Since May, the Home has admitted a total of 13 children in total; 4 babies – all of whom were abandoned and taken to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH), 3 from Eldoret Street Rehabilitation Program and the remaining 6 from the internally displaced families as a result of the 2007 post-election violence.

The (6) six children were abandoned by their mother at the Eldoret Show ground-IDP camp.

The father, a shoe-shiner and the sole breadwinner, could not afford to meet all the family’s needs, as he too was living at the camp. As a result, the father would spend most of his time trying to look for ways to feed his children, which meant leaving the children alone for long periods of time.

The eldest girl (age 12) would take care of her 5 siblings in the harsh environment of the IDP camp.

All our children in school are doing their best in school. We managed to attend academic meetings, personal school visits and reviewed all progress report forms of all our children for the second term.

Many thanks to the Golder Trust for Orphans recent donation, which was used to purchase the supplies necessary to refurbish our children’s dormitory.

We are happy to share stories from the orphans who are being cared for in our home thanks to the Golder Trust for Orphans.

Sarah turned 10 years old at the beginning of September. To celebrate her birthday we had a treasure hunt Hope Farm style. Everyone (children and adults) had to perform some farm tasks in order to get puzzle pieces that made a map to find the treasure.

Sarah and April have been going to swimming lessons. Sarah takes it seriously and is doing very well. April approaches it with her usual enthusiasm and wants to learn to jump out of the water like a dolphin.

Michael writes his final school exams in May/June 2009, so he is working hard. He is temporarily sleeping on the bottom bunk in the small children’s room as we have to repair the ceiling in his room. He helps with the farm chores, which is a huge blessing to Andrew.

Sarah has baby chicks at the moment and she spends lots of time in the barn feeding them and sorting out the silly hens who don’t look after them properly. She helps with the farm chores and loves milking the cow.

All of you that have spent time with us know how much I enjoy farming and this month I have had such fun.

I know all we do is for the people we help and to grow the ministry but this last month has been so cool.

Thanks to the Golder Trust for Orphans during the last month we received a donation to help us produce our own food and to fence down to the river for more grazing. We bought a dairy cow called Fraulein and are now milking every morning and night. We are making our own butter and even made ice-cream. We got young bull calves which we had to bottle feed and have raised chickens for the table. I got a quad bike and made a trailer so I can easily manage the fences and herd all the animals.

Many thanks to all the Golder staff who are contributing to the Trust for Orphans. Your donations are making a huge difference in the lives of our orphans and our community.

As reported in the Trust September 2008 newsletter, the Trust recently started supporting the efforts of Carlos Vilanculos, a very caring man who is running a mission station from his family’s farm in Mozambique.

The first case of HIV/AIDS was diagnosed in 1986 in Mozambique. This was followed by a steady increase in the prevalence rate up to an estimated 16.2% among the population aged 15 to 49 years in 2004. In July 2004 the Government declared HIV/AIDS a national emergency.

The first case of HIV/AIDS was diagnosed in 1986 in Mozambique. This was followed by a steady increase in the prevalence rate up to an estimated 16.2% among the population aged 15 to 49 years in 2004. In July 2004 the Government declared HIV/AIDS a national emergency.

The chicken house built with funding from the Golder Trust for Orphans

The epidemic has reduced life expectancy from 41 years in 1999 to 38.1 years in 2004. On average, 500 new infections occur every day, 90 of them among young children through motherto-child transmission. Approximately 1.6million Mozambicans are living with HIV or AIDS, and more than 90,000 of them are children under the 15 years of age.

Among adults, it is estimated that AIDS now accounts for almost 25% of all deaths recorded. This has led to an orphan crisis of alarming dimensions. Out of almost 1.6 million orphaned children in Mozambique, around 325,000 have lost their mother, father or both parents due to AIDS. Their numbers will increase to almost 650,000 by 2010.

Carlos started his Mission Station in 2002 on 8 hectares of land in the Massinga district of Mozambique. The property is situated 20 kilometers between the small towns of Nhachenque and Mavanza. With help from the Golder Trust for Orphans, he has made amazing progress in the past few months. His feeding program initiative escalated from feeding the original 45 orphans to more than 175 orphans in need of help. The vegetables he has been able to grow as a result of the irrigation system he installed are generating enough income for him to feed all of those children.

Chickens purchased with help from the Golder Trust for Orphans

The Trust’s contribution also helped Carlos complete the building of a chicken house as well as purchase the supplies necessary to take care of 400 meat chickens (feed, food buckets, water buckets, lights, a heater).

In the first week after purchasing the chickens, some of the chickens died. Electricity for the lights at night was produced from a generator that Carlos had. It was soon realized that the generator was heavy on fuel, using 5 litres per night. The nearest filling station where petrol can be bought is 120 kilometres away. Carlos bought paraffin lamps instead of electric ones but the heat was not sufficient. He then borrowed a solar panel to load two 12 V batteries to solve the problem at night but discovered that one solar panel was not sufficient to create heat all night.

Next steps for Carlos?

He’ll explore building another chicken house where he can store his chicken feed and equipment.

He’ll be looking for alternative methods for electricity supply – likely solar given how isolated he is from an infrastructure of any sort. He’ll also need to consider how he’s going to freeze the chickens once he slaughters them to ensure they can be stored before they are sold.

He’ll be looking for a way to ensure a more consistent supply of water (a bore hole) and will need to build a storage tank in which to store his water.

With the help of the Trust for Orphans, Carlos is providing food to children in his community who would otherwise not be eating.

Garden at Carlos’ mission / Children being supported by Carlos

Here’s the latest news update from Lewa Children’s Home!

For more information about this Trust sponsored project, visit their web site at www.lewachildrenshome.info!

Since our January newsletter, the home has admitted eight more children, fostered one and re-located eight with their relatives. Out of those admitted, three were babies who were abandoned at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, two were orphans and three came from Munyaka slums in Eldoret. The case of the three sisters from Munyaka slums was a bit touching as their mother is HIV+ and had been their sole caretaker. The eldest was always left to care for the other siblings and therefore faced difficult challenges, such as taking adult responsibilities as the head of the household. It was hard to imagine how these three young girls were meeting their daily basic needs, as their mother was away most of the time. After admission to the home, the three are now much happier and healthier. All they need is care and some loving intervention to help them cope with the trauma.

Thanks to a $70,000 contribution to Bulembu Ministries in late 2007, the Bulembu Honey Project is underway and the first batch of honey was produced in May 2008!

Thanks to the contribution made by the Trust, beehives were built, a production facility was designed and completed, honey was collected from the hives and has been bottled for sale in shops in Swaziland.

For more information about Bulembu, which is one of the NGO’s being supported by the Trust, visit www.bulembu.org.