February 2, 2025

Our church is lively, it’s loud and fun and most Sundays we are completely outnumbered by babies! Yesterday at Neema church on campus after all the babies had returned to their homes and the soccer kids had herded out to eat at the picnic tables and the MAP moms and nannies had finished one last song, the building was finally emptied and quiet… except one.

There was still one baby left.

It took a while for Kim and Kelle to piece it all back together and finally the guards and cameras we had installed to protect the babies told the story.

This Sunday one of our ex-MAP moms with her special needs baby, Nadri, had visited Neema church. At some point she left the building to go to the bathroom at the school across the courtyard, but instead walked out the gate and left the church. After searching, the Mom was found and brought to the office to see why she had left the baby.

She had been one of our MAP moms who finished our program a few years back and we had set her up in a used clothing business. At first, she did well but Nadri had special needs and was sick often and in the hospital. This year the hospital took all her profits. She had been able to pay her last year’s rent, but this year when rent was due for the year she was broke. The landlord locked the house with all her property and she had nowhere to go. So, she came back to Neema Village.

In the office Kim and Kelle listened to the sad story that we have heard so many times. Family, husbands, society abandons the mom with a handicap baby, she might be cursed. We have heard it so often it grips my gut, you know that feeling of mad and frustrated and helpless and angry and you just want to yell at somebody?

Tonight, little Nadri slept with a full tummy in the Hallelujah house for special needs babies at Neema. Mom left but will return Monday to visit with Angel and Anna to see how Neema can best help.

We’ve had babies left in latrines, on the sides of roads, on a bench in the bus station, under a bush, anywhere a desperate mom reaches the point where she feels her baby will be better off anywhere but with her.  This was our first left at church. It was better than most.

Doreen, with the big smile above, one of our MAP moms with her little guy and a new stroller.

We have been trying to provide strollers for our bigger special needs babies. It is hard for the moms to carry these big babies on their backs.

We have also talked with Dr. Sarun about starting a support group for moms with special needs babies. They need to know they are not alone.

Bless those of you who have helped buy strollers for our MAP moms.

Love,

Bibi and Babu

January 30, 2025

Our ski sloping, thrill seeking, falling off the side of a mountain, broken ankle treasurer, Sarah Lockett has some important information about your donation and tax receipts, I know you will not want to miss.

(Is she going to be mad I posted this picture!! Oh Yeah!)

A note from the Treasurer-

First of all, Let me thank you on behalf of the board of directors for your love and support of the work done at Neema Village! We are happy to report that again in 2024, USA Administrative Expenses are less than 5% of all expenses.

(Below is Kathy Strong, one of the Neema board of Directors with Donna and two of our current 67 babies wearing hats knitted by women from Nacogdoches, Texas. All fourteen of our board members have been to Neema Village and have seen the work first hand.)

Sarah writes:

2024 donation receipts have now been sent via US Postal Service or email! However, there were several emails returned as “undeliverable” so please contact the Neema Village Finance email at neemavillageinc@neemavillage.org if your email has been changed within the past year. If USPS has not delivered your donation letter by 2/1/25, please email us so we will be able to send it to you via email.

Did you know that there are ways to double your donation through participating company matching funds? Neema Village has received matching funds from Boeing, Chevron, GlaxoSmithKline, Halliburton, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, Phillips 66, and Shell Oil. Neema Village is registered through Cyber Grants, Thrivent Choice, Celenese Foundation, Frontstream, NPO Connect, Network for Good, Fidelity Charitable, Bright Funds, Benevity Giving Fund, and First Giving through which companies send matching funds.

Neema Village is also registered with PayPal Giving Fund who process donations from FaceBook and GoFundMe fundraising set up with Neema Village as the charity to receive these funds. PayPal Giving Fund is the nonprofit that sends the donation tax receipt to those donors via email at the time of the donation so please save that for your personal records!

Occasionally, non-USA donors do have difficulty using the website donate button. You may send funds via regular PayPal but please cc the USA financial team when the volunteer coordinator or Neema directors are emailed in Tanzania.

You may also donate securities in the form of stock to Neema Village. If you would like information regarding this or other Qualified Charitable Distributions, please contact me at the financial email. Your financial advisor will need account detail for how to make these gifts to Neema.

