Guest Post by the lovely Amy Summers!

Amy is a great friend of Nkoaranga orphanage who is in the process of finalizing her adoption of Pray, a gorgeous five year old who lived at Nkoaranga until he was three. She has graciously agreed to write a guest post (hopefully one of many!) to keep us updated on the kids! You can read more about her journey at Kusali-To Pray. Thanks also to Amy for letting us use her gorgeous photos here and elsewhere on the site.

Amy and a grumpy Zawadi

Maureen Ndogo

Gracie pushing around Amy's son Pray!

Oh wow, my first post on The Small Things! I feel honored.

After almost two months (school starting, moving, etc. A busy time of year!), Pray and I finally made a much-needed visit to his old home. I, of course, had to take photos of Zawadi for Bekka! The kids are doing well. Frankie and Filipo were in the hospital with malaria, but the rest of them were running around as usual! Zawadi was being changed when we got there and seemed a bit grumpy. Probably because of the diaper changed--no one likes those! I managed to get a few photos, then she waddled off to play with the kids. I only saw her once more in the next hour--busy girl! Gracie is practicing her walking skills. 

She almost has it! Maureen mdogo is proudly crawling and is more beautiful than ever. I didn't think it was possible! Frankie was almost crawling when we visited in late July, so I imagine he is a pro by now. Vicky was being held and then put to bed, so I didn't see much of her.

Ebenezer and his proud Baba

David is so big!

Ebenezer's baba (father) was there visiting! He seemed very proud of his son. I pulled up some pictures of Ebeni from his first week of life and his baba was amazed and said he forgot Ebeni was so small! Ester is running everywhere. She politely asked for a banana and proceeded to stuff it all in her mouth. She was another one that was so little. Thanks to Annette and Miriam takinig her home every night, she thrived and you all know how precious she is now! David mdogo is another walker/runner now. He was glued to the TV and Faraja was nicely sharing her lollipop with him. Neema has lost some of her chubbiness now that she runs everywhere! I don't think I saw her walking at all, just running. She still has her gorgeous dimples and has turned into such a little helper.

Baracka has been one of my favorites since I met him at two months old. He was such a difficult baby. He spit up every ounce of every feed and would scream within 10 minutes because he was hungry again. I love watching him grow. Despite his many days of crying and fussing (even now), he was in a great mood on Wednesday and kept asking me to turn my camera off and on. It has a little picture on it as it turns on. Maureen mkubwa was outside most of the time, so I didn't get to see much of her. She had a very serious face on when she finally came inside (against her wishes!). Pray is as ornery as ever. He went straight for Claire so she would hold him. He still seems a bit behind, but he's much healthier than we ever thought he'd be! He was another sickly newborn that I often worried about. 

Andrea (left) and
Baracka holding hands

Simoni offering to share his candy

Saimoni, oh Saimoni. His unusual gait from the rickets is hardly noticeable now. You would never know he struggled so much! I love that smile and his happy attitude. David mkubwa was helping Gracie walk. I am always relieved to see how sweet he has turned out. Besides his physical battles, he went through a period when he would just walk up and bite even the tiny babies. And with a smile on his face! He now prefers to hold them and help the mamas. What a mini adult! Andrea was my second favorite before Baracka came along and still has a big part of my heart. I will never forget the night when he was 14 months old and sick with pneumonia and malaria. I watched his little heart beat and I thought it would beat right out of his chest. Ironically, after that hospital stay, he lost weight and started walking! He talks up a storm and had no interest in the TV--yay! Loveness sat and watched over the volunteers who were holding the babies. She's still such a little mama! 

Pendo was also outside most of the time, but seems to have settled in. She gets along with the other kids (mostly). Back in July, every time I heard someone crying, it would be her. Of course, our visit was only two hours, so maybe she was just having a good morning - but we hear good things from the mamas. Dainessi has three missing teeth! It makes her look SO much older and fits her new mature personality. She can't wait to start school. Stephen was busy watching a movie with Ericki, Faraja, and Aroni. He obliged when I asked for a photo and gave his big ol' trademark Stepheni smile! Ericki is just so 

Proud Dainess

Stevie is way too cool

handsome! He was watching a movie and then playing with pictures. I often wonder about him and his history of headaches, but he seemed well and happy during our visit.

