March 3rd, 2023
With lots of volunteers this month and the grand opening of the new Mothering Center we have neglected to tell you about new babies at Neema Village. We usually average two new babies a month. December was our largest month ever with nine new babies. This month we had four new babies all precious and beautiful. Currently there are 65 babies at Neema with one pending adoption. (Remember Neema Village does not do adoptions, Social Welfare handles all legal adoptions in Tanzania.)
Baby Jackson’s very young father realized after one month that he was not able to care for his baby after the death of his wife due to malaria.
The father works in Dar and lives very far away, so they traveled a long way to bring the baby to Neema Village. We will be looking for a family member who can care for little Jackson in a family home. It has always been our belief that no baby belongs in an orphanage.
Jackson weighed 3.5 kg at one month old. He is sweet and precious and we love him already. It is so sad that people still die of a disease that is so treatable like malaria.
We have been waiting a few months to post about this baby. Sometimes their stories are so convoluted it is hard to tell you what actually happened. to them. Neighbors had reported to Social Welfare that an old woman had been caring for a newborn and was not taking good care of the baby.
The woman said a couple had paid her to keep their newborn baby. But when the couple was contacted in a town about 12 hours away, the mother said it was not her baby but that she had used a surrogate. Hmmm… Not sure how that works here in Africa. I think it is called a mistress. A police investigation is going on and DNA testing has been done. Didn’t know they could do that here either?
Triplets are very common here in Africa. We have had 17 sets and one set of quads! The latest are three sweet little Maasai girls. Their Maasai mom did not have enough milk for all three babies. Due to lack of rain this year there has been very little food out in the villages. The mom brought her three little bundles in and we have kept her for two months trying to build her up with good food so she would have enough milk. But Mom needs to return home now so she has taken the biggest baby and has promised to come in every month to see the other two babies.
The girls are cuddly, round faced Maasai babies and we love them to pieces. They look like our first set of triplets, Frankie and his sisters from eleven years ago.
Naleku and Nembris, the triplet girls, are growing fat and happy and will be big, healthy Maasai girls someday. Hopefully they can return home to their triplet sister at around nine months.
New MAP Mom Neema, (yes just like our name Neema Village) is heading home after two months learning to care for her special needs baby at our Rehabilitative Daycare. We will set her up in a small duka (shop) selling rice, beans, oil and ugali flour. Her husband is mentally challenged and is not able to work. Neema is the sole support for the family. She will do very well in her new business. If you want to help her with her business check out her page on our website under See MAP Moms.
We love the joy on these MAP mom’s faces as they head out to start a new life of hope and promise and in this case new shiny shoes!
God bless each of you who share with these babies and moms at Neema Village. You are what keeps it all going.
Love, Love,
Dorris and Michael Fortson