The finance team is located in the USA and the directors of Neema Village are extremely busy overseeing the day-to-day activities at Neema Village in Tanzania. Between a 9-hour time difference and the logistics of a ministry that spans 2 continents, it would be most helpful to include the Neema Finance email when making pledge donations or any other donations that would need to be recorded a specific way in the financial records.

Thank You,

Sarah Lockett, Treasurer

neemavillageinc@neemavillage.org

We love our volunteers who come to hold the babies. This group of teenagers were from Trinity Christian School in Lubbock, Texas.

From all of us at Neema Village,

Thank You!!

January 25, 2025

“Isn’t anybody doing something about this?”

That was the frustrated cry of one of our Facebook readers this month.

Baby Joshua Trinity was brought in after his mom died in the car during labor trying to get to town from a remote Maasai Village. One more baby who will never know his mom.

Baby Mohammed’s mom was also young when she died this month. The young father worked day labor when he could find it and said he could not take care of a new baby so he brought the baby to Neema Village.

We had just posted the second baby whose mom had died when we read that heartfelt cry of one of our readers, “Isn’t Somebody doing something about this!”

Yes! Somebody is doing something about this! Neema Village is! Our GIFT program “Girls Informed For Tomorrow” was designed to help stem the heartbreaking numbers of young women dying in childbirth out in Maasai villages. Many of these young girls marry as early as 12 or 13 and try to have their first baby at 14 or 15 years old. We teach them their hips are not big enough to have a baby until age 18.

Four times a year we take volunteers and directors out to Maasai villages for our Gift program speaking to young girls about not getting married too young and not having babies too young (which kills many of these moms) and about their bodies, about AIDs and FGM and about how to stay in school.

One woman every 2 minutes dies of complication of pregnancy and 99% of those are in developing countries. Tanzania is one of the ten countries with the highest maternal death rates.

This month we took the Trinity Christian School group of volunteers to help our staff with the GIFT program in one of the Maasai secondary schools. There were about 150 girls who took part in the fun day.

Three of our Neema Directors, Angel, Anna and Priscilla teach our Gift program and we also took Dr. Teddy a pediatrician, Heavenlight our volunteer coordinator and Grace our Bible Class teacher and counselor. We had to rent Safari cars to get them all out to the village.

At the end of the day the girls each received a colorful bag to keep their feminine products in which they can take to school. It is a great way to keep these girls in school.

The GIFT program cost Neema Village 2,138,600 TSH or about $807. USD for each program.

About half of our 450 babies came to Neema Village because their moms died in childbirth out in the villages. Traditional birthers (Bibis or Grandmothers) deliver those babies and we know they need help. Every month we bring twelve different grandmothers to Neema Village for a week of training, called “Save The Mothers.” The first thing we teach them is try to bring the mother in to the hospital. But many women do not want to come in, they say more women die in the hospitals. Probably because they wait until they are in trouble to bring them in.

The January 2025 session brought the total to over 600 traditional birthers who have come for a week of training at Neema Village. The birthers are taught how to handle the four main problems that kill women and babies; FGM (scar tissue does not stretch), retained placenta, stuck babies, and First AID procedures. Along with lessons on AIDs, healthy nutrition and bible classes each morning, it makes for a pretty full week for these grandmothers, most of whom have never gone to school or stayed in a house with electric lights and bathrooms. We cover the floor with mattresses, it’s a week long grandmother sleep over!

This session was one of our best when many of the birthers stated they had not known they were killing their young women with FGM and would never do that again. Thank God!

After the program was over three of the grandmothers wanted to be baptized. That is always a great day!

So, with our GIFT program teaching young girls to wait and our safe birthing program with older women we are trying to slow down the high maternal death rate in Tanzania. But we cannot do it alone.

Our Save The Mothers week each month cost around $4,000 USD. Shocking isn’t it!

If you can’t help, please pray, You know we are all volunteers at Neema Village and it is hard. The long trips back and forth are hard, being away from our families is hard and trying to change a culture is hard. Just please pray. Pray for Kim and Kelle as they try to direct Neema into the next year. Pray with sweet little boy Nasiri whose mom is a young school girl and the third wife of a man who doesn’t care for her. From birth complications Nasiri cannot walk but he is so very smart. He needs our prayers too.

