The Year that Was 2023
In 2023, thirty new babies came to Neema Village. Twenty eight babies went home with a family member or a Foster Care mom and eleven babies were adopted this year. Currently there are 59 babies living at Neema Village with 93 full time Tanzanian employees and on the campus of Neema they are still the only people paid. Numbers do not tell the story but maybe they will help as you read how God is working daily in Arusha, Tanzania, East Africa.
Like these precious water babies above each baby has a tragic story or we would not have them. As a registered and certified children’s home in Arusha, the babies are all assigned to Neema through the Arusha Social Welfare department. If you follow Neema Village on Facebook you have read the babies’ stories and been able to keep up with their progress on Ashley’s updates. Their intake stories are all on our website under see Neema Babies at www.neemavillage.org
Neema’s MAP (Mothers Against Poverty) program has grown to over 135 women who have gone through the MAP program. Like Linet who tells her story of being abandoned, pregnant and on the street at 18 but now has a thriving used clothing business, she encourages the other women to be strong and courageous.
Twenty three new moms joined the program and sixteen new businesses were born in 2023. Twelve Women’s Rights seminars were taught teaching African women that they have the right to inherit their corn, their cows, their land and they have the right not to be beaten. Ninety seven English classes and 105 Literacy classes were taught in the Preslar Mothering Center at Neema.
Business sessions to help women know how to do a business and keep records, and seminars like earring making and other business ideas were taught this year. Daily bible classes, sewing classes, and two weekly Bible Based Group Therapy sessions were added this year to help these women recover from the trauma they faced as they endured abuse and abandonment by the men and families who should have cared for them. Many of these women continue to struggle with problems but like Fetty, pictured above with her small shop, are working hard to overcome the addictions in their lives.
Twenty sewing machines were given out to women who finished the sewing classes at Neema this year.
The ten MAP apartments for women brought in off the streets remained full all year with women going through counseling, bible classes and business training. Women usually stay about 6 months in the MAP housing before they are ready to start a business. Like Florah who was pregnant at fifteen with her second baby and homeless, sleeping on a church bench when a friend brought her to Neema Village. Florah has now graduated from beauty school and is ready to start her hair styling business and will be checking out of the MAP housing soon.
Many of these women are giving their lives to Jesus as they learn about the powerful gifts He offers for forgiveness and hope through a life in Christ.
The Save The Mothers program teaching traditional birthers better how to save the lives of women out in Maasai villages held monthly sessions in the new conference center at Neema Village. One hundred and forty four grandmothers who help young women birth babies were added to the growing list of Neema’s trained traditional midwives this year. From how to deal with HIV patients, to the problems FGM presents to birthing mothers these grandmothers returned to their villages better able to save the lives of their women.
Four truck loads of food were delivered from Neema out to starving people in remote villages this year. Our first big medical mission was held out in Simanjiro with 4 to 500 people attending. Three doctors, Drs Pam Green, Steve Ruiz and David Dawson from the big Scott and White Hospital in Temple, Texas facilitated that work. A VBS for children was also held at that time.
It was probably the hardest, dirtiest yet most incredible single work we have done out in the remote villages of Tanzania.
Three GIFT programs were held this past year with three hundred plus young girls between 12 and 18 attending each session. Gift (Girls Informed For Tomorrow) modeled after “Days For Girls” is training young women to wait until older on marriage and having babies. Some of the babies living at Neema today lost their moms because the moms were thirteen to fifteen years old.
We all know that education is the single biggest indicator of children being able to lift from lives of poverty. Neema’s school program is becoming one of our bigger budget items. With 44 Neema children, like Meshack, Julius, Maria, Ema and Elesha in school this year, over $25,000 USD was sent to English schools around Arusha for our Neema children’s educations.
One of Neema’s sweetest programs is the free Rehabilitation Daycare for special needs babies. It is a bright and cheery place where the babies learn to walk and how to hold a toy and how to sit up by themselves and how to talk and then graduate out of the program. With a sensory room of bright colors and music, a therapy room, a room for naps, and an exercise room, we believe there is nothing else like it in all of Tanzania.
During 2023 the Day Care center graduated 12 children, like Editha above, who had learned to walk or aged out of the program. Twelve children are being supported in their homes with monthly food allowance and home visits. There are currently eleven babies enrolled in the program attending Monday through Friday. When babies like Lightness or Editha or PJ who seemed to have had no hope begin walking, running and talking we know God is still in the miracle business!!
After rebuilding the water drilling rig donated by friends from Nacogdoches, Texas, we are finally having success in drilling for water for thirsty people. We drilled seven wells this past year, 4 have been successful and three not yet. A member of parliament asked that we drill a water well for a school of 1,100 students which does not have water. They truck in water daily, can you imagine. This well is coming in today and it looks like it will have lots of beautiful, clear water for these school children. Praise God!
Volunteering has become an exciting and integral part of Neema’s program. A total of 247 volunteers came to hold the babies, share their faith, love the moms, see Africa’s beautiful game parks, and learn about other world cultures this past year. Two hundred and eleven volunteers were from the USA, four were from the UK, eight were from Canada, eight were from Australia, two were from Germany, one was from the Netherlands, three were from Sweden, six were from Italy and two were from Dar es Salaam. Short term missions change lives, it did ours.
Two new buildings were finished this past year on the Neema campus with the big Preslar Mothering center grand opening and the Hallelujah house, pictured above. The Hallelujah House was designed for special needs babies who have outgrown the baby home but have no other home. It also has room for our big school girls who come in from boarding school for school breaks.
God is busy in His world and there are many good projects going on around the globe. We hope you are involved somewhere. If not join us as we try to show God’s mercy and grace to the moms and babies of Tanzania.
As two retired 80 year olds, we cannot say thank you enough to those of you who love and support this work.
Michael and Dorris Fortson