and program.

Thank You!

Paul

An internet interview with mama Lynn.

LIA-Team — Mon, 23 May 2011 01:30:20 GMT

Last year when I was visiting the USA, I was asked by a journalist who couldn�t come over to interview me if I would consent to being asked some questions via the internet and that I would respond with the answers. I agreed, and when the article actually appeared in the press, it was the most correct article that had ever appeared.

Most days at Tudor Village we have visitors who arrive and want to hear �my story� as to how did it all fall into place, so I have composed this report on the most frequently asked questions that visitors ask me.

Please click here and select 'Frequently Asked Questions' from the menu on our website to read the Question & Answers

LET�S CELEBRATE � CELEBRATE � AS ROSEMARY�S HOUSE HAS BEEN AND KINDERGARTEN SCHOOL HAVE THEIR INAUGURATION DAY.

LIA-Team — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 23:11:04 GMT

The balloons were blown up, the ribbon placed outside the balcony and the plaques were in place, as the children excitedly gathered for this most important celebration of the opening of Rosemary�s House, and the turning of the fist sod of soil for the future kindergarten, cr�che and day care centre.

Pastor Frank gave the opening speech in which he emphasised that this house would no longer be called house no 5 but Rosemary�s House and would be used from the ribbon being cut to-day. He called on the girls and boys of the homes to each sing a praise song, that amazingly within 3 years, 5 homes for the children had been built in Tudor Village.

Roger and Alistair, who were the Executors of Rosemary Harvey�s estate, were with us to give a speech and cut the ribbon. The builder who built the house, handed it over to Upenda, one of our girls who would be living in the house with other older girls, and she went and opened the door, to load cheers from the children.

We then moved on to the land in front of Rosemary�s House, to where the Kindergarten and the Day Care facility will be built. Grace � Light in Africa�s social worker was given a white spade, ( where did that come from I wondered ) with which to turn the first sod of soil. This school and day care facility is hopefully to be built and running by October of this year.

Our deepest appreciation goes to the Estate of Rosemary Harvey, who particularly wanted her funds to benefit the children in the area. To Canford School, in Dorset who also donated funds towards the house build and to Discover Advenure.

The majority of the funding to build the school has come from our dear friends in Malibu whose commitment to Light in Africa and its children are commendable, and
truly outstanding - We are truly blessed to have a pre-school and a congregation who care so much about our childrens� welfare: we salute you.

Social days out for the children living in Mirerani.
As soon as school is out, like many families, we want to spend as much time with our children doing social activities. It just means that with so many children, I and the other staff have to do the same visits over and over again. As we live so close to the National Parks, that and the Snake Park are firm favourites with our children. We tend to take the little �tot�s to Mount Meru game sanctuary as it is an ideal location and so close.
But our very, very best place to visit, is still KIA Lodge, where we spend the day swimming and sunning ourselves, and enjoying their excellent cuisine of sausage and chips!
The older children have enjoyed a visit and an overnight stay at Lake Manyara, so I just thought that I would share some of the animals with you, and some pictures of our children. Hope you enjoy them.

Prayer request
We ask for you to stand with us as we pray for the new baby that is coming into care whose mother has just died.
For the new children who are being transferred to LIA after there homes are being closed down.
For Alan and Godlisten who are going to boarding school in Arusha, we pray that they will soon settle into the school activities.
For Alan�s hearing problems, we need 6 month�s without infection to enable him to have surgery on his perforated eardrums.
And for the continued well-being of Kim.

Bless you all Abundantly.
Mama Lynn

Updates from Tanzania and other important news

LIA-Team — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 22:13:11 GMT

Hi Everyone

So many things have happened since my last blog. I will start with an update about Kim, the maasai boy who doctor's diagnosed with cancer.
Thank you for your prayers for this child I am so happy to tell you that Kims swollen face and limbs are now reducing in size as the strong medication he is taking improves his health each day. He is now attending kindergarten school, and loving it. From a child who just sat all day long, not doing anything for himself, he has now learnt to tie his shoe laces, and take his plate away, which was a real culture shock that he had to learn to do things for himself.