Love you guys,

dorris and michael

www.neemavillage.org

January 12, 2025

The big girls are back at boarding school today. For a baby home with 67 babies it is amazingly quiet, and I am finally sitting down to write my first News From Neema for 2025.

“Sweet as Sugar Pie” is our big school girls reading to the Neema babies.

Neema’s seven big girls were in from boarding school for almost 6 weeks of Christmas break. They road their bikes, took computer classes, had swimming lessons, helped with the house work in Hallelujah house and played and read to the babies. Oh and a good amount of cartoon watching which we call learning English here.

Meshack, Neema’s second baby pictured with his grandmother, makes straight A’s and is number one in his class. He wants to be a doctor and he got to make baby rounds with Dr. Sarun on his Christmas break. Meshack lost his mom in childbirth and fosters with one of our MAP moms.

This month Neema Village paid school fees for forty three school kids for 2025.

Average school fees are $520. USD

Our last baby of the year, little Mo came to Neema on the fifteenth of December, he weighed 2.28 kg. His mom died in childbirth.

With this baby Neema is at 67 babies currently in house.

Here is our totals for the baby program for 2024:

Forty One new Babies in 2024,

Twenty Three babies were reunited with family and

Six babies were adopted in 2024.

We Praise God for this precious work!

Regina, one of our sweetest moms, lives in our MAP houses today. Her husband, a soldier, left her because their first child is a special needs baby. Regina is a leader in our MAP program, helping new moms, singing at church and attending the nightly bible classes. Many of these women have been abused and kicked out of their homes and some were living on the streets when Neema was called to help.

Neema offers daily classes, sewing, bible, computer, reading and writing, English and group therapy.

In 2024 thirty five moms lived in the MAP moms housing on Neema campus.

In 2024 Seventeen new businesses were started for these women,

Three businesses were boosted to become more successful and

Over 300 classes were taught in the Preslar Mothering Center on campus. Twelve monthly Women’s Rights courses were taught with an average of 40 women attending each session.

Fifteen MAP moms accepted Jesus in 2024 and

Twenty Three women learned to sew.

We Love This Program!! Thank you for supporting these Lion Hearted women!

The average business start up is around $600. USD.

Because many babies are born with special needs here, the mother and child often are considered cursed and men abandon their families leaving the women and children destitute. Neema began a Rehabilitative free daycare for these special needs babies. It is one of our sweetest programs and I always cry when I go for their music class.

In 2024 the total number of babies who attended the Rehab Center was 32 children.

Seven children graduated out of the program when their needs were met.

Eight children are being cared for through our Outreach program.

One Hydrocephalus baby passed away this year.

Today 16 children are enrolled in the daily rehab program on campus.

Many of our babies are from remote Maasai villages and are brought to us when their moms die in childbirth. Women die at high rates during childbirth, making it one of the most dangerous things a woman can do here.

This year 144 grandmothers (Bibis) who deliver babies out in the Maasai villages came to Neema for a week of Safe Birthing. We have a midwife and a midwife in training teaching the classes, and are assisted by our nurse and doctors on staff.

Over 600 women have gone through this program saving the lives of women and babies in their villages. After a few months Ester goes out with Dr. Sarun to check on the midwives and see what troubles they might be having, how many babies they have delivered and how many moms they have lost. We are making a difference.

Our last group of volunteers of 2024 were with Aggies For Christ from A & M University in Texas.

Two Hundred and Fourteen volunteers from different countries around the world came to Neema to hold and love the babies, share their faith with the MAP moms and learn about a different culture in 2024. Volunteering changes lives, just ask Babu Michael who came to Africa in 1963 as a volunteer.

Neema Village drilled 8 water wells in 2024. We hope to drill many more in 2025! We were given the drilling rig from Nacogdoches, Texas and we do not charge for drilling the wells. We set the wells up with solar panels and to do one well cost about $7,000. USD.

We began playing soccer on our new field this year! The Waymakers Women’s team (our nannies) are pretty fierce. Thank you to Paul Pape, Shanna Kurts, The North Bound Foundation and Madeleine Bloom who fulfilled this dream of her young husband Michael after his sudden passing.

Girls who play soccer are abused less and make more money. Who knew!