Farajah and Aroni *should* be going to SOS on Monday. The twins from Cradle of Love are going on Monday and they have been waiting since April, too. I asked Mama Andrew, but she said she hadn't heard anything and Mama Upendo would know better. Unfortunately, Mama Upendo wasn't there. Wema, an older Nkoaranga kid, will also join them, along with two older kids, Allan and Vumilia. HeavenLight is supposed to go, also, but he recently went to live with an aunt and last I spoke with Mama Upendo, everyone was very happy with the arrangement. Hopefully we will hear something soon about the kids going to SOS. It is past time for Faraja to be in school! And I don't know why Aroni stayed behind after the summer holiday. His English had been progressing so quickly and he loved school. I hope SOS ends up being the perfect place for all of them.

Abduli is still Abduli. Pray was often in tears asking to leave because Abduli pulled his hair, pinched him, or punched him. I remember the days when Abduli's father and other family members would visit every weekend. I wonder if they stopped because of his obvious delays? It breaks my heart, because we all know how hard life in TZ is for people with disabilities. (Hopefully we can find a school that will help him to thrive for next year -Bekka)

In related news, there are two new babies. Shugya (I need to check her file for the correct spelling, but it sounds almost like "sugar" but with a "ya" at the end) is about two months old. I don't know her story, as the mamas were very busy and we didn't have much time to talk. She looks very healthy, though. The other newbie, Daoudi ("Dah-oo-di" Swahili for Davidi, said Mama Andrew), turned two weeks on the day we met him, making his birthday October 12th. He weighs all of two kilos and is very skinny. He is not as small as Riziki, quite a bit longer, but looks very unhealthy. I hope he will get the love and nourishment he needs to grow
. 

New baby Shugya

I will try to go back this Wednesday or Thursday now that Pray's midterm break is over. Hopefully Zawadi will be smiling and Mama Upendo will be around to get more updates! 

Until then,

Amy

Daoudi

Little Daoudi

Without a huge amount of attention and care, premature babies like Daoudi and Ebenezer don't make it - as we learned the hard with with gorgeous little Reziki. Please consider donating to help us hire more staff to care for these incredible children. 

Project Skydive Update and More About the Mamas

Thanks to you beautiful people we have reached our goal for Project Education 2011/2012, which means that Stevie, Eriki and Dainessi will all being going to boarding school in January. So, thank you to everyone who donated! To find out more about this project please click here. We will now be focusing on two other projects, and any skydive sponsorship money will be split between the them.

Silly Andrea!

The first project is Project Education for 2012/2013, in which we will be sending Abduli, Andrea, David Kubwa and Pendo off to boarding school, provided we raise enough money for the school fees. This is an incredible opportunity for these children and they all deserve the chance to show us what they are made of so, please help us to send them to school. To find out more about the beautiful children we will be sending to school in 2013 then please click here.

The second project we will be supporting with our sponsored skydive is hiring another member of orphanage staff. This is an incredibly important project as it means that we will not only be able to help the children, but also the women who love and care for them every single day.

Me and Mama Vicky on my last night
at the orphanage (which is why I look such a mess
due to the many tears I had shed)

Working at the orphanage, we all got to know, not only the children, but also the wonderful women that care for them, the Mamas. These are some of the most incredible women you will ever meet as they work extremely demanding shifts and are constantly on their feet, yet are still able to show the children that they love them more than anyone could ever believe.

During each shift there are only two Mamas working and they have to do all the cleaning, cooking and washing, as well as caring for and loving 30 children. As you can imagine, this is a very difficult job to do and requires a great deal of strength and determination. Working at the orphanage, we found that at the end of every shift we were absolutely shattered, yet the Mamas work twice as hard as any of the volunteers and juggle an unimaginable amount of responsibilities, and they still come in day after day to care for the children, with the same admirable amount of energy and love for them.

Mama Ellie

As you can imagine this is an incredibly demanding job and though the Mamas work as hard as they can, it means that sometimes the children do not receive the level of stimulation they need to at such a young age, which can have serious repercussions for their development.

We want to be able to support the Mamas like they are supporting the children. This is why we want to raise enough money to not only hire another Mama at the orphanage, but also enough money to be able to employ her for a minimum of 2 years, which will mean that the new carer will have a steady job and the support that they need. They work incredibly hard, so by hiring another member of orphanage staff we will be able to ease their burden a little bit, as well as ensuring that the children will receive a higher level of stimulation, reducing their chances of delayed mental development.