Some more wonderful news! We have been very blessed to hear that this year we shall have built on our Tudor site, a new kindergarten school for our little toddlers. This will be a wonderful learning environment for them to start to learn their ABC's. This building is courtesy of our dear friends in Malibu, and we are very gratefull for the years of support and encouragement that they have given to us by their prayers and their love to our children through the PayPal option.

We see the amazing work of God's hand on our mission each day.... and we are just so blessed, through our dear friend Joan,in the USA, to have been put in contact with an amazing man who has an NGO called ONE MAN ONE MISSION. Bonner Paddock has cerebal palsy, like so many of our children in our disability unit, but Bonner has risen above all the hardships and actually climbed Mount Kilimanjaro! He was so indebted to the many porters who helped his with this amazing achievement that he promised that he would build a disablement center and name it after each one of the porters who got him to the top of the roof of Africa.

Bonners organisation is going to build us a special disability unit this year for our children. And he get's to choose the name of the house when it is built. I get to meet Bonner and his medical team in May where we will arrange for many children to have a diagnoses taken for operations to be conducted in September of this year. I am so looking forward to meeting this amazing and inspiring young man.

IS GOD USING A75 YEAR OLD PASTOR TO HEAL PEOPLE WITH HIV/AIDS AND CANCER?

Well if over 50,000 people from around the world are to be believed, it could well be true. A Pastor living around 5 hours away from Boma, claims that God told him to go to a spring, take some water, add some bark from a tree, pray for people and they will be healed.... Many reports are coming out that this is the 'true' thing as the locals put it. We have even been asked by relatives of the children in our care suffering from HIV/AIDS to take them to him and drink his 'juice'.
What I like about this pastor is his integrity. He is only charging, 500tz (around) 50 cents, and people cannot push in or buy themselves in to see him, everyone has to wait four to five days, it doesnt matter if you have flown in in a helicopter': he makes people wait. One man who had HIV/AIDS drank his 'juice' and then went to 3 different dispensaries to have a blood check and each blood draw proved negative. He was so delighted with the cure, that he went out and bought the Pastor a new landrover, but when he gave him the keys, he handed them back saying 'give the vehicle to someone who needs it'
I personally have never heard of anything like that happeneing here in Tanzania, for me if nothing else, this man has integrity..

And finally, we have re-structured LIA here in Tanzania, and big changes are afoot, so if anyone wants to volunteer or requires other information, send us an email to africa@lightinafrica.org or visit our website at www.lightinafrica.org.

PRAYER REQUESTS.

For the continued recovery of Kim.
For all the hungry vulnerable children in this country, that food will be found to feed them all.
For the local government to give us land to build a Primary School, a Maternity Health Center, (where 60% of the women are dying in childbirth)
For a training center to give life-skills to the youth who are working down the mines
For the continued well-being of all the children in our care, and for funds to be made available to cover their school fees.

Dear Lord we place these requests upon your heart.

Mungu Akerbiriki
mama Lynn

Video footage - Tudor village visit

LIA-Team — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 20:48:17 GMT

This is a video which was taken by George Namkung when he visited Mama Lynn in August 2010. Bonner Paddock has posted this video to show board members (One Man, One Mission Foundation, OMF) and supporters why he is recommending a building for the disabled children at Light in Africa.

Video courtesy of Kids of Kilimanjaro

Update & Prayer

LIA-Team — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 10:15:47 GMT

Hi Everyone,

Sorry for all that cold weather and discomfort you have had to put up with, whilst over here the temperatures are soaring as we approach the 'rainy' season in March. So far we are experiencing a lot of drought, which makes us anxious to see these rains arrive (not in the least to keep the electricity supply up to power this laptop so I can write you these updates).

Lot's of things have happened since the New Year began, and I will start the blog with just a
roundup of what�s happening over here.