The home for the 35 little orphan girls out in Maasailand was build by Montana friends and finished in 2024. I love the color, don’t you!

I’m sure there is more we could tell you about the year 2024 but our job now is to look forward to that next baby and next mom in 2025. You’ve been awesome to help and we Thank God for you!

Love,

Michael and Dorris

www.neemavillage.org

December 17, 2024

Do you remember the sad story of Namayani, the little seven year old Maasai girl whose dress caught on fire from the cook stones in the floor of her hut? Would you believe we have such a happy ending to that story!

When we first saw her we were shocked that Namayani had even survived the horrible burns over most of her body including her chest. Fortunately it left her smile.

Look at Lamayani now! We are so excited for her. After almost two years at Neema Village, as a leader in our MAP program, she has grown both in beauty and sweetness and into a Christian walk with Jesus.

Even with scarred hands and one finger burned off she has become quite a good little seamstress.

We love to watch God work in the lives of these young women who come in with such tragic stories. We can see the changes almost daily as they live and learn in the Preslar Mothering Center. A few months ago Michael had the joy of baptizing Namayani into Jesus.

When Namayani first came to Neema Village she had a surprise hidden in the wet rags in her lap. Baby Moses, not able to nurse from her burned breasts was starving. It has not taken him long to become a big boy, getting into everything and running all around the MAP center. We will miss this energetic little man.

Today Namayani and Moses left to begin their new lives. They were loaded with fabric, a mannequin, a treadle sewing machine, clothes, household items and everything she will need to support herself and Moses with her new MAP business. Teacher Grace, MAP Mom Regina and the other MAP moms were out to see them off. One of those sad/happy moments.

Last night we had a prayer that God would go with Namayani and Bless and keep her. She has completed all the classes we offer including the computer classes. She also did an internship with one of our other successful businesses to learn the bookkeeping end of running a shop. She has found a house to rent in her village and a little shop where she can set up her business.

She is confident and ready.

Neema Village will help her with rent and support for six months in a small shop much like these little shops at Joshua’s village. To set up her business it will cost $792. You probably could not invest in a better business for lasting good in the world. We all have so much to buy at Christmas so do not fret if you cannot help. Just pray that others can!

Christmas Blessings from around the world.

dorris and michael

If you can, send a check to: Neema Village, PO Box 21553, Waco, TX 76702 or use our Tithely program at www.neemavillage.org. Put MAP business on the memo line.

December 9, 2024

As I step out my door every morning, the view almost takes my breath away.

I am simply astounded at the beauty of Neema Village.

Not just at the verdant green of the grass and morning songs of the weaver birds in the trees but at the purpose of it all. We are here to save babies and mothers. Can it get any better than this?

As one of our recent volunteers said, “I would rather hear the laughter of these happy children and watch them as they swing or ride their bikes round and round than most anything in the world.” Me too, Wade Morris.

It amazes me that we get to do this! Michael and I are 81 years old, God has been faithful all these years, we have not always been. Mine has been rather a roller coaster ride of faith most of the time but thank God I married a man of solid rock faith who never wavers from the path.

These years at Neema are our time of giving back to a Faithful God who has never left us even though we have wandered. We have had people who have asked to support us personally and we have always refused. We have all we need in our retirement; it is fun to think of this time of such great beauty as a time of giving back.

As we look toward the baby home where more than 450 abandoned and orphaned babies have come and gone on to forever families, we cannot but shout “Hallelujah!” Hallel meaning “Boasting in”and Jah for Jahweh. Hallel Jahweh!

God is so purposeful and glorious at Neema Village we just have to boast a bit about Him!

Would you believe this is how the property looked when we first pulled that old red Prado onto the ten acres of pristine goat pasture?

Neighborhood boys were playing soccer on a cleared off dirt field with a rolled ball of plastic bags and string.  Today they still come every Saturday morning to play soccer in just about the same spot on our paved driveway while we wait for the grass to grow on their new soccer field.

We have a pretty fierce girl’s soccer team now too because girls who play soccer are abused less and will make more money.

Is this a road or a cow path?

We went out to a dry and thirsty land on Friday to check on a new water well. This was our road.  It brought me back to remember that most of Africa in contrast is starved for water and the land is dry and cracked.

You gotta wonder what those cows are eating!