The Mamas love every single one of the children at the Orphanage and spend every day caring for them and making them laugh. Never in my life have I ever met such competent and caring women, and I am so grateful that these are the people who are caring for our gorgeous children. To find out more about 'Project Skydive' and to sponsor these crucial projects, please click here.

Mama Pendo and Simoni sharing a quiet moment

I also thought I might enlighten you as to the story behind the (very embarrassing) video of my singing on the skydive page that the wonderful Bekka put up there (and is putting up here again! -Bekka).

A rare serious moment for Maureeni

This was one of my favourite nights at Nkoaranga and is one that I will never be able to forget. We were graced with yet another power cut at the orphanage and Megan and I were helping the Mamas with the feeding and changing of the babies and toddlers before they went to bed. Megan and I were in the babies room feeding them, when we heard the shuffling of tiny feet in the corridor. When we turned around, all of the big kids were standing in the doorway, looking at us with their big adorable eyes. Farajah told us that they were all scared because of the power cut, so we ushered them all into the babies rooms with us and sat them down on the floor all around us. To try and comfort them, Megan and I started singing lots of different songs to them which, surprisingly, worked.

Giggly Miriam

So we sat there, for about an hour, feeding the babies by candle light, cuddling all of the big kids and singing as many different songs as we could think of. Every time we stopped singing, the children would turn to us and order us to sing another song, which we found absolutely adorable. The video on the skydive page is from just afterwards, when the big kids were being taken to bed, and we sat singing to the toddlers- Mirium and Maureen were being absolutely gorgeous as they danced around me. This was by far one of my favourite nights at the Orphanage, as it was so simple and yet turned out to be something so lovely.

If you want to see this video, or just fancy a bit of a laugh at my terrible singing then please check out our Sponsored Skydive page by clicking here.

Thank you so much for anything you can give! We at The Small Things, the children of Nkoaranga Orphanage, and the Mamas that work so hard to keep them safe, are all truly grateful.

Defining Family

Loveness cuddling Gracie

As someone with an obvious vested interest in African orphanages, I've been following the situation in Rwanda with fascination. Essentially, the government is in the first stages of implementing a closure of all the country's orphanages, with the children being returned to extended family or placed into foster homes. One of the most interesting facets of the coverage has been hearing from the orphanage children themselves.

While many of us might instinctively applaud the idea of putting children back into families rather than institutionalized care, there are some serious problems with using this model in Sub-Saharan Africa. In almost all cases, extended families that are able and willing to care for orphaned children do so from day one. The fact that children have ended up in an orphanage indicates that this is not an option for their families. As we discuss on our meet the kids page, placing a child in an orphanage is never an easy decision for surviving family members, nor is it undertaken lightly - however, it is often the better choice for their long term well-being. I think we can all agree that if there were safe, stable, and financially secure foster or adoptive homes for all of the children, there would be no issue. The fact is that too many families in East Africa are simply unable to open their homes to another child. Shunting children into families that are unable to care for them adequately unfortunately does nothing but encourage resentment and neglect.

At Nkoaranga, before the formation of The Foundation For Tomorrow, which helps us place the children in high quality boarding schools when they age out of the orphanage, children used to be returned to their extended families at the age of five, or shuffled into orphanages for older children. Mama Pendo, who has run the orphanage for twenty two years, told us that she could no longer do that after spending years following up on the kids and finding far too many unhealthy, neglected, and sometimes abused. Families that are able to care for the children are always encouraged to bring them home - but forcing children onto families that are unable or unwilling to care for them is deeply unsafe and unfair for all involved.

Many of the Rwandan children interviewed expressed deep trepidation over the impending move. Not only are they uncertain of the reception they will receive, but they are deeply troubled at the idea of being separated from their effective brothers and sisters, the orphanage "families" that have been their support system for so many years. At the Noel Nyundo Orphanage, Rwanda's oldest and largest facility, "A boy stood and suggested they remain at the center until they finish school, and his fellow orphans laughed and applauded. Another boy said he grew up at the center, and he doesn’t want to leave his home. 'We grew up all together,' he said. 'We are little brothers, and big brothers. We should stay together.'"

