There is just something special about returning home, isn’t there. Unless of course you never really lived there! Then it could be a bit scary. That is Riziki’s story. Because it has been our goal since the beginning of Neema Village that no baby belongs in an orphanage, I love to tell the stories of our thirty babies who have been able to return home to their villages and extended family.
Riziki came to us when she was just ten hours old. Her mother had died during the birth and the father who was very poor had no way to buy formula nor a home to keep the new baby. Michael went out to the village to pick up the baby and we brought her back to Neema. It was sad as all the villagers were wailing and crying.
In the picture below, Riziki baby, just 10 hours old, gets her first bath from nanny Grace.
After her bath she had her first bottle. The villagers do occasionally have milk cows but raw cows milk can kill a baby. Formula is very expensive and
clean water, sterilizing procedures and medical care are not available out in most of the villages. Babies who lose their mothers in Africa have only a one in ten chance of survival. So Neema was called to step in.
We all fell in love with this sweet baby who rarely cried and grew into a beautiful and a bit shy little girl.
A happy day came when Riziki’s dad came to tell us he had come into some money and would be taking Riziki home. He now has a new home, a new wife, a small store and even a nice car. So the happy/sad day came when Riziki got to return home. She was a bit scared and we are always a bit apprehensive when our babes return home. We were looking for a time to go out to the village to check on her in her new home. The drive was lush and green with banana trees along the road, just what you would think of Africa.
Four of our little girls were all best friends when they lived together at Neema and Malikia had been asking to go see Riziki. Which is funny since Malikia is blind but nevertheless she wanted to see Riziki! Below is a picture of the girls as we got out of the car and they saw Riziki for the first time. The couldn’t stop hugging her.
She showed us her new baby calf and then we took the long walk up to her home. It was on a hill and we walked past their corn field and banana groves on the sides of the path. There is a tall concrete wall around their new home and courtyard and a home for the grandmother inside the compound as well. It was a bit like a fortress on the hill! You can just see the house at the top of the hill in picture below.
We had brought suckers so everyone had a good time making their tongues red. We also brought clothes and books for her. But she was most happy just seeing her little friends from Neema.
Th neighbors all had to come stand outside and look at the funny Wazungu. They love to point and giggle at us. Fortunately we had enough suckers for everyone. Riziki was one of Ashley Berlin’s special babies so she got to go on the trip with us. Ashley is one of our great volunteers from Casper, Wyoming.
On the walk back to the car past the corn field, I asked the grandmother if we could pick some ears o corn for the children back at home. She said it wasn’t ready yet because they always wait until the corn is hard kernels and can be ground into Ugali flour. I wanted our children to try corn on the cob so I checked an ear and knew the corn was perfect for boiling and eating with butter. The girls got to pick enough corn for every one back home. It is always a learning experience when children get to see where their food actually comes from.
All in all it was a pretty good day. One of our babies who had returned home was happy and that is always a good day for us.
May your home always be your safe place where you are loved no matter what.
Love and Blessings
Michael an Dorris
(Volunteers Kim, Emily and Rachel above went to the hospital to pick up an abandoned baby.)
This little girl was found crying on the side of a busy road. She had been there a good part of the day when people finally realized no one was watching or coming for her. She continued to cry, scream actually, for three or four days at Neema before she finally settled down. When these little ones are old enough to remember their mother it is so much harder for them. I just cannot imagine what they must go through before we get them. 
This little newborn pictured on the right, was born on Feb 17, 2017. She was abandoned at the hospital. We were told the mother had threatened to take her to the river. Thank God she did not do that. I got to name her and chose the name Bethany. Bethany is beautiful and is such a good baby. I know that mothers everywhere love their babies and it must have been something very tragic to make this mother leave her baby. We are too busy loving and caring for these babies to take time to judge a mother who felt she had no other choice than to walk away from this beautiful little newborn. Neema is “A Place of Forgiveness and Hope.” Forgiveness for the moms and hope for the babies. Please say a prayer for that mom.
