Board Bio: Bethan Crisp

My name is Bethan Crisp. I am 21 years old and I am currently studying Anthropology at Brunel University in West London.

In the Amazon!

For as long as I can remember, I wanted to pursue my studies and career in Law. That was until I began planning some time out of studying in order to travel to Tanzania. Suddenly, my head was filled with adventure, spontaneity, getting ‘out there’ and experiencing the world, (as cliché as that may sound!)

I visited a few universities  and it was during one visit that the realization fell upon me that spending the next, however many years in a dull, brown bricked classroom, (which is how this one particular Law department looked!) was just not for the person I was becoming.

I changed my course and I could not be happier with my decision. I have been on an inspiring placement to Ecuador where I lived in an indigenous Quichua community in the Amazon for 6 months and the confidence it has given me is brilliant and extremely encouraging.  

Anyway, how did I get to Tanzania? I originally went to Tanzania through the organization “Oyster Worldwide” in September 2010 as part of my gap year between college and university. I taught English at a primary school to a class of 70 students for 6 months, until meeting some amazing volunteers in Nkoaranga, also there through Oyster, who took me on a visit to the Orphanage. I fell in love with the children and from that moment, I just knew it would be impossible for me to keep away.

Big Franky with Pray and Fillipo during music class

Such happy faces make working for The Small Things and being a volunteer at Nkoaranga so rewarding!

I was nervous at first to meet the children. Before Tanzania, I had never really been a ‘children person’ or very natural with babies. The children at Nkoaranga completely changed me. They were so welcoming and full of love that I had no time to be shy. They were just such brilliant characters and made an immediate impression and I suddenly felt like I had come to the place that I was destined to go to since arriving in Tanzania. Something had always been missing and until I met these children at Nkoaranga, I didn’t know what that missing thing was.

This year whilst I was back in Nkoaranga, I saw the arrival of baby Hope. It is a very bitter sweet situation to witness the arrival of a new resident of Nkoaranga Orphanage; to be able to hold and interact with such an amazing form of life but to have to wonder about the tragic circumstances that have brought him or her to us. It was fascinating looking at such a small bundle of 'Hope' in her blankets with her eyes closed and thinking about her future. It was very emotional for me as I stood in the baby room looking over at all of the small, sleeping little people. I can only be glad that they are in a safe place surrounded by love and people who will be there for them for years to come.

Baby Hope in her bundle of blankets, the first day I met her. 

I didn’t expect to become so involved and connected to the orphanage. I think that may have been due to every time in England if I was given a baby to hold, he or she would immediately cry their eyes out! Here, at Nkoaranga, a baby would stop crying and feel content if put into my arms. I felt needed. I felt infinitely responsible to care for them and ensure I could be a part of their lives and a part of giving them a future they deserve; a future that any child deserves.

This is why I now work for The Small Things. It gives me the opportunity to do just that – have the ability to contribute to the livelihoods of these beautiful individuals from England when I can’t physically be there with them. I was first in Tanzania for 10 months and I returned for the Christmas and New Year of 2011. This year, after 18 months, I made my third return and saw such a wonderful difference. Such big, gorgeous, healthy children! I had the opportunity to visit the older school children at USA River Academy who had been at the orphanage on my previous visits. How amazing to see them as such flourishing individuals, learning, happy, running around on the grass together and absorbing life.

Visiting the older children at USA River Academy this year. I first met them in 2011 in Nkoaranga Orphanage. It is so great to be able to see such wonderful, physical changes and pure proof of development.

Life at Nkoaranga Orphanage is tough, to say the least. The mamas and, not forgetting, big Franky, do outstanding work. I'm sure many parents would say that looking after one or two children is hard enough. But imagine two mamas a day with over 20 babies, toddlers and young children craving their attention, not enough toys to go around, or not enough of the same toys to prevent any arguments! Sounds challenging, right? 

Loveness taking care of Isaac. The older children can be so helpful when there aren't enough hands to feed a hungry mouth or to sooth a crying baby.

I grew very fond of big Ebenezer. It seems so ironic for him to now be named 'big' Ebenezer (now that we have another little Ebenezer in the orphanage too,) considering he was so tiny and so sick when I first held him back in 2011. I feared for his life. So to see him again this year was indescribable. He is such a funny boy who absolutely loves a cuddle and although he seems relatively sweet and innocent, he definitely has his cheeky moments! He certainly knows how to win your heart, even after you send him to bed and wait for an apology after he has misbehaved, he quickly makes it up to you with a kiss on the cheek!

A tiny, premature baby, Ebenezer,  who became so sick that it was touch and go as to whether he could pull through. 

....But he did! And he is such a fun, lovable, beautiful and, most importantly, healthy little boy today! 

