February 23, 2025
God’s Amazing Grace just bubbling up !!
Sometime you just gotta laugh! Our sweet babies are growing strong and happy at Neema Village, like little Elisabeth White an abandoned baby who will have a forever family one day.
We believe that every baby is a special blessing from God and we take seriously the charge that He has given us to care for these abandoned and orphaned little ones.
Neema’s newest baby Victor came to us last week. His mom died in the hospital under anesthesia during the delivery. Did you know that according to our findings one in nine Maasai moms will die from complications during childbirth? With our Save The Mothers midwifery training program and our Gift programs to young girls we are working hard to change that.
The women in the village shaved this baby’s head in grief after the death of her mom. Little Joy (Nadupoi) came to Neema when her father could no longer care for her. Such a happy baby and Thank God she now has a future. Many Maasai children from remote villages do not survive to the age of five without a mother.
January and February 2025 have been great months for volunteers. One special volunteer Emily, our first full time volunteer coordinator, brought her fiancé and family to Neema. So many of you remember our sweet Emily!
If you are not a” baby man” and wondered what you could volunteer to do at Neema, driving the tractor like Tim, would be a good thing. Our dirt road is always a challenge especially after the rains. We tell our visitors as we drive our road just relax and enjoy the Tanzania Massage!
You could teach a computer class, like one of our Canadian volunteers.
Our MAP moms always love a new sewing class.
Teaching a first aid class to our staff (now 101 Tanzanians!) is a great way to volunteer.
Just taking time to do things with our big school boys can change a life.
Like Eliana above, all our babies have a tragic story or we would not have them. Our MAP moms always have tragic life stories as well. Sometime so horrific I cannot even print them. But here are a few of our MAP moms.
Even though Malaria is easily treatable, the mosquito still affects many people in Africa today. Rose’s husband became ill with malaria and became mentally unstable and physically abusive to his young wife, even after she became pregnant with their first baby. Rose was living in the slum area where we visit often from Neema Village to bless new moms on Sunday afternoons. Last year the chairperson from this area called us about a young woman whose husband was beating her. Kim, Neema’s director, went to the home to check on the 20-year-old woman with a newborn baby.
Kim knew she was not safe and brought Rose and the baby to Neema Village where she has been living for a year and half now. Rose became a Christian at Neema Village and when she was baptized, she chose a new name for herself. She wanted to be called Success. Kim talked many hours with Success and soon realized she had a lot of dreams for a better life. Success wanted to become a teacher. Success is now in college and will graduate soon and then she will look for a job to become a teacher. In the near future she will be able to support herself and her little boy Jayden.
Success has finally come to Success!
God’s Amazing Grace at work at Neema Village!
For someone who has already been through so much in life, Evelyn is only 21 years old. She has a baby and she also has “the sickness.” She inherited the disease from her parents both of whom have died. After their deaths she was living with a friend who saw her taking her medicine one day and realized she was sick and kicked her out. She got a job, met a man and soon became pregnant. But the man denied the baby was his and left the family with nothing. Evelyn was soon destitute with a baby and nowhere to go. One day she went to the hospital to get her medicine and the nurse could tell she was losing weight and not doing well. After finding out that Evelyn was homeless, the nurse told her about Neema Village, a place that helps marginalized women. Anna and some of our volunteers went to check on Evelyn and found that she needed immediate help so they brought her to live in our MAP houses. She is now in counseling classes and taking all the courses that Neema offers. If she will stay on her medicine Evelyn can live a normal life.
One day she will even be able to start a business to support herself and her baby.
Mariam has a two-year-old baby named Genesis. Her father has two wives, her mother left the home and the second wife was mean and fought with Mariam so the father kicked Mariam out. She had finished primary school, (about 6th grade) but her father said he had no money for her to continue on to Secondary school. She was desperate and had nowhere to go so she moved in with her boyfriend who was living in a house with 5 other men. When she became pregnant, he said there were too many men there and he did not think the baby was his so he asked her to leave. She was alone with no one to help her. One of her classmates said she could live with her until the baby was born.
One of her classmates said she could live with her until the baby was born. Some of her classmates found out about her situation and went together to contribute some money to help their friend. Mariam got a job cleaning a local clinic once a week but it was not enough to support her and baby Genesis.
Then one of her classmates knew about Neema Village and told her to come to Neema for help.
Today Mariam and baby Genesis are safe at Neema Village, she is taking classes and hoping someday to have a better life.
African women are often called by the name of their first born child. Mama Murshidu has two children, a two year old baby and Murshidu her first born who is 5 years old. Murshidu was born with special needs and as so often happens in Tanzania, the father ran away. The men believe it is a curse on them to have a special needs child. The mother and 2 children were left alone without any help or support and she began washing clothes for other people in order to buy food for her family. We met Mama Murshidu though our free rehab daycare for special needs babies. At the daycare, after listening to how hard her life was Nappy, the daycare director knew this mother was in desperate need of help. Nappy talked with Anna from our MAP (Mothers Against Poverty) program.
Mama Murshidu wants to start a small store selling staples like flour, soap, sugar, salt etc. God willing Neema Village will be there to help her do that.
We had been looking forward someday to one of our sweetest donors coming to volunteer and hold the babies at Neema Village. Bless him, he always sent my blogs out to all his friends. But this life is short and it ended last week for this dear friend of Neema Village.
We believe all the babies that he helped save and the moms he set up in business will one day get to meet him and they will say, “I know you, you gave me a second chance at life!”
You see this life is the short one, the long one started last week for Wayne Robison. Our Love and prayers go out to Eleanor, Matthew, Jonathan, the family and the Rulon Company from St. Augustine, Florida.
Bless all of you who have come to Neema, held the babies, cried with the MAP moms or just washed dishes and bless those of you who will never come but yet you love.
Dorris and Michael Fortson