Firstly, our third home in the Manyara Region is now well underway, with the toilet and shower block completed - the carers and teachers accommodation now being built and the bedrooms being painted, it's just as well, as we have been asked by the local authority to take in a further 15 children! They start to arrive next week.
Tudor Village is still receiving many visitors to the site, yesterday, it was a party of Child Protection Officers from UNICEF, and a couple of weeks ago I'm told a group of 'firemen' from the UK after climbing the mountain just 'popped in' before going to the airport. The children love meeting all these new faces, and are very interactive. Perhaps this is why everyone of our children who have taken the primary school exams have passed to go to secondary school, and all of LIA children take first to 5th place in government school exams.

We have had a request from a couple from the USA that we should include on the blog a small item of prayer requests as many people around the world are praying for our mission, but in a general tone, so why not put 'specific' prayer requests on. I think this is a great idea! so at the end I will add the items which we would like you to stand with us in our prayers. Thank You.

And now I would like to write about how amazing LIA volunteers are, and how a young maasai boy of 7 years of age was saved from an uncertain future.

All 600 parcels consisting of school exercise books, pens, pencils, eraser and sweets, had been placed in the Landrover that was to take our party of volunteers to our first distribution point, which was a maasai school in a remote area. As we approached we could see all the children jumping up for joy at our approach, and as we descended from the vehicle the singing began.
'We love you' - we love you - we love you....followed by a repertoire of English songs that our volunteers had taught them. After each child received there 'Christmas cracker' which was Eva from Germany main project, I held an impromptu seminar with the maasai morans about FGM - and other issues, (I'm never one to miss an opportunity, to speak about this horrendous mutilation of young girls, next week I'm in the schools,) and then I noticed a maasai mama who I new from when the previous year she gave me her child to care for who was starving, (Danny) he is now a beautiful child, so I was not surprised that she asked me once again to visit her boma... I thought that this would be a great experience for our volunteers to actually visit a maasai encampment and see inside her boma (round house). We walked over and the family was so poor they didn�t even have an oil drum for us to
sit upon, so she quickly sent runners to her neighbours to bring whatever was available for her honoured guests. When we were all seated, she then brought out a beautiful beaded cross for me and placed it around my neck, she then brought out bracelets and other gifts for the volunteers, after that she brought out a child for us to look at, and we were visibly shocked at the condition of the child

He looked to be about six or seven years, and his face was terribly swollen on either side and he had open soars at the side of his face.
Mama then disappeared into her boma again and brought out papers for me to read... I found it hard to digest the paper work. So I asked some questions about when was the last time the child had was seen by a doctor? 12 months ago, and the referral letter to Ocean Road,
Cancer Center in Dar es Salaam confirmed it. The letter stated that the child appeared to be suffering from leukaemia, cancer.
We then heard the story that the father had sold all 5 cows that he owned for hospital treatment which had included 3 months in one hospital and two visits to another hospital...... Tony a volunteer from USA was clearly upset, and asked me what I could do.....
I decided I would put everyone in the Landrover and go visit my trusted Dr. Minja.

He examined the child and I asked him if he would give me a referral letter to go to Nairobi Hospital in Kenya, he agreed, and with some funding donated, I took the child, the mother, Allan (who has a hearing problem) to the hospital where Kim had many tests done, including an extraction from his face of some of the contents. Five days later, I receive a call from Dr.Bessie Byakika, Chief of Pathology to go and collect the test results...... I gingerly opened the letter, and let out a scream of delight, NO CANCER WAS FOUND, the child has a treatable infection, which with drugs will make him well again. The infection had ravaged his little body due to no medication being given. Praise God - Hallelujay......

Our sincere thanks go to the staff of Nairobi Hospital, Dr. Lavinia, Dr. Byakika and the consultant at Doctors Plaza who gave him the all-clear, we are deeply grateful to you all for your - above and beyond the call of duty, to help this little boy. As the consultant said, " this child has put up an amazing fight to survive, now it is our turn to help him live a normal life.....

