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!
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