The Crisis Nursery is Open!

 

On Monday, August 28^th, Mphatso, (m-pot-so) age 5 months, came to stay with us.  His mother died 3 months ago and he has been cared for primarily by his 12 and 10 yr. old sisters.  He weighs only 9 lbs. and is developmentally about 2 months old but he is a cutie.  His family took him to the hospital as he was sick with a cold.  After talking to the hospital staff, his father admitted that he was unable to care for him any longer.  They called us to see if we would take him and we were more than happy to.  Even though he is small he is really pretty healthy except for a cough.  He has definitely gotten used to all the attention around here and he lets us know when he wants to be held.  As of yet, we have no caretakers hired but are hoping to start training a woman on Monday to be the nighttime caretaker.

When I started this blog we only had one child, but by Wednesday, we had received a call about another.  A little girl about 17 months old had been left at a day care by her prostitute mother a couple of months ago.  The old lady that ran the daycare had no money for extra mouths and she was showing the signs of malnutrition.  After an afternoon with two very nice police women and the doctors and nurses at the local hospital getting a checkup, little Bridget came home with us.  She is a classic orphan, lifeless and without expression.  We hope that we see in her the wonderful transformation that the Love of Christ can make.

 

New Email Address

Hi All,

We are changing internet providers, as Malawinet is hard to get on and very slow. Our new email address is alangdon [a][t] africa-online (d-o-t) net. (sorry about the anti-spam measure) The old address will work until September 2^nd. Thanks.

Andy

Success and Heartbreak

After being in Malawi for 2 ½ months we are finally ready to bring babies into our home.  We have 2 bassinets, 1 crib, bottles, clothes, diapers and formula.  The cribs, diapers and clothes were donated by the crisis nursery in Lilongwe.  Last week we were introduced to the district social service office in Mzuzu by the Ministry of Hope Nursery director and a social service employee from Lilongwe.  The district social services director came to our home looked around and said I know where there is a baby that needs a home.  We made an appointment for the following day to go to the village where this baby lives with her grandma. 

 

We got a basket ready with diaper, blankets and formula expecting to return with our first baby.  This baby was being taken care of by a sick grandmother because her mother had died and the father was not around.  We arrived at the village and were told that the baby had died a month ago.  Needless to say we were heart broken. 

 

This just reinforced to us how great the need is for a crisis nursery in the north.  How many babies have died because there is no where to turn? Most of these babies need formula which the family can’t afford and the government doesn’t provide.  They have no WIC program that provides formula and medical help for these babies.  Currently, a few families go to social services expressing their need for help, the office records the information but have no way to help the family.  Most don’t bother.  The family goes away and the baby dies because they can’t survive on water or powdered milk. 

 

This is why we are here and we are excited to be used by God to help these babies.  Now the families will have hope and the babies will have an opportunity to survive.  Currently, we only have 3 cribs but we have room for at least 8 to 10.  We will begin looking for a carpenter to build us some more.  You don’t just walk into Babies R Us and buy them here in Malawi.  We will have to draw up the plans and hope the carpenter can actually make it.

 

We need to find nannies to stay with the babies at night and as we get more we will need help during the day also.  Please pray for wisdom in finding nannies.  We have a lot of people coming to our gate looking for work but the women we hire need to have a love for babies and the Lord. 

 

The social worker knows of 2 more babies but she is going to find out if they are still alive on Monday.  We are praying that we’re not too late and we can bring them home next week.  We will keep you posted and let you know when Mzuzu Crisis Nursery is officially open for business.  May God receive all the glory!

 

 

Seeing the Way Forward

 

The temporary setback from being robbed is winding down and the focus is coming back to why we are here in the first place- caring for infant orphans.   We took a trip to Lilongwe last Thursday to attend the monthly Ministry of Hope board meeting.  It was the first chance to meet the members of the board in person.    A letter of introduction of us and the intent for a crisis nursery in Mzuzu had been drafted and sent to Mr. Kilembe, who is the head of the Social Welfare department of the government.   We need his approval before proceeding, since doing otherwise may be viewed as trying to skirt his authority and result in being told to stop and receive no cooperation from the Social Welfare people here.   Mrs. Kumwende, the director of the nursery in Lilongwe attempted to set up a meeting with Mr. Kilembe and a lady from the Social Welfare department in Lilongwe to discuss our plans and gain his approval.  The meeting was a flop since Mr. Kilembe's schedule was too full, but at the end of our attempt a new revelation came about--the lady from Social Welfare is retiring at the end of the year and would love to be affiliated with the nursery!   She was involved from the government side in the development of the nursery in Lilongwe and knows what we want to do from that involvement.   It would be a tremendous asset to have a Malawian with that type of background involved in the whole process.  Without a social worker involved, many times there is no progress in setting up new orphan care facilities.   The trip proved to be a very worthwhile one, far beyond what we had thought. 

 

The next step comes this week (August 3^rd and 4^th) when we travel back to Lilongwe and attempt another meeting with Mr. Kilembe.  Please pray that we would get to see him and he will give the go-ahead for our ministry.   This step opens many doors with the people we have to deal with here.