We love to give out water and candy or sandwiches when we have them to the little boys who spend their lives guarding the family cows.

Thank you to the incredible people in Nacogdoches, Texas who gave us the water well rig. Every day now it is busy turning dusty Maasai land into rows of healthy food for mothers and babies. Can you just imagine what their day will be like when they do not have to haul buckets of water from miles away?

They will have time to think of better ways to grow healthy crops for their babies, maybe even time to dream of someday owning a small business and sending their kids to school. Great things can happen when they have water! (Neema’s vegetable haul last week.)

Christmas is coming and I wish you could have seen our nannies and their talent show at payday. I tell folks, “Don’t mess with our nannies!” You will get a kick out of the cute video below of our nannies singing to the babies.

We have gotten some money in for the Nanny Christmas bonuses but not nearly enough. Help if you can. If you can’t pray that others who can will have open hearts.

Great Blessings of Joy and Peace in this Christmas Season.

michael and dorris

www.neemavillage.org

November 24, 2024

Have you ever just wanted to chunk it all, move somewhere where you could grow your own vegetables, milk some cows, learn another culture, watch neighborhood soccer games from the front porch, hold an abandoned baby in your arms and know that he is safe now, or just sit and talk with kids about Jesus loving them so much he gave up everything to come be with them and then watch as women who were so lost finally get it that God has never lost them… Yeah, me too.

We love America, our kids, our family here, God’s incredible people, hamburgers, Cracker Barrel breakfasts…we love it all but Africa stole a big hunk of our hearts many years ago and it is hard walking around with half a heart!  It’s time to head home to Africa.

Kim tells us thirteen new babies came to Neema Village during the two and half months we have been in the States. It’s time for us to meet them. Newest baby Happy is getting a sweet welcome kiss from Nanny Mwajuma.

With 72 babies in house Kim has had to do some fancy nanny shuffling, scheduling overtime and sharing beds for babies.

Nanny Gertrude was Kangarooing a baby in the NICU unit at Neema above.

We have never had trouble finding a nanny who would strap a baby on under her t-shirt or on her back and go on about her job! Remember this little guy! He is such a big boy now thanks to Neema Nannies like Glory. .

Well, it is time to think of Nanny Christmas bonuses! Before we fly out tomorrow let me say that we try to give our staff a Christmas bonus every year. If you can help with that it would be wonderful and they will so much appreciate that.

For a country where the average family lives on less than 100 dollars a month a Christmas bonus makes all the difference in whether they will have a Christmas for their own families or not.

Four of our Directors appreciate the Christmas bonus too, right Angel, Mama Musa, Priscilla and Anna!

You can reach us in a couple of days at our Happy place. If you need me I can lay the baby down and answer. Just give me a call!

Thank You and Great Blessings of Thankfulness!!

dorris and michael

[email protected]

November 8, 2024

Usually I write sweet, “we saved another baby today” blogs but every once in a while, we just need to talk about what we actually deal with on an almost daily basis in Africa.

A few nights ago, a woman appeared at our gate and the guards called Kim to help. The mother of five children, a close neighbor to Neema Village had been beaten and punched in her pregnant belly. She was bruised, crying and begging for help from her abusive husband who was threatening to kill her with a machete.

It appears he was mad because she had washed all his clothes but forgot 2 shirts. So, she needed a beating. A man close by heard her screaming and went to help and the enraged husband in the fight cut off the neighbor’s toe.

The mother went to the police but they said instead she should go to the local village leader who told her to go back home to her husband. The police were no help so she came to the Neema gate and Kim said she could spend the night, safe at the MAP house.

But the guard on duty said that their culture says she has to return to her husband. Kim called another neighbor who is also a leader in the community and he and his wife came over to talk. Kim was informed that she could not shelter the woman, that would be kidnapping, and that the woman had to return to her husband. But the women continued to cry and beg and stressed that her husband said he would kill her. It appears that the village people had become upset that Neema was taking this woman away from her husband.

Kim said, Let’s send the woman to the hospital for the night or she can stay with the neighbor and his wife, which she did.

The husband can be prosecuted for cutting off the neighbor’s toe but not for beating his wife.

Does this make you as mad as it does me! My red hair flares up at this!

In a country where sometimes women are treated little better than the family donkey the precious love of Jesus is about all that will change the hearts of men like this.

