In memory of Lulu and Hope

Top: Lulu, June 2013 - April 2014, bottom: Hope, July 2013 - April 2014

It is hard to know how to begin as I am writing to you all this morning.  We are heartbroken to tell you that baby Lulu passed away in hospital on Wednesday night, and that Hope passed away on Friday night from the same infection.

Lulu had been in and out of hospital over the last few days, but was on antibiotics and smiley and happy on Wednesday with just a low fever.  The Mamas spent all day giving her dehydration salts, but she deteriorated during the day and was re-admitted to Nkoaranga hospital in the evening.  Mama Pendo was with her and had planned to ask us to have her transferred to a bigger hospital in Arusha today, but Lulu passed away around 5am despite the doctor and nurses' best efforts to save her.  Hope was also suffering from similar symptoms and so was admitted to hospital in Moshi with a high fever.  For a while we held out hope that she might once again pull through; however, she passed away despite the best care available in the region.

The most likely scenario, though we will probably never know for sure, is a virulent bacterial pneumonia, that Lulu caught, and Hope was just that much more susceptible to catching from her than the other children because of her history of recurrent illness and slow weight gain. There is no reason to suspect any reservoir of infection in the orphanage at this time, and this does not have the hallmarks of influenza or other endemic conditions. We will remain vigilant and continue to exercise and encourage good hygiene.
 

I am sure it will come as a huge shock to you, as it did to all of us on the ground and on the board. To have lost two beautiful, bubbly and happy little girls in the space of two days is almost too much to take in and to bear.  It is hard to understand that the short time in which we were able to share in their laughter, their growing and their learning is over.  Today, our staff and volunteers in Nkoaranga joined the Mamas and the rest of the village in attending a beautiful funeral for Lulu, and tomorrow everyone will once again gather to support each other and remember Hope who is gone but will also be forever in our thoughts.  We plan to host a memorial service later in the week after everyone has had space to pause.

Our thoughts will be with all those whose lives these baby girls have touched, and who are hurting at this moment.  Dorothy shared this poem by Judah ha-Levi with us and I wanted to share it with all of you as well.  I hope it will help you process this sad news.

It is a fearful thing to love

what death can touch.

A fearful thing to love, 

hope, dream: to be--

to be, and oh! To lose,

A thing for fools this, and

a holy thing to love.

a holy thing,

For

your life has lived in me,

your laugh once lifted me,

your smile was gift to me.

To remember this brings a painful joy.

'Tis a human thing, love,

a holy thing,

to love

what death has touched.

 

If you would like to make a donation in memory of Lulu and Hope, we ask that you donate through Project Riziki, our fund for hospital fees, and any other support which is needed by sick or vulnerable children in our care.  Thank you so much to those who have already donated and for all the kind messages of support which we have recieved.  They have made a big difference in a very difficult time.  If you have an questions or messages, please email us at communications@thesmallthings.org.

 

Thank you.

 

.

 





Guest Blog: 10 things we have learned in Nkoaranga, by Ditte

Ditte and Christine, two of our current volunteers from Denmark, arrived in Nkoaranga in early January. This great blog is a list of ten very useful things to know about volunteering in Nkoaranga! All our volunteers leave saying what an amazing experience it was, but it's also good to be prepared for all parts of living as a volunteer in a small, rural community on the mountain slopes of Meru in East Africa, where, yes, power cuts are an inevitable part of life!

10 things we have learned being in Nkoaranga:

Soon we will have been volunteering at Nkoaranga Orphanage for 4 months and what an experience it has been. We have had the most amazing time with other volunteers, TST employees, mamas and the most beautiful children that we will really miss when we return to Denmark. However, there are some things that we had not thought about before we went away and now we have had time to look back, here’s what we have learned during our incredible trip.

1: The one thing we did not expect to miss was the liquorice!

Down here, far from home comforts, you will find small joys in little things, such as ice cream or chocolate. Though these are good, one thing we have really been missing here is Danish liquorice. You can get everything else here but liquorice is not available anywhere. We can’t wait to have it again, so we wish that we had brought some with us. The same goes for any treats from your own country.

2: Think of a hobby and use your time wisely

When you’re not working, the time here both flies and goes at a snail's pace, so a hobby that you can occupy yourself with would be a nice idea. Especially when there are long power cuts.

Kisses for Christine!

3: Contact lenses can be difficult to use in Africa

So, when you 're down here and it’s been 30 degrees for a month without rain, it begins to get very dusty. I had problems with my contact lenses and then decided to just give up with them. I wasted space in my backpack with contact lens fluid, so glasses would clearly be preferable here!

4: We wish we had taken a kindle or e-reader

We brought some books in paper form but wish that we had taken a kindle with us; it takes up less space and is easier to get new books without having to go to town. They are especially good during power cuts!

5: I should’ve brought a Swahili dictionary

I thought that my English would be OK and I could easily pick up a bit of Swahili. That's one thing I regret, because English is not enough and, though most people know a few words, not everyone speaks it. A Swahili phrasebook, both before you come and during, would be a useful idea. It’s just a great feeling putting the kids to bed and being able to say goodnight and sleep well in their own language.

