The Rains Came Down and the

Floods Came Up!

Rama has been sleeping in the cow barn since Daisy’s calf is due any day. Hopefully this baby will come soon. But we have no lack of babies in the baby home at Neema Village!

Kelle Samsill and the Fort Worth group with Maria and Julius love to sit on the baby love couch with the little babies.

Ashley Berlin got to name one of our recent babies, Tayo, below, which means “boy full of happiness.” 

His mother abandoned him on a dala dala, the local transport system, but the people chased her down and took her to the police station. On the way she tried to smother the baby. Our staff went to pick him up and got to see the mom. She was talking to no one not even the police. We offered to bring her home to Neema with the baby but her eyes were blank and she did not seem to care who took the baby. 

She might have been beaten since the volunteers saw bruising on her side.  Our babies go through so much before they come to Neema Village but I suspect these moms do too. Please say a prayer for this poor mom as you put your little ones to bed tonight.

Baby Joshua came to Neema on February 10^th. His mom is mentally ill and burned the house down so Social Welfare picked up the baby and called Neema Village. He had been given raw cow’s milk so we were fearful there would be some tummy issues through his first night but he was a good baby. His eyes speak volumes and we will never know all that this precious baby has been through.

The twins, Nashooki and Esupati, came to Neema with their mother and a neighbor this month. The twins are around 18 months old. These little girls are Maasai and were severely malnourished with big heads and skin stretched over the bones in their little faces. Their tiny bodies and thin arms and legs don’t seem to fit their large heads.

Their mother has HIV and is not taking medicine and does not want to take it. She wants to keep the babies with her but keeps trying to breastfeed them. She is also very weak. We are trying to encourage her to get the medicine and take it so she will live for her girls. We know she loves them. We told her she is welcome to stay at the May MAP apartments on campus and visit the girls but she did not want to stay. Below the girls after one month at Neema. They love their cookies!

The twins got to come to bible class and learn to Pat Pat the bible. Thank you Lottie McCormack for the bibles. They have now been properly chewed and slobbered upon!

 This little dumpling below got to return home this month. Baby Grace went home with her dad and an auntie who has moved in to take care of her. Her mom had died at her birth but her dad came quite often to see her. She was ready to go home. It is exactly what we want for these little ones.

 We often see street beggars with their cups in downtown Arusha. 

This month a street beggar carrying little twins walked to Neema Village for help. Dorinni, below, had finally had enough and told us through her tears that she just couldn’t go back out there.  She is a widow and had moved back home to her mother for help after her husband died. When her mother died she went out on the streets with the little twins to beg. 

She was living in filth and the babies were sopping wet when they arrived at Neema. As Nicky and Abby tried to give the babies baths you could hear their shrieks all over the baby home!  

After they took the mom and babies back to their one-room home in town they laid the babies on piles of dirty clothes which seemed to serve as their bed. Anna and Gilead went back the next day to clean and were appalled at the bugs in and on everything.