Sneak Peek into our Walk In Love clothing line!

This is a sneak peek into our new children's clothing line. All pieces are made by WIL women and ALL donations will go back into the Walk In Love women empowerment programs.

Please check the Walk In Love website at www.walkinlovetanzania.com to order. Clothing will be up on the website for sale on July 2!

Meeting Michael John

Mama Musa received a call one day from a lady who claimed she has found a baby boy on the side of the road. We were all at the market but dropped everything to meet up with her. She took us to Tengeru, a village about 15 minutes outside of Arusha. Her neighbor presented us with a healthy, happy baby boy. She said that she had found him by the side of the road on Sunday. She kept him for 2 days believing the mother would come back but she never did. Unfortunately to find a happy, healthy well taken care of baby on the side of the road is too common here. We always wonder what life circumstances could have drove a mother who obviously loved her child to abandon them. We rarely find out because the mothers usually never come back. I suggested the name Michael, after the director of Neema House. Every one agreed that it fit our new little family member. Michael didn't fuss or cry the whole way home. He did change his tone once the nanny's tried to bathe him but it was short lived. He is settling in nicely and if a relative does not come forward than he will be up for adoption in 3 months.

Mama Teddy

I can honestly say that meeting Mama Teddy yesterday completely validated the direction that I decided to take with Walk In Love.

While eating at a local diner in Karatu with Claire, Mama Musa, Mama George and the local village leader a middle aged women with a child at her feet and a child on her back approached us. She had tears in her eyes when she sat down and laid a letter on the table. She is the mother to Teddy, 2 years old, and Irene, 9 months. Mama Teddy told us that she was HIV positive and asked if we could  please take her children with us back to the orphanage. She wanted to know that they were in a safe and happy place before she got so sick she could not find a home to take them. The letter was permission from the village elders that the children could be placed into an orphanage. Mama Teddy had obviously been thinking about this decision for a long time and had taken the appropriate actions so when the time came she could hand her children over. We were not in Karatu on orphanage business but someone had alerted the her that we were in the area and she obviously felt this was her chance. After speaking with Mama Teddy we  felt that she really just needed piece of mind knowing that her children would be taken care of after she could not take care of them. The problem with taking the girls into the orphanage is that we did not feel that she could no longer take care of her children and she was visibly upset by the decision she was making. We asked if we could visit her home and speak to her about other options. After discussing what Mama Teddy needed we decided the best way to keep the family together was to find  sponsor to pay for rent and for food so that  Mama Teddy and her two daughters could stay together as long as possible. We also promised that when the time came we would bring her children to the orphanage where they would be loved and taken care of.

If you are interested in sponsoring a women like Mama Teddy please email me at walkinlovetanzania@gmail.com or you can make a donation on this blog or at www.walkinlovetanzania.com

False Alarm

   While working at Neema House last week a man walked in the front door holding a small child. He said that the boy was his grandson and his daughter has ran off weeks ago. The child, Frank, was a very happy and healthy little boy. We were all very curious as to why the grandfather would want to leave him at an orphanage an hour from his village. The grandfather was not very old and was in good shape. The grandfather said that he could not keep his grandchild because he did not have anyone to watch the boy during the say. He brought all the necessary paperwork from the police station and social welfare office to get the boy admitted into the orphanage but we collectively decided that this case needed a home visit.
   I am serving as outreach to Neema House so I immediately started thinking about ways to keep the boy with his grandfather because it was obvious he was well taken care of and loved. We went to the grandfathers house a couple of days later. To our surprise the house was nice and the grandfather had goats and crops. We asked to see Frank and he said that he was staying with a neighbor. We went to the neighbors to check on Frank and found him very content playing with other children. We asked the grandfather again, what the problem was? The neighbors were more than willing to take care of Frank during the day and even said it was no problem if the grandfather went out of town.
  Now, this all would have been very confusing if I didn't already know that what was happening was a problem. A problem that orphanages had caused. Orphanages are much too willing to take in any child that is dropped at its door without home visits. A certain mentality has been formed because of these orphanages. Many people think that they can just drop there kids off at orphanages where they will be fed, housed, and educated then come and pick them back up once they are grown. Its like a free boarding school. This is a problem in Africa. There are orphanages that are full of children with parents that just don't want the hassle of having a child. Its unfortunate but it is not the Tanzanians fault, it is the irresponsible orphanages.
  In the end, Frank stayed with his grandfather who told us he would hire a house girl to watch him during the day.

Masai Land

We had another great visit to Masai Land. Yacinta and Lucia are big, healthy 6 month olds! Unfortunately Franki and Meshack are still not healthy enough to return to their village. We delivered formula for the 2 remaining triplets and dropped off Bibi. She had really missed home and by the way she was greeted, the family had really missed her! We will go back in a month to deliver formula and check on the progress of the girls. We are hopeful we will also be taking Meshack as well.

I am going to ask some of the Masai women to make some of their beautiful, traditional jewelry for WIL to sell for them. I will put pictures and prices on the website soon!

