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.