This week in one of the monthly meetings with our village committee one of the men stated, “Well occasionally women just need a good beating!”

There are a lot of things we have to accept to live in Africa but we will never accept this!

This morning the mother of five is back with her husband and Neema Village is doing the first Thursday of every month “Women’s Rights” Conference.  I hope she is there. God help us.

Michael and Dorris Fortson

November 4, 2024

We are often asked “How can I help” at Neema Village. When a lady from Montana heard about a way to help, it was amazing what she did. You will love this story.

When I am asked “How can we help” Ummm….I never know where to start since the needs are always so great here.

The UN 2023 list of the world’s poorest countries lists Tanzania with an average family income of less than $85 dollars a month! A month! Can you imagine. The needs and requests at Neema can get almost over whelming sometimes.

Two years ago we went out to Maasai Land for a medical mission. On the way home we met some little girls in a very poor orphanage who were being farmed out at night in sleep overs where ten or twelve people were already sleeping on mats on the floor. It broke our hearts and we knew the 32 little girls needed some desperate help.

When a volunteer from Montana heard of their plight she asked how can I help? She said, “I have some great friends and family and God is bigger than this problem. Together we can build a home for the girls!”

There was no electricity or water at the building site so Neema had to take care of those two problems first.

Today The Glory Home for girls is nearly finished and these excited girls can hardly believe they now have a home with a house mom who will live with them in their new home. For over a year a weekly food delivery has been going out to the girls from one of Neema’s directors.

Last month beds, mattresses, sheets and pillows were delivered for the new home. I wish you could hear them sing when the delivery trucks pull up. The little girls now have a home, a place to study, food in their tummies and they will be safe in their own beds at night. All because someone asked, How can I help?

One way you could help is put these two cute YouTube videos on your phone and show your friends some of Neema Village’s work with the babies and the Mothers programs.

It’s the end of the year and you may be asking will I give more to the government in taxes this year or can I help a good non profit like Neema Village? Fortunately when you ask this time I am ready.

I made a list!

Don’t let it scare you, we have some pretty big dreams for Neema Village.

2024-2025 Projects You Can Help Fund:

1. One new MAP mom apartment $6,000.
2. Drill One Water Well  $7,000.
3. One Men’s Seminar (4 per year) $4,000.
4. One Computer  $600.
5. One Treadle Sewing Machine $350.
6. Internet for one month $528.
7. Utilities for one Month (lights, power) $2,343.
8. Weekly Shopping (soaps, diapers, food etc.) $2,641.
9. Formula for one month (average) $3,000
10. Portable Ultrasound (diagnose pneumonia) $4,000
11. Petrol at $5 per gallon, one month $4,231.
12. Fully Sponsor a baby one month $300.
13. Partial Sponsor a baby for 1 month $30.
14. Yearly School Fees one Child (49 kids ) $450.
15. Average Mom’s business set up $600.
16. Average Monthly Medical expenses $5,489.
17. Safe Birthing (1 Month Program) $4,000.
18. A Food Drop to a Maasai Village $4,000.
19. Build 3 Picnic tables (one) $150.
20. Build trade School for Men est. $400,000.
21. Spiritual activities, bibles, trips, etc.$1,500
22. Auto repairs average monthly $3,000.
23. One Month Salary for Staff $18,867.

Paul said in Ephesians 3:21 God can do more than you can dream. We are pretty big dreamers but we can’t out dream God.

As you think about how the government spends your money please ask, “How Can I Help Neema Village?”

I think you will be glad you did.

Dorris and Michael

www.neemavillage.org

(you can also help by taking the list to your church with the videos)

October 28, 2024

Angel tells us ten new babies have come to Neema Village since we left six weeks ago; Raphael, Glory, Wade, Merritt, Nosim, the twins Anuari and Amania, Clent, Elizabeth and Amyra. With 72 babies in the house today I’m sure it is loud, messy and wonderful!

To care for these babies there are 101 full time employees (I could hyper-ventilate just typing that!) working 24/7 in shifts every day and night of the year, including Christmas! And please remember only Tanzanians are paid a salary at Neema Village from your donations. Even with the big staff it is hard to hold the babies as much as they want.

