August 2013 Newsletter

Welcome Friends and Family to August's WIL newsletter!

 We had another great month here in Tanzania. We hope to see you all out supporting WIL at our upcoming fundraisers this September in Kanas City! These fundraising events really determine how many women and children we can accept into our programs and it is very important that we do raise enough money to continue our work.

Update: Believe in Me: A Life off the streets

We are very happy to let everyone know that Robinson, Collins and Nikas are all off the streets and attending a great boarding school right outside of Arusha. Nikas had a small set back when we found out that he was HIV positive the day we were supposed to drop him off. My husband, Jason, and I made the decision that he should stay with us for a few weeks before going to school just to make sure he was at his healthiest when he started school. School officially started on September 2nd and they are all doing wonderfully! Unfortunately, the uniforms were not ready the day we took them so we will have to wait for pictures in school uniforms until another day. To learn more about our program working with street children, click here.

If you would like to see pictures of the boys the day we took them off the streets and to the market to buy all the essential for school please click here.

Thank you to our amazing sponsors who are changing these boys lives! 

Welcome Emmanuel, Bravon and Theresa to the WIL Center!

Julianna gave birth on September 6th to a healthy little boy, Emmanuel. Julianna and Ima (short for Emmanuel) are doing great! Julianna wants to thank everyone for there donations that provided her with healthy food and prenatal vitamins. She said that Ima is so big and healthy because she was able to eat well and take her vitamins. Julianna will start our Childhood Development Course on September 9th and after two weeks of training she will become a nanny and Ima will come to our center. Unfortunately, Baba (father) Ima has still been unable to leave the village he is working in to meet his son.

Welcome Bravon!

This is Bravon Alfred, he is Jackline's nephew. A few months back Jackline's sister passed away and left this sweet little guy an orphan. Jackline took him into her home without any hesitation. He started coming to the center on Monday but he is almost 6 years old and has never been to school. Can you sponsor Bravon? For $40 per month or $480 per year you can sponsor Bravon to go to an excellent school in Arusha. Please let me know if you would like to give this precious little guy a better chance. Thank you.

 

Welcome Theresea (Mama Adrianna)!

A few weeks ago we had a terrible scare at the center. Mama Adrianna came to the center crying and had clearly been injured. She said that her husband had decided to take another wife, number 3, and her and Adrianna had to go to Dar because he was taking there house for his new wife. During this argument he also badly beat Mama Adrianna. Mama Adrianna came and took Adrianna and they went to Dar to be with her parents. We were in contact with Mama Adrianna during her stay in Dar and let her know that if she wanted to return to Arusha we would help her get back on her feet. She was running small shop that was doing quite well before her husband forced her to leave. When she returned we offered her a position helping the tailors at our center and we have offered to pay for a few months rent and help her to buy basic supplies for a new home. She has not taken us up on our offer because she said she could stay with a friend and work until she earned enough money to take care of herself and her daughter. A very strong women and mother at the age of 24.

Mama Adrianna assiting the tailors

Adrianna being silly, like usual:)

Preschool is in Session!

Thanks to some help from amazing volunteers our preschool is up and running! Charlie and I painted the room, Josalyn volunteered for 3 weeks and taught the children and now we have Nikki organizing our preschool room and teaching two classes per day! We also have Derek and Reuben making tables, chairs and shelves! The library side is ready to be filled with text books for our after school tutoring program.Volunteers are such an important part of WIL and we have opportunities for everyone! Please email me at walkinlovetanzania@gmail.com if you are interested in coming to Tanzania and working with our beautiful women and children!

Update: Outdoor play equipment and cots!

A huge thank you to Karalin McKain for holding a fundraiser to raise $500 for outdoor play equipment. We have just received word that she reached her goal and the new equipment will be going up in September!! Nicola and Derek Fortune have also been working on getting tires for our play ground and building a teeter toter! We are so exceed to have a playground for all our kids and the kids in the community! Thank you Karalin, Nicola and Derek!

We did not reach our goal to have cots/beds made for all the children at the center. We were able to raise enough for 3 bunk beds and one cot. We placed that order well over a month ago and now we are just waiting for the carpenter to be finished! I have been told that they will arrive before the end of this week and I will be sure to get pictures up. Thank you to everyone who participated in our Quilt drive and donated towards the cots! If you would like to help us purchase more cots please make a donation though paypal at the end of the newsletter or come to one of our upcoming fundraisers!


September Goals

 Monthly Sponsorship and Fundraisers!
September is going to be the month of Monthly Sponsorship and Fundraisers! You all know how important monthly sponsorship is for WIL and we are very excited that another person has decided to make that commitment. We cannot operate the daycare center or our women's programs without donors like you! Please take a minute and learn how you can become a Monthly Sponsor .

Nasra, Princess and Pricket enjoying milk provided by monthly sponsorship donations.

Fundraisers in Kanas City!

Please join us for one of all of the following fundraisers this September:

We will have items for sale made by our women at every event!

 September 26th -Bingo at Hamburger Mary's!

September 28th - WIL 5K Day!

October 4-5th - Out in the Crossroads Festival, 

(we will have a booth set up in front of Hamburger Marys on Baltimore Ave. We will be selling items our women are making and handing to information on volunteering in Tanzania.)

Our women have been hard at work making items for us to sell at our fundraisers!