I love a good challenge and what better motivation to complete one, than to do it for the kids? Upon return from Tanzania my first time, I conducted 'Project Maji' which raised over $1,000 for water filtration systems for the orphanage and hospital. 
Then, I went a step up and in December 2011, planned for myself and 4 other previous Nkoaranga volunteers to jump out of a plane and skydive! I still to this day have no idea how I managed that. I not only have a fear of planes, but also of heights! So if THAT wasn’t a challenge, I don’t know what is!
This April, I also took part and completed a sponsored half marathon in aid of The Small Things. I’m not a huge fan of running, especially a run that goes on for more than 2 hours! But I did it and I would do it all over again for the children.
I am of course now thinking and planning my next challenge; something bigger and better. Ideas are on the cards so you will have to keep a look out to see what I plan to get myself into next time!

Success of Project Maji! Stevie, Andrea and David drinking safe, clean water.

High up in the air! A terrifyingly amazing experience.

At the finish line! My first half marathon which I plan to do again next year and beat my time.

  

There are too many amazing memories of the children and Nkoaranga Orphanage for me to go into here. This is why I would tell you to go to Nkoaranga and experience it for yourself and to make your own memories!

 
I am very grateful to be a part of The Small Things because it allows me to play a part in the continuing development of the present and the future of these children. I am a member of the communications, fundraising and volunteers committees and I love being able to assist and help prepare new volunteers who are set to travel out to Tanzania. I am thankful to have met such devoted people and to work as part of a team where our strength grows immensely due to the support of all of you who take the time to read our blogs, keep updated on the children, provide feedback and donate to our projects.

Thank you everyone for your support and encouragement to The Small Things but also to the steps of my past that led me to where I am today. 

We all love bubbles...

As I’m sure my parents, and probably a few others, would agree, having little children in the school holidays can be a bit stressful. If you then multiply the number of kids with too much time on their hands by about 24, you get the holidays at the orphanage.

The teachers at the orphanage are amazing, and going to school is huge part of the day for everybody from Zawadi and Neema’s age group upwards. It also works out some of their crazy excess energy so that they are all sleepy for naptime after lunch. One of my favourite memories of our recent trip was watching Kantate (one of the teachers) organise running races across the front of the orphanage grass before school in the morning, seeing Zawadi and Miriam showing off their best running styles, Big Ebenezer risk getting flattened as he wandered aimlessly across the racetrack, Eman winning every race effortlessly, and Tumaini really not being too happy about it!

As a result, when school is not on, everybody is full of beans and raring to go. One of the most fool-proof ways to entertain them, and work off some of that energy, is to get out the bubbles:

….and an hour and a half later….

They are always a hit and the kids really can do this for hours and hours. I hope everyone spotted Frankie trying to eat the bubbles in that last video! (13 seconds in)

(The real joy comes when there is a really big bubble that everyone wants to pop; the real challenge is learning to blow extra-big bubbles on demand as everyone shouts “Kubwa! Kubwa! Mimi kubwa!!” (Big! Big! A big one for me!!) every five seconds. Unfortunately we didn’t get a video of this, but the highlight of my bubble-blowing morning was when I did manage to blow a really big bubble, but if went too high and everyone missed it. After a lot of pointing and shouting and jumping, the kids stood literally open-mouthed, necks craning at the sky, watching this bubble get higher and higher and linger, still intact, right over the top of the orphanage roof. We never did see it pop, it went right up and over to the other side of the building! The only problem was that I couldn’t repeat this miracle on request – and there were a lot of requests!

Here are a few pictures, just to show you how much the kids really do love bubbles:

Pray's gymnastics and high jumps to get there first are always impressive - rivalled occasionally by Baraka 

Neema was determined to get whole clouds of bubbles all by herself.

Zi makes up for not being able to reach by swinging with her cardigan!

I think Ester was just posing really :)

And my personal favourite: Miriam is unable to contain her excitement!

One piece of good news this week is that the Small Things has been able to find sponsors for Daniel's education. Daniel is an orphan who was struggling to raise the money to start secondary school. He had already managed to get a part scholarship thanks to his impressive grades finishing primary school. From the newspaper article, it's clear Daniel has not had the easiest life. We are very happy that thanks to the generosity of Lonnie, Garry, Wendy, Susan and the Somji family, we will be able to pay the remainder of Daniel's school fees and living costs for this year, as well as put a bit away towards next year. It is really great to be able to help someone who will make the most of the support the way Daniel will.

Read more about Daniel at: http://www.thecitizen.co.tz/news/4-national-news/28862-dreams-in-jeopardy-as-disabled-child-struggles-to-raise-fees.html 

On a final happy note, we are really pleased to be able to tell everyone who may not have seen it on Facebook that Neema Ndogo is much better and back at the orphanage, and is likely to be falling asleep into her food once again.

Then and now

It's amazing how fast time flies at the orphanage... sometimes, history repeats itself, and some things never change!

Frankie 2010

Frankie 2012

 Frankie's cheeks are still for the ages!

Me holding Pray and Simoni 2010

Me holding Pray and Simoni 2012

I still adore this funny little pair, who couldn't be more different from each other if they tried, despite being just a few months apart in age...

Baracka (left) with bubbles 2010

Baracka with bubbles 2012

Baracka still loves bubbles, but has moved up the totem pole, and now gets to blow them rather than just pop them!

Simoni grinning 2010

Simoni grinning 2012

 Simoni still has the world's best happy face...