Our volunteers are unbelievably useful with so many children looking for cuddles, love and someone to play with.

6: Balloons are like gold! 

I brought balloons because as a child I loved them, so it was only natural to bring them to the pilot house. I just wish I had brought more because the kids LOVED them and we had so much fun playing "balloon wars”.

7: You’ll get to experience some really unique things.

We have gone on some great trips during our 4 months. For example we went to a local church service and a wedding, (we wish we had brought some nice clothes for these type of things!). We went to some beautiful hot springs and canoeing on Lake Duluti, which were not bad also! We also visited the nice town of Moshi, which is a 2-hour bus journey away.

8: You will get ridiculously attached to the children at the orphanage

We didn’t have the faintest idea how close we would get to the children. When we think that we will soon not be the ones to wake them up in the morning or put them to bed at night, we realise what a tough goodbye it will be.

Vicky Mouse having cuddles with Ditte

9: It's not only the children you’ll miss.

We will also miss the lovely mamas. When you look at what a great job they do and see the touching, caring moments between mama and baby, you realise what an important part of the orphanage they are and just how much you can learn from them.

10: You will make new friends in the Volunteer house that you will miss when you leave

We didn’t think about how close you would get to other volunteers, but when you spend so much time with each other you really get to know them. You will definitely miss them when you go home, even their bad habits. The coolest thing of all is that they are so different and come from all over the world, so really help expand your horizons.

Ditte with our lovely Lulu!

Those are some of the things we have learned from our trip to Nkoaranga. Some things will probably be useful for you and some might not. But despite these things, this is an experience we would not exchange for anything in the world. We have come to love Africa and especially the children at the orphanage and we will definitely come back and see how they are doing. We will definitely recommend Nkoaranaga and the lovely children to our friends and any one else who might be interested in being a volunteer!

Project Riziki: Helping Hope

As you may have recently read, baby Hope has been suffering from an unexplained illness for quite some months now. Hope benefited from our 'Five Baby Challenge' last summer upon her arrival at the orphanage which, with your help and support, enabled us to fund one-to-one care for her to ensure she gained weight and strength to get her off to the best start during a very vulnerable stage in her life. However, there have been ongoing problems with her health, which we still cannot definitively explain or begin to fix. You may remember that young, beautiful Hope was fighting for her life. After several weeks in the Lutheran referral hospital in Arusha, she was believed to be on the mend. However, after just a few days back at the orphanage, she had to be rushed to a larger hospital in Moshi with a high fever.

Precious little Hope last year, not too long after her arrival at Nkoaranga Orphanage

Over the past few years, The Small Things and our partners have been able to vastly improve the living conditions, daily care, and survival chances of the beautiful kids at Nkoaranga Orphanage, thanks to your support. Hope's health problems are still a mystery unsolved. Therefore, we would like to ask for your help again in raising money for Project Riziki. 

The current situation:

Last week, Hope was admitted into hospital again with a fever, with the source still unknown. Nobody in Tanzania, so far, seems to be able to figure out exactly what is going on with poor Hope. She is now out of the hospital and back at the orphanage and doing well with Mama Fanueli; but this is almost certainly not the last of her problems. We want to do everything we can to ensure Hope is in full health and not having to suffer from these continuous fevers and chest infections any longer. 

We have recently found out about a clinic in Hai which can perform some tests that we thought would require travel to Kenya, which is thrilling!

Why we need your help:

In order to bring Hope to the center, we would need to ask Mama Fanueli to accompany us so that we can get Hope back to Nkoaranga the same day. If the consultation for Hope in Hai is unsuccessful in finding out the source of these ongoing problems, we will need to take her to Nairobi, Kenya as soon as possible. That would mean getting an emergency travel document through immigration to bring her to Kenya, which is a very complicated and costly prospect.

Hope, still tiny but growing.

With the memory of the losses of our little boy, Riziki in 2011 and our little girl, Rehema in 2012 in mind, we now ask for your help and support in our attempt to give our kids the best possible medical care they can receive here in Tanzania when circumstances require. We don't want to remain in the position of having to scramble for funds each time medical needs occur, as we have in the past. We have instead sought to create a standing fund - 'Project Riziki' - for hospital bills as well as any necessary transport, food, and overtime for Mamas accompanying the child, in memory of our little angels Riziki and Rehema, so that money will not be an obstacle to a child receiving the best care available.

Therefore, any donations that you are able to make towards Project Riziki would be extremely helpful. Not knowing what exactly Hope is suffering from means that we do not know what the future holds for her. We absolutely do not want to lose her, and that is why we plan to do everything we can. Just a few months ago she was still so weak and small. She has continued to put up a strong fight, and has now gained weight and is active, but we cannot predict the future without knowing the full picture. 

Thank you for anything you are able to give. Whether it is $1, $10 or £10, every dollar or pound will go a long way and will contribute to potentially saving the life of our little girl Hope. 

Please click here to donate towards Project Riziki

Thank you.