Meet Jackline!! Our first "Believe in Me" women in the working program!

I am so excited to announce that with some generous donations WIL was able to buy our first treadle sewing machine. We have also met and hired our first Believe in Me working woman! Jackline, below with the treadle machine in her work space, is a single mother of a 12 year old daughter that had been making $40 per month when we met her. She is a very talented tailor and has been working very hard on clothing items that will be up for sale very soon! Please support Jackline in her journey to support herself and her child. No one can do it alone and we are happy to help empower Jackline and women like her. We hope to be able to employ many more women like Jackline in the future!
I will be uploading photos of clothing items that are for sale this weekend! Please check them out atwww.walkinlovetanzania.com.

 A lot of exciting things have been happening over the past two weeks for Walk In Love. One of the many projects I have been working on is getting one of the women's businesses up and running so we can start our fundraising. I have decided that it is in the best interest of WIL and all of the future participants to wait until October to officially launch the any programs. I feel that we need to secure a solid funding base before starting groups of women and children. That doesn't mean we are not willing to help people that are in immediate need but we will not actively seek out any groups at this point in time. We will continue to support Joyce in her dreams to becoming a hair dresser as well as hire a tailor for our current fundraising project.

I will be interviewing some of the women that were not selected to be nannies at Neema House, but the have tailoring experience on Friday. There were several women that had many people depending on them and it will not be hard to find a women that will fit the criteria to be our first WIL women in the "Believe in me" working program. I will need the women to have tailoring experience so that she can start making some of the items we will be selling on our online shop. The more we sell the more women we can employ! To the right are the first fabrics we bought at the market. We will be making robes (for men, women and children) aprons (men, women and children) lounge pants (men, women and children) dresses and rompers for little girls to begin with. My idea is to have pictures of each item but the customer can then pick which material they would like there clothing item made out of. I am hoping to have some items up by next week so people can start ordering! Micheal will be returning late summer and has agreed to carry an orders back with him. Then my parents will carry orders back in early November. 

While staying at Neema House we got a call about a little boy, Frank, that had been abandoned by his mother. After meeting the grandfather that had been taking care of the little boy we decided that they did not really meet the criteria for staying at the orphanage but so far they have met criteria to be in WIL outreach program. The grandfather has taken very good care of the Frank but simply has no one to watch him during the day. He has tried for the last month to find someone to help him but he cannot work and keep Frank because he is just too young to be left by himself. It is sad that the grandfather's only option was to place his little grand baby in an orphanage. The grandfather even said that if we took him he would send what little money he had to help feed Frank. We will be visiting Franks home on Monday to see if they fit all the criteria. Most likely Frank will be our first child to have a daycare sponsor ($35 per month). I do plan on opening a daycare within the next year but that does not help Frank or his grandfather right now. I will update you on Frank and his grandfather after the home visit. 

Claire, director at Neema House, and I also met with a midwife this week. She contacted Claire because she had recently moved to the area with her husband and children and wanted to do some good work with the community. When Claire told me about her I immediately started thinking about all the knowledge and experience she could bring to WIL.  In our meeting I asked her how she would feel about going to the villages and teaching the pregnant women what they needed to do to keep themselves healthy throughout the pregnancy and after. She will also be doing basic health check ups on the women and babies once they are born. We will also be bringing food and prenatal vitamins to the women once a month once the program is funded and ready to go! I hope to launch this and all the programs in October.

Claire, Mama Musa, Monik (midwife) and I went to visit the NICU unit at the government hospital in town this week. Many babies, for one reason or another, are abandoned at this hospital. Some of the mothers just get up and walk out after delivery and others are brought by people who have found them on the side of the road, in a pit latrine, etc. Once the babies are healthy they will then be sent to an orphanage, like Neema House. While we were there Claire asked one of the nurses about a 1 lb 10 oz. baby that has been abandoned months before. The nurses led us over the Elizabeth, now 3 lbs. 4oz. It really is a miracle that these babies are able to pull through. Mt. Meru has a good survival rate despite the fact that the babies are not in incubators and they often run low on formula. The head nurse, Rose, said that once Elizabeth is up to 5 lbs. 8 oz she will give us a call and we can bring her to Neema House. I plan on volunteering at the NICU on a regular basis. I am going to ask the nurses if they will allow me to do some skin to skin therapy and/ or just hold the abandoned babies. Most of the babies mothers stay in a separate room right off the baby room. They feed and spend time with them everyday.Below are pictures of a few of the babies in the NICU unit. The nurse said they deliver an average of 35 babies per day. The very first picture is Elizabeth.

I also spend a lot of time with Franki and Meshack this week. They are both doing very well at Neema House. The doctor is very happy with their weight gain and overall health. Meshack is very strong and healthy but he does still have blood in his stool and cannot go back to the village until that has cleared up. We will be taking Bibi (grandma) back to the village as well as delivering formula for the remaining triplets in the village on Friday. 

Thanks to a very generous donation I will be able to buy a sewing machine this week and we can start up our very first business for our "Believe in Me" women empowerment program!