Pendo, Farajah, and David

This particular section of the article struck a deep chord for me. One of the things that has captured my heart about Nkoaranga from day one is the deep bond the children and mamas have. Most of the children have been with us since they were infants, and they truly do grow up as siblings, with all of the love, loyalty, and drama that entails! The staff truly take the mantle of mamas seriously. When David Kubwa and Pray were trapped in a fire in the orphanage baby room several years ago, it was only the intervention of Mama Cantate that saved their lives. She incurred serious burn injuries of her own in the process. The mamas deeply, deeply love these children, and they love each other. If that's not what makes a family, what does?

And happy, healthy Pray now

Baby Pray just after the fire

This isn't to say that there aren't serious problems with institutionalized care for children - as you well know, development can be seriously delayed by lack of sufficient interaction. I'm just not sure that forced reintegration is the best way to handle it. From our end, we're working on hiring more staff. In the meantime, I will continue to watch the progress in Rwanda with hope that the children can be safely integrated back into their families. But my heart will continue to hurt for those children who will be leaving the only families they have ever known, and I hope that they will remain brothers through it all.

Don't forget to check out Project Skydive - some amazing volunteers jumping out of a plane for the kids they love! We're raising funds to hire more amazing staff to add to the Nkoaranga family, as well as to get started on funding the beautiful children who will be heading to school in January of 2013. Thanks for your support!

Never doubt, and Project Skydive!

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." -Margaret Mead

I am completely in awe of the amazing readers from Girls Gone Child and the supporters of Project Skydive, who have come to our aid in the last few days. Not only have we raised the full amount to get Stevie, Ericki and Dainess into school, on top of that we raised enough to hire another staff person for a full year! That means more one-on-one attention for every child, fewer developmental delays, a great job for a woman in the local community, and a big relief for the incredible women who already work there.

We've changed the lives of these children and a corner of the world here, and it wouldn't have been possible without all of you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart - and a huge thanks to Rebecca Woolf, spreading her mama-love all the way across the world!

Project Skydive
"We are taking the plunge for the orphanage kids - we're proud and very, very scared to announce the launch of our latest project, PROJECT SKYDIVE!"

On December 4th, four INCREDIBLE former volunteers (including Emily and Bethan) are literally throwing themselves out of a plane in a bid to help the kids! The funds that people already pledged to their project were a huge part of our Project Education success. Now that we've completed the funding for this year's schooling, any money raised from here on in will go towards next year's group of schoolkids (Pendo, Abdulli, David, and Andrea), as well as towards hiring staff, two extremely important goals! We're making a commitment to employ these women and want to have at least two years' salary saved before hiring to be absolutely sure we can fulfill that commitment.

If you can't imagine what it's like to have two people juggle feeding, clothing, washing, and loving 30 children at once, with the added bonuses of frequent power outages, take a look at Emily's adorable video below of multitasking during one of the (daily) blackouts while feeding Frankie and comforting Miriam, Maureen and Baracka. The mamas do this and more every single day, which is why it's so important to us to support them in every way possible. Please help us by contributing to Project Skydive!

I'm utterly humbled by all of your outpourings of support and love for our kids. We can't bring back their mothers, but we can make sure they grow up in an environment where they know they are deeply loved and given opportunities to become their best selves. Thank you for being part of it!

Days to celebrate

I have a confession to make, one that may not come as a huge surprise to those of you who have been following the blog for a while. I adore and am hopelessly in love with every single one of our kids. But one little girl has had her tiny fist wrapped around my heart from day one.

A few months in, still tiny

Zawadi means gift, and she is. When I first arrived at the orphanage, she was a tiny, tiny thing - a year old and only twelve pounds, unable to speak, with a big old protruding belly filled with nothing but worms, and tiny, weak little arms and legs, bent from rickets, that couldn't bear her weight to crawl. Instead she swam across the floor, my beautiful little wiggle worm. While it's not unusual to have some level of delay for orphanage children, the undiagnosed worms had left her profoundly sick and weak, and we were for a while worried that she had underlying HIV.

Just a week after I started work at the orphanage, she caught a cough that was going around. The difference was, she couldn't shake it like the other kids did. Her tiny little chest shuddered with every breath, and we took her to the hospital - pneumonia. A round of oral antibiotics failed, so I had to hold her, tears streaming down both our faces, as they tried and failed, over and over again, to find a vein in her underdeveloped little arms. I wrote a poem about it that day, and I knew I'd never be the same. 

Walking for me on my last day - what a gift!

