Home Sweet Home

November 2018

“It’s my first lamb!”  Mariya Halapi was quite touched yesterday when Mama Iddi gave her a little lamb. I think we were all touched by yesterday’s events when one of our MAP widows, Mama Iddi and her handicap granddaughter got to move into their new home. It was quite a day.

Mama Iddi has been keeping her 12 year old abandoned granddaughter in her home where part of the wall had fallen in and she had hung an old tarp over the hole. There were large cracks in the back of the house and so many holes in the roof that she walked in mud inside the house when it rained. It was unsafe to say the least.

We had been out to visit Mama Iddi with some friends in August and were so saddened by her living conditions that we decided Neema, through the generosity of friends and the MAP program, could help.

We had planned at first to shore up the house, patch the cracks, put on a new tin roof and paint the house. But when our builders got started they realized none of the house was worth saving. So they bulldozed it and started from ground up. We took Mama Iddi and her granddaughter out yesterday to see the completed house for the first time. I realize this may not look like much to you but to this widow living in extreme poverty it is a mansion.

While the builders were working on her house for a couple of months, we had moved Mama Iddi and her granddaughter to a room down the street from Neema. We had also started her in a chicken/egg business through Neema’s MAP program. So the first thing we had to do yesterday was move the chickens. That was fun, feathers flapping and all!

All the neighbors came out to help including this handsome young man. He said he remembered a bible class we had done at his house a few years ago. Emily Broadbent, look how he has grown!

After getting all the chickens together we loaded up the trailer and our car along with the squawking chickens, the chicken coop, volunteers and Mama Iddi with everything she owned in the world and drove to her new home. She had not seen it painted nor the inside of the house, so we were all pretty excited for her.

She looked around at the metal windows, the creamy yellow walls and the smooth cement floor and all she could say was Wow, Wow! I felt like we were on that TV show where they blindfold people and reveal their remodeled house and everyone cries!

After the Wows! were over, we prayed with her and asked God to bless the house and her family with peace and that no harm would come to her while she lived there. Then the builders and volunteers all gathered round and sang, “Mungu ni Pendo”, an old African song that means God is Love.

Click this link to see video of singing:  https://youtu.be/MwBQ9bk19PU

We got the hugs yesterday from Mama Iddi but we know those hugs and blessings were really for those of you who made this new home possible for her. We love for our volunteers like Sophie Line (pictured below) and Linda Johnson, (she was helping with the chickens in one of the pictures above), to see the Goodness of God at work in Africa.

Thank you dear hearts for your loving care of widows and orphans.  I think surely nothing is closer to God’s heart than these.  We are so grateful that every day we get to be Administrators of His Abounding Grace.

Michael and Dorris www.neemavillage.org

For your enjoyment, below are three happy Neema babies, Isaac, Neema Grace and Sara.

October 15, 2018

With sixty one babies and big kids at Neema Village now, I Imagine it is a loud and messy place. It is also quite wonderful.  Two new babies came to Neema a few days ago. Emily says they are very tiny and fragile.  The top one is named Rachel and the little one pictured below doesn’t have a name yet.  I’m sorry to show you the pictures but this is who they are and I want you to know them.

I know this is hard to look at but they look like skeleton babies, don’t they?  It is even hard to write that. Our hearts break for them and I wish we were there to hold them and keep them warm and safe and tell them they will be okay. 

We will love them until a new family member can be found to care for them or they can be adopted.  It is never our goal to keep these little ones. “No baby belongs in an orphanage” is our motto, even though I continue to stress that we are not an orphanage. We are a rescue center.

Until the babies have their forever families they will need sponsors. Please go to www.neemavillage.org and sign up to care for these little ones.

Pictured below, Baby Baraka #4,  came to Neema on Thursday.

He was born at home and shortly after the birth the mom developed complications with the placenta. She died on the way to the hospital. I sigh with deep frustration each time this happens.   Did you know that the biggest killers in Africa are all preventable;  Malaria,Typhoid and Childbirth complications.   

Even though we now have a large monthly give away program of formula through our Outreach Program to keep babies in their homes, there was no one at this home who could care for this little one right now.  African culture will not allow a single woman to live in a house with a single man so hiring a live in nanny for them is not possible.   We will care for him until his father remarries or a grandmother or aunt can take over.

Christopher, pictured below is an abandoned baby.