Don’t just come to Africa to see elephants – come help us hold babies! You’ll be surprised how good you will feel!

This new little guy needs our prayers right now. Baby Wade is an abandoned baby and came to Neema weighing 1.2 kg. He is extremely malnourished.

Yesterday Dr. Teddy, one of our doctors at Neema, raced him to the hospital and then she spent the night in the hospital room with him. They almost lost him but she says this morning he is some better. Just please be praying for him.

Neema Director Kim White is holding baby Raphael who is about one month old. His grandmother was trying to care for him because his mother is very ill. But Bibi felt she could not give him the care he needs. Kim says my heart broke for this poor grandmother. I could see that she loves her grandson. He is a sweet, calm baby with a beautiful face. We will take care of him until he can return to his family.

A young school girl hiding her pregnancy from her family, came to Neema Village this month. She begged for help to care for her baby so she could return to school. That’s a hard decision for these young girls.  In a society where girls have very little say over their future, their education, their bodies, or even who they marry, it is hard for girls to fight for what they want and need. They know education is important but many young girls struggle to stay in school.

Even though our goal is always to keep families together we are happy to help when we can. Neema Village will care for tiny Glory, born 1.2 kgs, until her mother finishes school. You can help us help them by sponsoring a baby at Neema Village.  None of the ten new babies have a sponsor so you can take your pick!

Jesus said when you care for one of the least of these you are caring for me.

In the sewing room at Neema it was brought to our attention that the MAP mom’s babies were crawling all over the floor where there were pins and needles dropped from the sewing classes. So one of our volunteers built a new day care room for MAP moms while they go to classes at Neema Village.

Thank You Ray and Phyllis and Friends.

The all new day care for our MAP moms while they go to class will be finished soon and we can keep those babies away from the pins and needles.

These young women who have been abused and kicked out come to Neema Village often depressed, believing that no one in the world cares for them. They take classes not only in sewing but in English, Computers, Reading and Writing, and incredible Bible based Group Therapy classes. Many of these young women are coming to Christ in life changing and dramatic ways.

And we are so excited about this new class for our MAP moms! Savannah Price is currently at Neema as the Volunteer Coordinator helping Heavenlight but she has also added exercise, dance and self defense classes for the moms.

Kim says, “There are always plenty of laughs as they learn but also a fierce determination growing within each mom that they are powerful, strong young women who won’t be abused or beaten ever again.” Thank you Savannah.

With a new day care, new classes, new babies and new life for MAP moms its All New and All Good at Neema Village.

God’s Abundant Grace at work again saving babies and moms in Tanzania, East Africa!

Bless you dear friends for loving and caring like Jesus.

Michael and Dorris

October 10, 2024

The menu is set, cute videos are loaded, really cool auction items are posted for bids, Paul and Michael are ready and Kelle is set to go. Right now over one hundred and sixty of our closest and dearest friends will meet us at the Hilton Inn on Tuesday, the fifteenth, at 6pm. There is room for a few more in the Grand Ballroom. We are pretty excited and can’t wait to see you.

Update: Kalissa’s Shop is Open for business! This is a first for us since we don’t usually do a business for one of our babies.

This precious girl lost her mom in childbirth and no one knew who the father was. Since no one claimed the baby the hospital sent her to Neema Village and we named her for a young woman, Calissa Kneip, Calissa who had been a sponsor for Neema babies since the beginning had dreamed about her legacy and that we would name a baby Calissa.

Social Welfare later found the father and he has been the best dad. He comes often to feed her and she loves him dearly. She will be going home soon. I think she will do a great job managing this shop with her dad, don’t you?

Thank you to all of you who helped with the rent, remodeling, painting, building shelves and stocking the product for this grand opening. Motorcycle Taxis are very dangerous in Arusha so we are hoping her dad will make a good business partner for her selling household items and clothing.

And another new baby came this week, her mom just walked out and left her. I know it is hard to understand but we try not to judge these moms.

The baby is very tiny, weighing 1.66 KG, about 3 lbs, and is six days old now. Kim has named her Elisabeth. We love the name, Elisabeth White! Surely the God of the fatherless has great plans for little Elisabeth.

If you haven’t gotten your banquet tickets yet go to www.neemavillage.org.

Hopefully we will see you there, we are anxious to see who is going to drive out with that BMW motorcycle!

