July 21, 2024

Between an auction and entertainment by Michael Hix, it is shaping up to be a fun night for everyone. Tickets will go on sale in the next few weeks but we just wanted you to get the date on your calendar. We will be there along with our speaker, Judge Paul Pape and many of our board members. Unfortunately the babies, whom this will benefit, will have to stay at Neema Village.

More new babies this month:

On a busy street in Arusha, a mother and baby were living under a tree. We tried to bring her to Neema to enter our MAP program, but she refused, stating that the tree was her home. We had to be careful since she had a rather large knife which she was using to chop sugar cane. Regina finally got the knife away from her.

We were hoping to keep mom and baby together but Social Welfare has admitted mom to Sober House, a year long alcohol and drug abuse program, and baby Gideon will stay with us until she is released. Poor little guy was scared and pretty dirty so Orupa got him bathed and dressed in clean clothes. He has been living in caves and under trees since he was born but he is warm and safe now in the crawler room at Neema Village.

And another beautiful baby, Loveness, has entered Neema this month. Her mother is in secondary school and got pregnant at 15. Social Welfare asked if we could keep the baby until mom finishes school in a couple of years.

It was a day of Blessing at Neema for twenty four moms of our special needs babies this month. These moms have been abandoned simply because they had a special needs baby. They were struggling, some of them living on the street, some were begging, some working the street but all were referred to Neema for help. They have gone through our MAP program and their babies have/are attending our Daycare Rehab Center. For their day we had speakers, games, lots of food, pedicures by the Aggie girls and special gifts including 20,000 shillings to get their hair and nails done. Leslie Miller, director of Aggies For Christ was one of the speakers. It was a pretty special day.

It broke us up to see Bibi Janet come in for the Blessing Day from her far village. She is the grandmother who has devoted 19 years of her life to caring for this little special needs girl the size of a 2 year old. We have set her up in a goat business and a used clothing business. She now has enough food to feed both of them.

“Enough” is a big word here in Tanzania. People need enough food to be healthy, enough water to stay alive, and enough Hope to make it all worth it.

“May the God of Hope fill you with all Joy and Peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with Hope by the power of the Holy Spirit!” And we Hope we see you on Oct 15, watch for the tickets to go on sale!!

Dorris and Michael