October 2018.  Christopher came to Neema a few days ago. He was abandoned in the back of a taxi. His mother said she was going to get something and would be right back but never returned. He is assumed to be about two days old. He was taken to a hospital, where they named him and cared for him. Neema was then contacted. He is not very interested in the bottle right now, but we are trying. Please pray for him and his mother. If you would like to sponsor baby Chris while he is here we could certainly use your help.  Sponsorships start at $30 per month.

 We are continually asked what makes someone abandon a baby? We have had babies left on roadsides, on porches, in latrines, in a gravel pit, in a house alone, anywhere. You ask why? It’s a hard one to answer. We don’t usually try.I have been visiting with family for a few weeks and we have a pretty spirited granddaughter who loves to argue American politics. She says there is too much greed, corruption, hatred and a lack of respect for individual life in America. She is right, any is too much.

 But those things are not an American “place” problem, they are a heart problem.  Governments or Politicians can’t make people be good, love their wives, or share with the poor, or take care of their families, says author Phillip Yancey.   Our granddaughter thought she might like to move to Sweden but I would guess the Swedes have their share of mean and selfish people

I told her don’t get discouraged with us humans, there are more good ones than bad ones. Just watch any tragedy unfold on the nightly news. To the few perpetrators of any tragedy there are way more good people rushing in to help. 

“Keep your eyes on the helpers” is a good way to not be discouraged about life.

In our work in Africa where we regularly see babies who have been thrown out, discarded, starved and women used, abused and left destitute, yes, it is easy to become cynical and want to move to Sweden.

That may be one reason we are so in love with our volunteers. They help keep us grounded, a regular dose of goodness every day! 

They are like the helpers rushing in to help clean up the mess and might I say with 61 babies at Neema that is a lot of mess to clean up!!

I also told our granddaughter that politics or governments don’t change people’s hearts. Only God can do that. But she is young and idealistic and also very passionate which is a good thing. 

I’m proud of her.

Neema Village is right where God wants it, helping the helpless, the discouraged, the down and out, the abandoned and the hopeless. So don’t get discouraged with life and remember there is way more good than bad in Africa and yes even in America.  I would imagine in Sweden too. 

May God bless you with great faith in the goodness of man.

Psalms 27:13 “I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.”

Michael and Dorris Fortson

August 3, 2018

“Four New Babies This Week”

All our Neema babies have a story or we would not have them.  These four new ones who came to Neema this week have a story as well and it breaks my heart.  Bryan, sleeping peacefully now at Neema Village was left on the side of the road, the placenta and cord were still attached. I cannot imagine the heartache this mother must have gone through before she put her baby down.  We do tell our nannies this does not just happen in Africa, it happens in school bathrooms and dumpsters in America too.  It is not an African problem, it is a heart problem.  Many of these women are poor and desperate and feel they have no options.  Thankfully our Neema Village MAP program is giving many women options today.

This sweet little 2 month old pictured above, lost his mom last night.  Sylvia Pape, Angel, our Social Worker, and Mama Musa, our Director, drove out about an hour and half late yesterday afternoon to pick up baby Johanna.  The house was already filled with mourners while the mother lay in the back room.   This Maasai village was high up in the mountains with no clinics or hospitals and so hard to get to they probably had been unable to get her to the hospital in town.  We will be trying to find a family member to keep him.

Newborn, Joshua above, is abandoned as well.  His mother is a drug addict and abandoned him but then she was found and put into a drug help program.  She ran away again and has not been found again.  We are not sure what is the matter with his eyes but we think he has a problem.  They are swollen and he will not open them.

Sweet baby girl Hosiana, lost her mother too.  I love her name.  It reminds me of “Hosana in the Highest” and how often we praise God for allowing us to do this work of saving babies in Africa.  

I was able to cuddle little Hosiana for about an hour yesterday afternoon.  She is precious and melts in under your chin.  When I hold these new little ones like this I am always crying inside for what they have lost.

   “Orphans are easier to ignore before you know their names.  They are easier to ignore before you see their faces.  It is easier to pretend they’re not real before you hold them in your arms. But once you do everything changes.”                                               David Platt

If you knew your mom and had a good mom, Thank God for her for me would you!  I never really knew mine.

Love,

Dorris Fortson

August 1, 2018

An Internet Café and Fresh Juice Bar

This is just the coolest thing!  One of our MAP moms has started her business, Upendo’s Internet Cafe and Fresh Juice Bar.  

Upendo’s husband left her owing back rent, little food and a two year old handicap child. She was destitute when she came to talk with Mariya, our MAP director.  

After talking with Mariya about what she could do to help herself and her baby, Upendo thought she could start a food business making mandazi (like a donut).  We began to look for a small shop and found a great spot on a busy corner.  But when we interviewed the neighbors they said we have a food business here, what we really need is an internet service. 

