Thursday we went out to see the triplet girls, Anna, Esther and Deborah who had lived at Neema for two years after their birth. We always love visiting our babies who have returned home especially this sweet family. Their original mud house is in the back and their newer cement house is in front.
Most of our babies go home to families that are able to send them to school, like one of our abandoned babies who was adopted by a surgeon in Dar. Unfortunately some of them need help going to school when they return home. Our second set of triplets, Anna, Esther and Deborah are a part of our outreach school kids program and Thursday we went out to see how they were doing in school.
Above, our beautiful triplet girls are looking at Neema’s business card which has their picture on it. If you have followed Neema you have probably seen this picture below. It is on all our business cards.
Three of these babies above came to Neema in July of 2012 a few hours after their birth. Their mother was close to death and the babies were very small so we brought all of them with the mother to Neema. Deborah weighed 1.13 kg when Michael went out to pick them up.
Now they are big school girls and Ashley and I along with a couple of volunteers had gone out to see how they were doing in school.
They are in a government school and their grades are not good. It was the only school available when they first went home but now there is a new English Medium school out in their area and we will to try to get them moved to the new school. Government schools are crowded and have very little equipment. Private schools are expensive but we want the girls to have a good education.
We had a great visit with the family and then the mother wanted the girls to sing for us. It was quite fun and lively as “Jesu ni Mwamba” filled the crowded room.
They brought out the drum (the blue bucket) and we all sang while a couple of our more energetic visitors danced in the back of the room. We had given their mother a sewing machine and she had made the girl’s skirts.
They live by a beautiful river but we had to cross this little stream below to get to the river first. It was about 2 feet deep and they were jumping across when Ashley fell in and was soaking wet. Thank Goodness they brought a board for the rest of us. Poli Sana Ashley!
The triplet girl’s mother, Elisifa, is such a gracious host and fixed us chicken and rice for lunch. I always love her name, it means God is Praised. We love this little family and want the girls to have a good education but they will not get it in the government school.
After we left the triplet girl’s house we stopped by to check on Gloria. Gloria was one of our favorite kids from the beginning of Neema. She had been brought to Neema as a baby almost starved to death. Now she is a big school girl. We had put her grandmother into our MAP program and set her up in a little Duka (shop), so that Gloria could return home. The shop seems to be doing very well.
Ashley looked at Gloria’s school work and we were a bit disappointed when the teachers told us Gloria was 19th in her class. She had been number one in class when we first put her in the school. They said grandmother had not bought her books and she had no exercise books for her homework. We give all our school families 200,000 TSH for uniforms and books so we will need to find out why grandmother did not buy them. I guess without books 19th was not bad.
Then we stopped in to check on Meshack and Ema who are in foster care with one of our MAP moms. She is doing great and Meshack is number one in class and Ema is number four. So proud of this mom and the boys.
We made one final visit on the way home to see a woman who has been keeping a disabled child for ten years. She is retired without an income which is common here and was needing help with diapers and milk for the child. We were quite touched by the years of dedication and love of this sweet woman for a child that was not even hers.
Volunteers Ylva and Billie Axell from Sweden decided to take on the support of this kind woman and Ashley is buying her a blender for preparing food for the child. The kindness of good people always astounds me! In case you have ever wondered there are way more good people in the world than bad!
We all know how important education is for the children of Africa, especially the girls. When you educate a girl you not only change her world you change ours! Thank you to all of you who support our school kids. You will probably never know the far reaching good you have done.
Blessings,
Dorris and Michael
If you are strong of heart and over 18 I will tell you a true story.
“I heard this story of a Maasai girl whose father told her she must be circumcised. If she didn’t he would be shamed in the village. Unbelievably she made a deal with her father. If he would let her stay in school she would agree to be circumcised. On the appointed day she walked into the cow pen with all the village looking on and a rusty razor blade was used to cut off all her female parts. The pain was unbearable and she fainted but two weeks later she was back in the classroom.” God help us.
If you want to help us educate these children please go to www.neemavillage.org.