Everything that we sell is handmade in Tanzania by a woman that is involved in our women empowerment program. We raise money by selling these items and 100% goes back to the women and WIL community center. WIL has no administrative costs and everyone working with WIL that is not a part of our programs is a volunteer, including Aubree Packard, the director and founder.

Rehema making beautiful paper beads to be used for necklaces, bracelets and earrings.

WIL Jackets!
These handmade, totally awesome jackets will be for sale at all our September fundraisers. It is first come first serve so get there early to pick out the one that best fits your personality!

Introducing out official sponsorship program
Believe in Me: A Better Chance

Please take a minute to check out our new Sponsorship program that will be run by Lucy Cottee and Cassie March. Lucy and Cassie will both be volunteering with Walk In Love in January! We can't wait to have them!

Childhood Development Program

For the first two weeks in September our wonderful volunteer, Nikki Fortune, will be teaching a childhood development program complete with first aid, CPR and practical teaching. We have 25 women enrolled in this course including all the nannies at our daycare center. Once the women have completed the course they will get a certificate that they can show potential employers. We will also serve as a reference to all the women who participate in the course and we will actively help them find jobs working with children in Arusha. While Nikki is teaching her husband Derek will be making furniture for our preschool and community center. Welcome Nikki and Derek!

 How can you help?

*Ask about volunteer and intern opportunities in the US and Tanzania

*Help us to write grants

*Purchase a one of a kind handmade quilt or duvet from our Etsy Shop

*Share our fundraisers with friends and family

*If you are in the KC area swing by our booth at A Fabulous Find (5330 Martway, Mission, Ks)

*Become a monthly Sponsor

*Sponsor a child

* Follow us on Facebook

*Hold a fundraiser (please contact me at walkinlovetanzania@gmail.com for more info)

*Make a donation, we are a registered 501 c (3) organization,  using paypal or by mailing a check payable to:

Walk In Love International

12802 S Arapaho Dr

Olathe, KS 66062

Contact me at walkinlovetanzania@gmail.com or check out our website, www.walkinlovetanzania.com

Enjoy pictures taken at the center in August!

Thank you to our amazing monthly sponsors all our kids get 2 healthy meals a day plus milk! Mohammad is loving healthier than ever!

A Life Off the Streets: Meet our boys

Believe in Me: A Life off the Streets

Meet our boys

I told you all in last months newsletter that we would be starting a new program Believe in Me: A Life off the streets. Now it is my great pleasure to introduce you to the boys that we met and we could not forget. 

But first, I want to introduce you to a new WIL Team member, Thomas Loy. 

Tomas was on of the first people that my husband and I met when we came to Tanzania. One of the first people we could trust and one of the first we called our friend. Tomas was a street boy himself and was sponsored by an American at the age of 8 to go to school. He slept where these boys slept and he went to the same drop center to get food. Tomas is now 24 years old and in college. He has really beaten all the odds and he wants to give back and help children living on the streets the same way that he was helped. He knows that without sponsorship he never would have gone back to school and he would not have the opportunities that he has now. He will be the director over this program and a mentor to the boys. We could not do this without him and his dedication to helping boys that are still on the streets.

Meet Robinson

Robinson's smiles just kills me! Every time he smiles he puts his teeth over his lower lips and he loses any kind of "toughness" he has gotten from being on the streets. Boys have to get tough fast in order to survive but I never forget that they are just boys.

Robinson has been on the streets since last December, when we first met him. His father passed away and his mother could no longer afford to send him to school or feed him. He was forced to leave his mother and try to find work on the streets. He is 12 years old and finished standard 6 before his father passed away. We met with Robinsons mother and let her know that we met Robinson living in the streets and that we wanted to help him get off the streets and make a better future. She was very happy and thankful that we have met Robinson and so are we. Tom tells me that Robinson is quite the soccer player! I can't wait to go to his games and cheer him on!

Meet Nicolas

Nicolas is the littlest of our boys and the youngest we met on the streets. He is 10 years old and has been on the streets since he was 8. We did not get a very full story from him but we know his parents both passed away when he was very young and his grandparents could not take care of him. At 8 years old he had to start sleeping on the streets of Arusha. He must have been so frightened and he is still very shy and I think a little scared of us. I am sure he has been traumatized by his life on the streets and I can't imagine what he is going through, but Tom can, and they have already formed a special bond. We will be visiting the boys often to help them adjust to their new lives.

Meet Colin!

Colin was a bit shy when we first met him but soon he opened up and let us see what a funny and fun kid he really was! Colin is 11 years old and has been on the streets for one year. His mother is a prostitute and his father is unknown. His mother started having mental health problems around 1 year ago and was unable to care for Colin so he left for a life on the streets.

We met with Colin's mother and she is happy that Colin will have a chance to go to school and she has worried about him living on the streets but is just not able to care for him.There is a sadness about Colin's mother and I truly believe that if she could have taken care of Colin she would have. Mental illness is a problem in Tanzania because most of the time it is treated with street drugs and alcohol that just make the problems worse. 

We hope that Colin's mom can get the help that she needs so that they can have a close relationship like Colin says they once had.

A huge thank you to our sponsors for giving these boys a chance for a better life, a life off the streets.

Thank you all for your support!

If you are interested in sponsoring a child living on the streets please contact me at walkinlovetanzania@gmail.com. We met a young girl, age 12, named Karen that could really use someone to believe in her. Are you that person?