Kasensa Report - October 2011
Happy Birthday, Joy – today!
Granny is here to take her home to the village on Wednesday and for the celebration today. Going home to the village will the best birthday present she can have.
October has been a HOT month in Zambia. Some areas have had their first showers, but not here! We are eagerly waiting for God to send us showers and even thunderstorms with plenty of rain! Most days it’s around 36 - 40 degrees Celsius.
Kasensa has had much activity this month. We added 5 babies to our orphan care program and 5 to the milk program. In total, we now have 10 babies that we are providing “temporary, emergency” in - home care for and 12 whom we are assisting with the milk program.
Our capacity is 12 babies at Kasensa and 15 in the milk program.
Currently, our babies include: Rozina, Mikey 1 and Mikey 2, Abraham, Potius, Alex, Abigail and Molly and Timmy.
Passmore stayed for 3 days only. His family had met during the funeral time of Passmore’s 18 year old mother and it was decided that the grandparents in Lusaka would care for him. Passmore is so blessed to be part of this family!
A good deal of time each month is spent visiting families of the babies and trying to assist them to develop a plan on how the baby can be re-united with family ASAP. ZMF-C believes the best place for a baby to be is within the family – as the wisdom of God says in Psalms 68:6.
Each situation is different and each family has different needs and different capabilities.
We met with Rozina’s family who live near Livingstone and they are preparing themselves to take her home in the next few months. We have offered support through the milk program and with transport money.
Mikey 2’s mom’s health is slowly improving and so once she’s a bit stronger he’ll join his family at Bbello. Mikey 1 is supposed to have hernia surgery this month and if that is the case then we’ll transport him to Macha for that.
We visited with Abraham’s family this morning and mom’s health is improving. It was good to see her sitting up and now she is able to eat solid food. The 5 siblings have re-located to grandparents near Livingstone, so that the husband can focus only on caring for Josephine, the mom. They are a very nice family. Abraham will be going to Livingstone later in November. Please pray for Josephine and for her family as they struggle in so many ways.
Potius is a little character. He is a slight little guy whose dominant feature are his large jowls – like some cartooned politician I’ve seen drawn. He’s always smiling!
Alex’s brother, Modern, came a few days ago to say that the family’s plan for Alex is to stay with an uncle and aunt. They will come and collect him in a few weeks! All Alex’s siblings moved to these same relatives back in July. The aunt is the sister of Alex’s mom. Alex, you’ll remember was the son of a polygamist with 3 wives and his mom was wife #2.
Abigail’s skin continues to give her (and us) grief. She has not had any open wounds though for a few months. Taylor Procyshen, our young Canadian friend who has come for a nice long visit, brought many tubes of Eucerin and other anti-itch cream. Also, I think the oral zinc is making a difference – as her face is starting to clear nicely. We only bath her once a day – so that she doesn’t dry out too much. The scorching hot days of 36 – 41 degrees Celsius is so drying and more drying means more itchiness and more potential for scratching.
Tomorrow I will take Molly and Timmy’s parents to the Social Welfare office again for their second meeting. They will discuss options for Molly and Timmy – foster care or adoption. Whatever the outcome is, let’s pray that Molly and Timmy will soon be in the arms of a loving Christian Zambian family!
Please continue to keep Kasensa babies and their families in your prayers. The approach of reuniting baby with family as soon as possible is catching on within this community. But, how can you go wrong with Psalms 68:6?
See the zambiamissionfundcanada.org website for more information on our philosophy and practice of Orphan Care and also see krogsblog for more detailed stories and photos of the babies and of other ZMF-C events!
Sue and Richard