Every day after that we got closer. She began to coo for me, then babble, then, slowly to talk, to crawl and, on my last day, to walk. She is a stubborn little goat of a girl, contrary, possessive and protective, but with giggles that light up a room and are all the more beautiful for their rarity. I call her my Zi, my mpenZi (sweetheart), my mbuZi (goat) - she calls my name.

She turns two this month, but nobody knows when. Her mother died in mysterious circumstances a few months after her birth. Her father, who had a history of domestic violence, disappeared. She came to us in January of 2010, and the mamas estimated her birth would have been sometime in the month of October - so that's all she's ever had, a birthday of 0/10/2009.

And at 18 months, toothy and standing!

A picture from her first day, courtesy
of Diane, who was volunteering when she
arrived

Every kid deserves a birthday. In reality, every kid deserves a family and a home - but for now at least, that's out of my hands. So, little girl, from now on I will celebrate your birthday on October 17th - a lucky number for me, and my new favorite day of the year. Today I'll celebrate Zawadi's birthday, and how far she's come - from a gaunt, serious little face to a delicious ball of giggles. I plan to move to Tanzania when I'm done with my program and do everything within my power to adopt her - it may or may not be possible given the complexities of adoption law. I will be there for her, though, for every day of the rest of her life, and many, many more birthdays. 

Zi isn't the only one to have a birthday this month - it's a busy one for the orphanage, although birthdays aren't usually acknowledged there. So happy, happy birthday to all of our beautiful October babies!

Abdulli turned five on October 3rd

David turned four on October 7th

Andrea turned four on October 10th

Neema turns two on October 27th

Furaha ya kuzaliwa kwa watoto wetu - happy birthday to our kids! 

We try to cover the big things - sanitation, nutrition, staff, and education (still working on the funds to get this year's kids into school!). But the little things are also important. We're hoping to find some stores in the US or UK that might be willing to help us bring some sunshine into the kids lives for Christmas this year. They love Bob the Builder especially! If you are or know someone who can help us, please let us know. 

Also, a special thanks and welcome to everyone heading over here from Girls Gone Child! Whether or not you are able to donate today, please help us spread the word about our work - tweeting or liking us on facebook costs nothing and makes a huge impact. Thanks again for visiting!

Board Bios - Megan Williams

From left: Abdulli, me, Farajah, Stevie,
and Andrea (under the hat!) 

My name is Megan Williams. I am a student from Manchester in Northern England and I'm just starting my degree in Politics, Sociology and Psychology at university this year. I have never wanted to go straight to university; taking a year to see and do completely different things isn’t something you often get a chance to do. I was in Tanzania from January to July 2011 on placement in Nkoaranga with Emily, Emma, Bethan and other volunteers with a company called Oyster. Our placement was technically a teaching placement in the local Primary School. I absolutely loved teaching, but we were only teaching one English lesson a day, either a 40 minute single or an 80 minute double. Gradually we became more and more involved in the orphanage.

Although I loved visiting, for me really feeling part of the orphanage was a gradual process. Other volunteers got very attached to the place and the children very quickly, but for me it took a bit longer. I found it difficult initially when I felt I didn’t know what was going on or what to do. I hated feeling like I wasn’t being useful or helpful to the mamas. It was definitely worth sticking with though, because as I got to know the children, the orphanage and how life runs there, I grew in confidence and learned to love it so much. By the end I was turning up at 6am, choosing to be there to help with one of the most demanding shifts of the day – waking up, bathing, dressing and breakfast. It became my favourite part of the orphanage day, despite the fact that it was hectic and often stressful. By 8.30 in the morning I could feel that I had actually done something that needed doing.

Fashionable with Farajah

What volunteers do at the orphanage is amazing for the children. It’s not just that the children learn your name and want to play with you, although that’s great; it’s that they start to trust you. When they are upset they come to you not to tell tales or complain but just for comfort. When they are having an off day they just want to stay with you, and when they’ve done something good they are bursting to tell you. It’s that side of the relationship with them I valued the most, much as all the fun and games and tears are wonderful. Playing with them and feeding them and looking after them is extremely rewarding, but the times I felt like I’d given them something were the times they came to me upset and I was able to make them feel better, or when they came to me proud of themselves and were bursting with happiness when I agreed they’d done well.