Love,

dorris and michael fortson
www.neemavillage.org

September 28, 2024

It started out like any other weekend at Neema Village, watching the neighborhood soccer boys and girls (yes we have a girls team now) play in front of the baby home and then have their rice pilaf lunch and a bible study but by Sunday night you won’t believe what all had happened!

We are excited about our girls soccer team!

“Studies show that African girls who play soccer are less likely to drop out of school, get pregnant or be abused.” But back to the weekend story…

Kim had gotten a call Saturday from the Minister of Labor in Dar es Salaam that she wanted to bring twin baby boys to Neema Village. Dar is out of our Arusha district so phone calls were fast and furious that the babies could not come to Neema and then they could and then they couldn’t. The minister was determined to bring them to Neema and ended up getting them on a plane and flying the mother, the twins, a social worker and herself to Arusha and brought them all out to Neema Village.

Kim listened to the sad story of the young mom as they sat on the couch at Neema. The mom is 15 years old and has had a hard life. She is a Muslim and came to Neerma in full, from head to toe, black burka. Her father was abusing her and she decided to run away from her life in Zanzibar. She was living on the streets in Dar es Salaam when she met a boy who said he would help her but he took advantage of her instead. She became pregnant and when it was time she went to the hospital to have the babies. After having the babies by c-section she was desperate with no place to go with the babies. The Minister of Labor heard about this young girl and felt she had to help her.

The mom has never been to school. She was shaking, scared and crying but Kim took both her hands and told her, “You are going to be Ok here.” She is a scared 15 year old girl, who has just had her stomach cut open, has no home, has taken her first plane ride, has been left in a stranger’s house where she knows no one, has two babies she has no idea how to take care of, but she also has no idea that her life has just made a full turn around. She has met the Jesus People!

While this was going on one of the nannies in the small baby room noticed that baby Damian, about 8 months old, was not breathing. The nannies panicked but Dr. Sarun was on duty and began breathing for the baby. He was giving first aid and trying to calm the nannies while they raced through the building to the car. They took a pretty scary ride to the hospital while Dr. Sarun breathed for the baby and used the bronchial inhalers.

This incredible young doctor from Chimala Mission Hospital saved a life today. Thank God and thank you to the young woman from Fort Worth, Texas who is sponsoring this dedicated, caring doctor to work at Neema Village!

That morning Dr. Sarun was also checking on another new baby, Nosim # 2 who had come in from a Maasai village in the middle of the night. Nosim’s mom had died in childbirth. The baby is mal-nourished but will soon be fat and happy and loved at Neema.

When Kim returned to the office, to her surprise, the young mom of the twins was still sitting in the welcome center by herself. The lady and social worker had left to return to Dar. Kim had not realized they were leaving the young girl at Neema too. She had brought nothing with her so Kim sent her up to the Mothering Center where they found her some clothes and she met our other MAP moms. They are all pretty much in the same boat of abandonment and abuse so they will take good care of her.

Dr Sarun will be taking care of her incision from the c-section. He always has a baby on his lap. He not only checks the babies every day, but checks on the babies of the MAP moms and our nannies who get sick. He will even treat the poor sick “Wazungu” who volunteer at Neema.

Baby Damian is fine and back at Neema with Ritha, the nanny who saw he was not breathing and Ester our nurse with Dr. Sarun. Good Work Ritha!

The next day a baby girl was abandoned in a food market. A lady found her and called the police who called Neema Village to come pick up the baby. Little Merritt Foster has grabbed our hearts. We have been waiting to name a baby after Rob and Hayley’s little one who skipped this life and went straight into the arms of Jesus. After a few tears we are pretty much in love with this little one. Please love her until we can get there, Tammy Burns!

So with four new babies, one new mom and one baby saved, Kim said it made for a pretty exciting weekend at Neema Village.

If you need a little excitement in your life come out to the Neema Village banquet on Oct 15 at 6pm at the Hilton Garden Inn in Temple Texas. Lots of exciting auction items including a 5 to 6 day stay in Hawaii!!

You can still get banquet tickets at www.neeavillage.org

If you can’t come to Temple but would like to be a part of the banquet and bid on the auction items you can get a virtual ticket.

But we would love to See You There!!

Michael and Dorris