Tony, Paul, Lily, Eva, and the friends of Ron and Sue, we salute you, in helping to save a chld's life.......

Prayer Request suggestion made by Tim and Christy from USA

We ask for you to stand in prayer for the continued recovery of KIM, which will take at least 6 months for the infection to be eradicated from his little body.

For all the new children coming into care this next week, we appreciate it is a difficult time for them, leaving behind what they have only known, so we ask for peace in this time of transition.

We pray for our new Officer in Charge for Kilimanjaro Region, Margaret Maina, who is leaving Singeda to join us at Tudor Village, we pray that her move with her husband and family will go with ease, and that her children will enjoy there new school that they will attend.

We pray for LIA finances, knowing that God is our Provider, and we look to God to inspire hearts to keep our outreach programs running, and for school fee's to be made on time....

We pray for all of our family, friends, and supporter, where ever they may be, that they will know great peace and happiness in their lives.

Warmest wishes, mama Lynn

New Year wishes from Tanzania

LIA-Team — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 15:05:01 GMT

Hello everyone, Abundant Blessings for the New Year.

Our children had a most wonderful Christmas thanks to our donors and supporters of Light in Africa. A special thanks to the people who put all the shoeboxes together and who airfreighted the pallets over in time.

Please remember, you cannot give acts of kindness away, they just keep coming back to you.

Our volunteers, Eva, Tony, Lily and Paul, did a remarkable job of ensuring 600 vulnerable children received school books /pens/pencils/eraser/ and pencil sharpener plus two lollies all wrapped to look like a Christmas cracker, and it was whilst we were distributing the first 200 to a maasai school that I was asked by a maasai mama to visit her home where she had a gift for us.

The home was made of mud and stick, there was no chairs for us to sit on, so neighbours were asked to provide a chair for us, and then mama brought out a 7yr old little boy. His neck was full of weeping soars, and I deduced that the witchdoctors had perhaps put a cut in his neck to allow the bad spirit out.
We made the decision that, before we had lunch, we would take him to see our local doctor whom we work with. He examined the child, was shown a referral letter dated one year previous, and concluded this little mite, had cancer as his lymph nodes were full of it. We already had his little brother in our care, we managed to get to him before he died in last years� famine.
After further investigation we find that the child was first diagnosed with TB, and spent 2 months in hospital, after that he was transferred to another hospital where he spent a further 3 months, he was then discharged to go to a cancer treatment center. But you see, the father had already sold his only 5 cows that he had, to pay for the medical treatment, so there was no further help for the child. I am looking to take the child to a hospital in Nairobi to get a full diagnosis. I will keep you all posted. Prayer support would be most helpful for this child thank you.

And now a special mention about one of our students who attends our local school. She has done amazingly well beating all the odds to come top of her year. Hadja has very poor eyesight due to her albinism, so it is very difficult for her to see the blackboard. But congratulations! She made it! Also Tanzania has its very first Albino MP.

And last week we took another small little girl into care. Since birth she has been locked away in her mother's bedroom, with curtain drawn to evade being an object of stigmatisation. But some bad people tried to knock the door down to try to find the child, but she was hidden under a bed, that was when the mother made the decision to bring her into the care of Light in Africa.

We can proudly say that we now have 12 children who have passed to go to Secondary boarding school, and it has been Light in Africa's children who have taken 1st place in all of the government school exams. I guess we must be doing something right, I think they call it prayer.

A New Year, new challenges in helping the children and adults in this deprived country. But without the help of you kind people who are touched to help us 'make a difference' we could not achieve so much.

From Africa, we bless you, and thank you for your continued support of these vulnerable children.

Warmest wishes,
mama Lynn

About African Wildlife

LIA-Team — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 10:18:01 GMT

I never really understood about the behaviour of the animals until this compilation revealed the true story (thanks to Lee)

http://www.wimp.com/animalvoiceovers/

Enjoy!