One occasion that sticks out in my mind was during my last week with the children. We were just getting towards the end of the early shift and everyone was dressed and in the playroom waiting to go to school. Somehow Saimoni trapped his finger in the wooden playpen and he must have done it hard, because his finger was literally flat for ages and then started to swell up. Of course, it must have been hurting him a lot and he was upset. He came and sat on my knee and I tried to distract him from it, and by the time I needed to leave his finger was back to normal size and he’d brightened up. When I told him I had to go he started clinging to me and wouldn’t let me leave, although he seemed fine about his finger. I was late for where I was going, but also really touched by the way he didn’t want me to leave him, even though he’d recovered from his accident.

Of course the relationship that volunteers build with the children is very important and special, particularly as the huge demands on the mamas often mean that they don’t have time to play and cuddle and push swings for hours on end. Of course it’s important that volunteers do as much as they can for the children, but another whole set of my favourite times at the orphanage are the times I could be sure that the mamas had really appreciated my help. I was always worried at the beginning that the mamas didn’t feel we were much help; that they thought we were just there to play with the children and have fun, but not to do any of the actual work. Over time, as I learnt how day-to-day life at the orphanage works, I hope I became more useful to them. I really think that you can grow in the eyes of the mamas just by voluntarily starting to sweep or wipe up after a meal before they’ve started doing it. It shows that you know what needs to be done, but also that you don’t expect them to automatically do it. This is so important because they would never dream of actually asking you to do it. The moments I felt most accepted by the mamas are very important to my memories of the orphanage; by the end they would greet me by name, ask me to do things and include me when they made chai for each other.

Simoni in backwards overalls

Both Emily and I left the orphanage to return to England at bedtime on our last day in Tanzania. It was very difficult to say goodbye, which meant that 2 nights running the mamas had a crying volunteer on their hands after we’d said goodnight. Of course, it was 2 different sets of mamas on shift the 2 nights, but all of them were so genuinely caring and honestly seemed sad to see us go. When they said ‘Karibu tena Tanzania’ as we left (Welcome again to Tanzania) I really felt they’d be glad to see us come back. The way to the mamas’ hearts is not just to help them with the harder work and show an interest in them, it’s also to show them that you really care about the children who are so important to them and who they spend their lives giving so much to.

I think that one of the most important things The Small Things can do is provide a secure future for the children once they reach 5 and leave the orphanage. It’s crucial that they get to go to school and are happy and well-cared for, as most of them don’t really have much of a family situation to go back to. By giving them education that they would never otherwise get, the Small Things and the children’s sponsors can change their whole lives, as well as their first 5 years. Equally important to me is that the mamas feel supported and helped by the Small Things. They are an incredible group of women and anything we can do to make their lives easier and better is so, so worth it.

As for me, currently I don’t know if I’ll be able to get back to the orphanage or not. I would love to go, and I will be hanging on the stories of my fellow board-members who are going at Christmas. I wish I could be going too. I know that there is so much the Small Things can do in Nkoaranga and I am so happy that I’m able to be part of it even from home. It means that if I don’t get the opportunity to go back I can support and help the orphanage. Nkoaranga has given me so much: experience, confidence, wonderful new relationships. I’m glad that through the Small Things I can still give something to the orphanage that became such a huge part of my life.

Cuddling with Stevie (rear) and Dainess

Housekeeping

A few quick updates - I'm now posting on Twitter for The Small Things - follow me @Smallthingsorg! There's also a great article out from the Record Journal about our organization, which is very exciting! Given the press we've been getting recently, we've added a "Media" page to the menu. If you happen to be/know someone who could help us get the word out, please let us know.

We're also putting together a DVD for the kids with messages from people who love them, whether they've met them or not. If you'd like to contribute, please record a short clip - it can be anything from just saying hi, to reading them a short story, to singing a silly song, to a TV or movie clip that your own kids enjoy. They get such a huge kick out of knowing that there are people thinking about them - I honestly believe that the reinforcement that people care about them and love them is a huge part of why they are as well-adjusted as they are, despite everything they've been through. Send anything you put together to Bekka@thesmallthings.org and we'll put it on one DVD to send over. I'm told the first one (which was all me and my family and is profoundly, profoundly embarrassing for anyone over the age of five to view) was a huge hit, and the number one request for when the power is on - except for Bob the Builder, of COURSE!

On a serious note, we still have some distance to go to get the kids into school this year. It's not just a matter of wanting to get this money - if we don't raise it by December 15th, one of these amazing, brilliant children will have to wait at least another year to start school. They've already had so many disadvantages and setbacks, we really want to start them off right. So if you haven't yet, please consider donating to help us get there - every little bit helps!