Family Matters

Facebook and Twitter are great ways for us to keep you in the loop about our daily news, but sometimes it is just as important that we give you a bit more detail than posts or tweets allow.  How can they give you a rounded idea of the complexities of caring for 30 children or explain our outreach program?  Today we wanted to use this blog to give you a proper understanding of those by discussing two recent individual cases: Glory and Fanueli.

So how do we make sure keeping families together are central to our work, and that we are doing what is best for the children?

1.  Outreach Program - Providing support to keep families together at home

The central importance of families has been crucial to the way that The Small Things has expanded over the last year or so. Recognition that orphanage care is not always the most appropriate response to difficult situations led us to set up our outreach program, which helps families in need of support to keep their children at home.  This may involve giving weekly food packages, assisting in finding the parent a job or whatever will be of most help.

Individual case - Fanueli

Fanueli smiling with his after-lunch cake

The clearest example of the way this works is the case of Fanueli, a three year-old whose mother was struggling to care for him after his grandmother's death. He is now coming in daily to attend the orphanage pre-school, where he receives breakfast, lunch and vitamins as well as education. By helping his mother a little with the cost of living, our outreach programme has meant that Fanueli has not needed residential care. His mother is now working for The Small Things at the orphanage, where she started with us as a cleaner but will hopefully end up as a fully trained mama with a secure income.

2.  When it is not possible for families to care for their child at home even with extra support

If a child has a caring parent then surely they shouldn't be growing up in an orphanage?

This is a very good question: we are glad that it was raised and want to answer it properly.  We understand that you are concerned about the damaging effect of institutionalised care on children and, as has rightly been pointed out to us, orphanages as such no longer exist in most wealthy countries because they are seen to be damaging to children’s development.  However, recent research has showed that institutionalized care can be significantly less damaging than living in the community if the care in the community is not adequate.  Unfortunately, sometimes families or neighbours may not be able to give the child adequate care, even with our support, and it is at this point that the child may be accepted into the orphanage. For almost 20 years, our head mama watched an average of one third to one half of the children who left orphanage care at age 5 go back to the village and any living relatives and end up abused, neglected or dead within a year. The risks are not just theoretical, and this was the documented status quo for almost two decades. 

The Small Things is careful about the family situations of the children we take into the orphanage and committed to respecting the opinions of our local partners and the community we work in.  In line with this, there is a careful process in place to assess individual children and whether they should be accepted into the orphanage.

How we decide whether it is best for a new child to be accepted into the orphanage?

1. Mama Pendo, the head mama at the orphanage, is always consulted. Often it is she who is first aware of the situation and starts the process.
2. Each child is evaluated by Dr. Kiwesa, the hospital’s head doctor.
3. Each child is assessed by out Tanzanian social worker and Tanzanian outreach worker.

Only if they are all unanimous that the child cannot be adequately cared for with their family, even if we offered them outreach support, do we take them into residential care.

If the child is accepted into the orphanage, what do we do to keep families connected?

Maintaining contact

The recognition that families are important structures all of our work. For example, the children’s relatives are encouraged to come and visit them whenever they can - Farajah’s older sister comes to the orphanage day care center most weekdays, and sleeps with her grandmother at night, since she is old enough not to need 24/7 care. We recognise that just because a family doesn’t have the capacity to look after a very young child, this does not mean this will always be the case or that they want to lose contact. Hopefully at some point Farajah will be able to return to them, just like Neema, who was able to move back to her family last year.
 

Here's Farajah's older sister Maureen popping in for a visit.

Visiting during holidays

We also try to make it possible for the older children who are at school to spend their school holidays with their extended families, if they are willing to host them, often with food support. For example, Isaak and Auntie are currently back with their father until the beginning of the new term, when they will return to the pilot house. Anna is with her grandmother, and Queen is with her father. 

Individual case - Glory

Glory with Victoria, one of our volunteers

Recently we told you the story of Glory, whose father has been struggling to look after her for nearly two years and who has recently come to live at the orphanage because he can’t give her what she needs. As a snapshot social media post, this understandably raised some concern among some engaged and responsible readers. 

However, Glory's father had been made homeless and needed time to get back on his feet before he could adequately care for Glory.  At her father's request, it was unanimously decided that Glory would benefit from residential care.  This will allow her to receive the proper healthcare, nutrition and attention which she needs until she can be reunited with her father.  He is now working for The Small Things as a security guard, which has given him an income and allowed him to see Glory regularly. We aim to get her back to her father in the long term so that she can have the family life that is thankfully still available to her.

3. Happy Family Children's Village

The importance of family is also the logic behind our larger project: Happy Family Children’s Village. We want our kids to grow up in the closest thing to a family possible, so we are structuring the Children’s Village in family-style houses, where children of different ages will grow up together as siblings with caregivers that they know well.

Thinking about what is best for the children is complicated and we are so glad that you are engaged with what we are doing.  By committing to consider the impact on the wider community and the families of the children, and by working on a case by case basis, we hope that we are able to come to decisions that benefit the children the most, in the long term as well as the short.