Upendo had never used a computer so we hired a couple of university students to teach her for a month.

We bought a small fridge to keep the fruit fresh, a blender, some glasses and Mariya, Jennifer, Ashley and Emily had fun experimenting on juice combinations. Upendo always works with her little boy on her back.

Mariya had brought some laptops from Germany so she put two in the shop for Upendo.  We bought a printer, some paper and ink cartridges and Wallah! an internet service is born!

We love taking volunteers down to the shop to get a fresh juice, my favorite is orange, pineapple, mango. Yummy! 

Now really, how cool is that!  An Internet Cafe and Fresh Juice Bar comes to Arusha!  Turning hopelessness into Hope.  Love it!

You can help us keep this MAP program going by sponsoring a business.  Please remember the IRS won’t let you deduct it for taxes if you put a specific person on your donation.  Just put MAP program on your donation, we will see that it goes to the right place.  I promise.

Love you,

Dorris

July 15, 2018

To The Top

The Big News is that all our Mt. Kilimanjaro climbers made it to the top of the tallest mountain in Africa!

Our second charity climb was a great success as Dr. David Vineyard, leader of the group, took Mariya Halapi, Emily Broadbent, Hayden Liebl, Tina McCormack and Dr. Jeff McCormack up to the roof of Africa to raise money for the Neema babies.  You can still give on their behalf, just go to www.neemavillage.org and on the purpose line put “In honor of the Awesome Kili climbers.”

We have had lots of great volunteers this month.

Above, the Aggies for Christ from A & M University along with Elaine Carter, a retired school teacher and Jeff McCormack from Oklahoma Christian University in Edmond walked down to the village to support a couple of our MAP moms by buying Saturday morning breakfast from their little food shops. 

Below is the Mark and Kelle Samsill group of young people with Neema babies.  

Our policy has been that Neema Village only takes in babies two and under.  There are lots of orphanages that will take older children but Neema is the only home in the city limits of Arusha that takes only babies.  But what could we do when Social Welfare called one evening and said, “The Police have just picked up a little twelve year old girl in a wheel chair begging on the street and we have no where to put her for the night. Can you take her?”   

That was almost two months ago and Social Welfare still has no place to put her. Little Miss Personality Plus, Sophia, has scooted her way into our hearts and after meeting with Social Welfare this week, we think we will keep her.  We have come up with a plan.  It took three days in doctors offices to certify her handicap so we could get her into school.  She had never been to school, cannot read or write so last Monday she started to school in the first grade. 

We got a call Friday that a new mom had died and there was no one to care for the baby so three of our volunteers along with a Social worker took off in the red Prado to go up into Maasai country below Mt. Meru to pick up the baby. The red Prado had other plans and decided to break down with three or four miles left to go, so Emanuel walked back to find help.  The girls decided to walk in and pick up the baby. Gulp!

They took off over fields and through the banana groves trying to find the right house to pick up baby Lightnes whose mom had died. Emily Moe below telling baby Lightnes its going to be ok baby girl.

I love the “Mama Bear protecting the baby bear” picture of Lindsey Vineyard on their way out with the baby. 

The next day we got a call about another baby needing help so we picked up baby Ivan. The mother had abandoned the baby and the father was not able to care for the baby.  Ivan is beautifully sweet and precious.

Custom here will not allow a man to have a live in woman in the house so for now there seems to be no solution other than keep the baby at Neema until a family member can step up.  Ivan is a smiley baby and doesn’t cry a lot.  They said he was about three months old but Bekah thinks more like six months old.

Below is a cute picture of new baby Lightnes.  

These three new ones, Sophia, Lightnes and Ivan at Neema Village need sponsors.  We have 55 babies along with our big kids living at Neema today and many of them do not have a sponsor.  It costs us over $300 per month to keep a baby but you can begin with $30 a month.  That pays for nanny care, food, formula, petrol, and utilities.  It doesn’t pay for buildings or the MAP program.  Only Tanzanians are paid a monthly salary at Neema Village.

Please go to www.neemavillage.org  to set up a monthly sponsorship with your credit card or through you bank.  It’s easy to set up and we really need your help.  Bless You!

Dorris Fortson

And Thank you to all of you who stay with me to the end of my rather long blogs!  I do love sharing this journey of saving babies in Tanzania East Africa.  Bless you for coming along on the journey.

In all that we do may God be Glorified and Jesus Lifted Up!

Michael and Dorris