I'd also like to take a moment to thank, once again, the amazing donors who make everything we do possible. I've been overwhelmed since we started this effort by the generosity and kindness of all of you, and even more convinced of the power of a child's smile to move hearts across oceans. Together, we can move mountains.

Facing up to our limitations

For all the ways that we try to make growing up in Nkoaranga orphanage wonderful for our kids, we can never fully compensate for the lack of a family. For the older kids, their relationships with each other are so beautiful that we can sometimes be forgiven for thinking they are just as well off. In many ways, they are. But there are serious, long term consequences of rationing their care - consequences we are facing now.

Little babes all in a row

When January of 2011 rolled around, we had seven babies under six months. Gracie was six months, Frankie and Maureen were four months, Filipo and Vicki were two months, and Ebenezer and Reziki were one month. We were down to just a few volunteers, since most of those who had been with us in the fall had left to spend the holidays in their home countries, and the next cohort hadn't yet arrived. Both Ebenezer and Reziki were profoundly premature and very sick, and despite the best efforts of all the volunteers and mamas, there were days on end where the babies didn't make it out of bed. Reziki came to take up more and more time and energy, as his physical state deteriorated, and he passed away at the end of the month.

Things improved slowly after that - as the babies got bigger and some of the toddlers, like Baracka and Maureen, became more independent and needed less help, we were able to get the babies up every day, outdoors every day. They began to eat formula and then food, to gurgle and sit. By the time my father, Dr. David Ross Russell, did physicals on all of the children in April, none of them were too far out of line for their age. Unfortunately, since then, several of the children have plateaued. Gorgeous Frankie and Maureen, who are both over a year, are yet to crawl, although they are making attempts with their arms. Their weights are normal and they seem to be otherwise healthy.

Frankie definitely
 isn't underweight!

Studies show that children in orphanages lag an average of one month of development behind for every three months they stay in the institution. When the children are spaced in age, and we have enough volunteers, we can often thwart that delay - with this cohort of children, we have failed. We don't know how long it will take them to catch up, or what it will take, or whether it is even possible. We hope that it is. We're already planning intensive intervention with the children during our December trip, and to train the volunteers arriving in January to continue that work. But who knows if it will be enough?

The truth is, any time that we don't fail, it is a matter of luck. There are twelve women covering the orphanage, twenty four hours per day, seven days per week. That means that there are between two and three caretakers at any given time for thirty children. The orphanage is desperate to hire more staff, but they cannot do it without help. Consider that those women need to complete, every single day, shopping for thirty children, preparing food from scratch for thirty children, boiling water to drink for thirty children, washing clothes for thirty children, changing and washing cloth diapers for at least ten children, and running school for all the rest. When the water is out, or a child is sick, a mama will be unavailable for anything else until the problem is resolved. The mamas are heroic - but they are human. The children are resilient - but not invulnerable.

They need more time than we have been able to give them. That's why I want to talk about one very specific and direct form of donation. It costs $100 USD, or about £65 GBP, to employ a caretaker for a month. Not all of us can commit to that full amount - but what about half of it? What about a quarter of it? If we can get the financial backing from you, we will hire new staff and have them working with these children SOON. Think about the upcoming holidays - is there anyone on your list who would feel good about giving a chance at normal development to an orphaned child? Who would rather know that a woman in the developing world has a job, and a group of orphaned children have a caretaker, than have another piece of electronic equipment or jewelry?

This isn't just a fuzzy, feel-good approach to combating the problem - numerous studies have shown that even severely neglected children, which these children are NOT, can recover to an amazing degree once they are given the proper attention, exercise, and encouragement. Look at Zawadi, who was not only unable to crawl at a year old, but had severe worms and rickets - and now she's walking up a storm. Simoni, who couldn't walk at two and a half years old, only scoot, because no one had had the time to work with him to overcome his rickets. And now he's running all over the place. Our babies can recover, and given a chance, they WILL recover. Our job is to give them that chance, and to give the orphanage the resources so that we don't face this problem with each cohort of children.

After that, it's out of our hands.

Hire Orphanage Staff

Full Sponsorship : $100.00USD - monthlyHalf Sponsorship : $50.00USD - monthlyQuarter Sponsorship : $25.00USD - monthly

This is in honor of:

References: 1, 2, 3, 4