Eman 2010

Eman 2012

Eman is still way cooler than I will ever be, and he still likes chilling on the trampoline...

Stevie (far right) as a baby with volunteers (thanks Amy for the photo!)

Stevie (far left) 2012 with volunteers

Stevie's mouth still exerts its own gravitational pull... 

Tumaini with Zawadi 2009

Tumaini with Peace 2012

And you still can't keep Tumaini away from the babies. Ok, so a few concrete updates on the kids - Peace is out of the hospital and back home with us, missing only a little of his belly chub. Big Ebenezer has taken his daredevil antics to the next level and smashed out his front teeth - poor boy! Little Ebenezer is doing much better and should be discharged from the hospital tomorrow (yay!), so our whole little family should be at the orphanage together as of tomorrow! Thank you so much to everyone who donated for his care - he was in about ten days altogether, so his bill will be high. We continue to gratefully accept contributions towards his hospital bills. 

And as a final bonus, a lookalike feature: 

Which of these pictures shows our gorgeous boy Shujaa, and which shows a Japanese Kabuki crab ? Both are surprisingly fuzzy on top. 

Happy Birthday to Three Amazing Kids!

I'm literally JUST back from the US, where I had a lovely but all too brief sojourn visiting family and friends... and I'm still jet-lagged out of my mind, sadly, so this post will be short and sweet - in honor of three ridiculously fantastic kids and their birthdays.

Happy third birthday (on the 22nd) to our gorgeous, vivacious little ray of sunshine, Maureen! 

Maureen as a newborn

With her beautiful smile

In the center of it all,
with Miriam (left) and Neema

Happy fourth birthday (on the 20th) to our tank of a little man, Pray. Without the heroism of Mama Cantate, we might never have made it to this amazing day - we're so proud of how far you've come! Please see our page on "Light Up the Night" to learn about the fire that almost took this bright spark of a boy away from us - and how you can help us to to make sure it never happens again. 

Today, happy and gorgeous little boy!

Baby Pray just after the fire 

Last year, still half baby

And finally, happy sixth birthday (today) to our sweet, smart, and sensitive schoolboy, Ericki - now thriving at USA River Academy with the help of TFFT and his wonderful sponsors, the Butler and Al-Azawie families! Please check out the Education page to read about this upcoming year's students, and to find out how to help them reach their amazing potential.

Strong, confident little man this year

Ericki shortly after coming
to the orphanage

Silly boy last year - trying to get gum
 out of his hair with peanut butter!

 Ericki came to the orphanage as a toddler - his mother died at birth, but his father and grandmother had struggled to keep the family together for as long as they could. Ultimately the economic strain was too great, and they brought him to the orphanage for a better life, a heartwrenching decision. We are launching a pilot project this summer that will hopefully provide a helping hand to families in this type of situation, providing business training and micro-grants to families caring for orphaned children or single parents in danger of having to send a child to an orphanage, with the goal of helping them get on their feet and become self sufficient. More to come on this exciting project, I promise! 

Light Up the Night

Cantate with Ester

Valentine's day is not a carefree day at Nkoaranga orphanage. Just three years ago, an electrical short caused the orphanage baby room to catch fire, and seriously burned two children. It might have been much worse except for the heroism of Cantate, one of the orphanage mamas and one of the two kindergarten teachers. She carried every one of the seven children in that room (all under nine months) to safety, incurring serious injury herself in the process. Her scars are badges of courage. Pray and David will also carry the scars of that day on their bodies forever. We are very, very lucky and grateful that nothing worse happened.

We want to honor her heroism and keep the children safe, which is why we're launching Project "Light Up the Night" - a two part project which involves rewiring the entire orphanage to prevent dangerous shorts, as well as installing solar lighting for the frequent nightly power outages. Previously, the mamas often had to carry a child in one hand and a candle in the other - obviously an extremely dangerous proposition. Over the last few years, we've been moderately successful at supplying them with battery powered lights, but they are far from an ideal solution. Since December, they have had small solar lanterns, which are a huge improvement - but they deserve a better solution. We are committed to bringing it to them.

David, whose legs were very badly burned

Pray, who was burned badly on his head

Project "Light Up the Night" will culminate in April with a gala dinner being thrown by Kristina Alexander in Victoria, British Columbia, with all proceeds going to the project. If we exceed our fundraising goals, we can also install solar lighting in the hospital's maternity wing. Currently, laboring mothers are left in the dark for hours at a time, seriously endangering them and preventing the doctors from doing their jobs properly. Part of supporting the orphanage is doing everything within our power to prevent children from being orphaned in the first place, and we take that responsibility seriously. 

Take a look at the video to see Cantate describe the day in her own words, and to meet David and Pray. Don't forget, David is also one of the children we are hoping to find sponsors for, to allow him to attend school next year. See all the details on our Education page.

For $6,000, we can rewire the entire orphanage and install solar lighting, and for another $3500 we can install solar lighting in the hospital's maternity ward as well. To contribute, click below (you will enter the amount you'd like to contribute on the next page) or go through our "How to Help" page, and select "Light Up the Night." 

Thank you for caring about our kids, and thank you for anything you can give. 

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!