One of our sweet volunteers from Billings, Montana got to go with Bekah to pick up baby Bethany. It was an experience Emily Broadbent will never forget. I love this picture of Emily smiling through her tears.
Faith is about 20 months old. Her mother, suffering from substance abuse, has repeatedly abandoned her. She has an uncle who would take her but the current drought has left him barely able to feed his family. The interesting thing that happened with this baby is that the uncle who lived all the way across town had been told about Neema but did not know how to get to us. Arusha is a very big city with 1.6 million people. The uncle got on a dala dala (the local transport system) to try to find us. He sat next to a lady and asked her if she knew how to get to a place called Neema Village. The lady was Orupa, one of our nannies who was on her way to work. Now how sweet is that! 
Faith is very lethargic and we have had her to the doctor to make sure there is nothing wrong. She was limp, not eating and lay on the floor with her face to the wall, even during song time when the other toddlers in the room were singing and dancing to “The wheels on the bus.” It was scary. Yesterday Bekah was able to get her to eat a little Ugali with some liquid vitamins so she seemed a bit more alert last night before bed. We have never seen a baby so despondent. It is very sad, please pray for little Faith.
Born at 29 weeks gestation, tiny baby Joanne, named by the nannies, weighed 2.2 lbs when she was born on Dec 17, 2016. Both the father and mother are extremely ill with HIV and left the baby at the hospital. The hospital called and said she was finally big enough to come home to Neema. She is very precious and we will have to see what the future holds for this little one. We definitely need your help to care for all these new babies. Bless you if you are already sponsoring a Neema baby. If not, why not? There is so much sadness in the world an abandoned baby should not be one of them. 
We have had three of our babies able to go home this month. Sweet boy Rusty got to go home to an auntie. His mother had left him with his father and the father had abandoned him. When the mother learned of this she told her sister that she had a baby at Neema Village and if she wanted him she should go get him. Rusty loves everybody and was just fine as he and his aunt pulled out of the drive at Neema. He was waving to us. The auntie has invited us to visit him anytime.
Asha Bella’s mom died at her birth and her dad has now remarried. The new mom came and spent a few days diapering and feeding Asha and has fallen in love with her. We are so happy for this little baby and her new mom.
Angel is a quiet shy 2 year old that we have had since she was abandoned at a few months old. She was finally able to return home with an aunt this week. Her mother has had some mental problems but Social Welfare has now granted the Aunt permission to take Angel home. Angel has cuddled up very nicely with her Aunt who has said we could visit her any time. We like that.So babies coming and going has made for an exciting month at Neema.
Our daughter Kim and her Montana group wanted to go out to the village to see him. They took food, blankets, clothing and of course Carol Wald’s soccer balls. I had made the trip a couple of weeks ago so I was excited for them to see Joshua and his home.They told us, it was a hot, dusty trip through rocky gullies and they were not sure the big van would make it. They did make it but had to walk in to the village the last part of the way when the van could not go any further.
The Masaai love their cattle, they live off their cattle and count their wealth by how many cows they have. The Masaai are famous warriors of the old days of Tanganyika and claim to have never lost a battle. They are very tall people and would raid other tribes and capture their tall women. For hundreds of years their young men had to kill a lion single handed to become a man. Of course, since there are very few lions left outside the game parks now, they have stopped that ritual. But it is interesting that they still bring their cattle into the middle of the village at night into a boma, a thorn fence, to keep out the lions.
And they still do their traditional Masaai dance which tells their stories of killing lions, their battles of conquests and how they bargain their cows for a new bride.
Angel is our social worker and part of her job is to check on our babies who have returned home. We do take trips out to see them ourselves too and are always so excited to see how well they are doing.
he told how we are all now bound together because Neema saved Joshua’s life. He said, “When my wife died it was very bad for us because we had no way to take care of him and no way to pay for his care. But you took him in and now he is a big strong boy. That is Joshua’s dad standing by Michael and talking to the Montana group in the picture below.
