CIS PARTY BECAME A BIRTHDAY PARTY! Luana, who lives in Pemba City was celebrating her 18th birthday last Saturday, and wanted to share it with our children. Her mother works at the local Graphite Mine, and organized this as a total surprise for our children and staff. Complete with 2 large Birthday Cakes and little gift bags for the children, this party was a blast! The
FUN AT THE FEAST The CIS party every other Saturday is a BIG HAPPY EVENT for our children. Samuel leads the singing, as he grew up here since he was orphaned at a young age. He really is a natural in getting the children motivated as you can see in the video. Fun at the feast means lots of singing. Love how animated our little ones are with LIFT
BABY VICTORIA NOW HOME AFTER 7 DAYS IN HOSPITAL! Baby girl Victoria overcame the diarrhea that almost ended her life, and now weighs 3.4 kg/7.5 lbs. This is AMAZING as most infants don’t bounce back as fast after such a severe illness. Released on Wednesday this week, she is now being kept in isolation until she reaches 5kg/11 lbs. to prevent her from catching any respiratory illnesses
ABANDONED INFANT OUR NEWEST FAMILY MEMBER Victoria’s mother has both mental and physical disabilities, complicated by no breast milk. Social Services placed Victoria in our weekly milk program on August 24th, with the grandmother as caregiver. On September 17th, the 2‑month-old weighed only 2.8kg/16lbs. which is severe malnutrition. Baby Victoria taking formula mixed with clean water. She was brought to us by a 15-year-old girl in a
SEMESSE BECOMES PEDRO Semesse’s name changed when his Father organized his birth certificate this week. So note that Pedro and Semesse are the same baby. PEDRO DEVELOPES MALARIA Pedro, 7 months old, is very malnourished, which means his immune system is weak. He was released from the hospital on Friday, with his malaria test showing no malaria. Then he began with a fever and vomiting on Saturday morning. Back to
ORPHAN BOY, SEMESSE, JOINS THE FAMILY Six-month-old Semesse (seh-mee-see) was brought into our milk program in a dangerous state this last Thursday by his grandmother. He was very dehydrated, lethargic, and had severe bloody diarrhea. He’s been in our milk program since March when he was orphaned, and was gaining weight slowly. However, the grandmother was a bit overwhelmed with his care last week, and used some local
CHILDREN MISSED ME WHILE OFF TO PEMBA I was pleasantly surprised when Capena (our office manager) sent me this video of the children while I was in Pemba this last week to renew my residency. These children are precious to us all, as all but one of these children grew up here from infancy. THEY ARE MY FAMILY! An annual renewal of residency permission is a must
TWO INFANTS JOIN OUR MILK FORMULA PROGRAM THIS WEEK On the 17th, infant boy EDMIRO, just 12 days old, lost his mother from post partem complications. His family lives 27km/13 miles from our base. His loving grandmother will care for him. 2‑day-old Edmiro receives a full tummy of milk. On the 19th, baby girl Neima (Nee-i-mah), born June 1st, was sent to our mission by Social Services. Her Mom became
ORPHANS HELP GRANNIES CARRY FOOD GIFTS The first handouts are now completed with 205 orphans and widows receiving their first food gift during this time of hunger. From Devotions to heading home, the photos tell a better story than I can with words. Singing before hearing the word of God at our Kwe Kwe food hand out. Happy faces as there will be food on the table tonight!
DINO IS WITH JESUS Baby Dino, our tiny 7‑month-old little boy with a heart anomaly, had to be readmitted to the hospital on Tuesday this week in severe respiratory distress.Sadly, the medications and oxygen didn’t work this time, and his little heart just stopped just after midnight on Saturday. He was laid to rest in his home village today by his family. Little Dino back in July.