He said, “We see Neema House as our family and Babu Michael and Bibi Dorris as our grandparents because they did a great thing which we could not repay. My father, (picture below) says thank you, thank you a lot and your family is now our family.”
Then the head momma spoke and said, “Neema House was an angel of Joshua. We are one big family now and today our tummies will be full of food because you brought gifts to us. Many people are getting a blessing today because of Joshua. Now let God go with you. Our gate is always open for you.”
In trying to communicate with you and say things in more meaningful ways, I’m always on the lookout for a good word. But words are slippery, they can change on you. They can become something totally different over time, like “cool.” Perfectly good words, like “cherish”, get lost in the tons of verbage thrown at us every day. When was the last time you heard someone say “I cherish you.” Words can dissolve into meaninglessness (is that a word?) by overuse like “awwwwesome”. They can lose their punch when we begin to “love” too many things like toothpaste or a pair of shoes. It’s hard to find a good word nowadays.
But Hope, ahhh Hope, now hope is still a good word. Unless it has something tacked on like “less or lessness.” We had a sign above the door at the old Neema House that read “A Place of Forgiveness and Hope.” We still are, but I miss the sign. I loved telling folks we are a place of Hope for the babies we keep and Forgiveness for the moms who had lost all hope. When we lose Hope, “Life is a broken winged bird.” It will never fly. We need Hope. We can never have too much Hope.
Without Christ working within us we have no hope of making this work. And without major help I think we are all in the same boat, we are all too inadequate. We need what Paul talks about in Colossians 1: 27 “Christ in us, the hope of glory.”
I have just finished baking my traditional Italian Cream Cake, in honor of our daughter Bekah who lives in Africa. I’ll eat an extra piece for you, love! And to my three sisters – the cake had no soap in it! (They know the story of a Thanksgiving past when we had to put a whole beautifully perfect cake down the garbage disposal!) Quite often this year Michael and I have been hit with huge doses of thankfulness. People like you, who have encouraged us in this precious ministry of saving abandoned, orphaned and at risk babies in Africa, you make me all mushy in my heart with thankfulness!
who have sacrificed and taken on the big projects of building Neema Village; the widows home, the baby center, the new volunteer home, the school/church, the mothering center and the two homes for our unadoptable children. You take my breath away!
We could not do this work without you. When we hold these
babies, we know it is your arms too that hold them. It is your love that cares for them. It is you who help us diaper and feed and cuddle them. It is beyond thrilling to see how God’s immeasurable Grace has touched the hearts of His people to help in this incredible work. We are thankful. That is great helpers Kent and Joan Smith from Fort Worth, TX below.
I am so thankful that we have been privileged to administer God’s grace to the 118 babies who have been helped by Neema Village over the past four years.
We thank God we were there for the little identical twins, Aneth and Alice above, abandoned by their mother and father and who came to Neema just a few weeks ago. The nannies keep fingernail polish on one of them to tell them apart!
I’m eternally grateful that our daughter Bekah (pictured below) is there helping with the medical needs of the babies, taking them to the doctor, checking their daily meds and making their charts.
And for our incredible staff of 43 Tanzanians, I just cannot say enough about these hard-working men and women. And I am grateful that a young family from Searcy, Arkansas, Jonathon and Whitney Striclyn (Pictured below with their new baby) have applied and been accepted by the board to come next year to handle the spiritual needs of Neema.
If you are having trouble giving thanks this year remember he didn’t say we have to feel thankful in every circumstances only to give thanks and it is not hypocritical to give thanks when you don’t feel thankful. It is faith to give thanks when you feel nothing.
helpful for the teacher and could sing the Tanzanian National Anthem along with the other children. Jenny, a volunteer, is helping Tumi the registered teacher at Neema in the picture. They are doing colors and counting and Bahati is laughing and laying on the floor in the middle. 