News from Project Samuel, Seleni, South Africa
The following is a brief report on Project Samuel from Dan Fair, our in-country missionary. This is our first Orphan Care Center and we are thrilled with how this model is working. There are so many orphans in this rural village because AIDS has killed the young adults--there are few mothers and fathers left, so the grandparents and other elderly are the only ones left to take care of the children. The Orphan Care Center is the base of operations and support; through your sponsorships, we can provide meals, a safe nurturing environment, and the children are still able to spend evenings with their extended family and caregivers. This arrangement maintains the attachment to their extended family and community; they are not completely removed as they would be in an orphanage. Please read:
Project Samuel in Seleni is now completely up and running. The Orphan Care Center is finished and Mama Christina has moved in, the land is completely fenced, and the child sponsorship is in full swing. In December of 2008 as a gift from the sponsors, we bought all 68 kids of Mama Christina's Orphan Care Center new shoes for school. With the orphan care center fully running, every child in the sponsorship comes to the center in the morning before school and has breakfast, changes into the school clothes and washes their face and brushes their teeth. The ones old enough for school leave and the younger children stay for Creche (preschool). After school, the kids return to the center, change into their playclothes, wash, and have a short Bible study and prayer before eating their afternoon meal. They then stay inside the center grounds and play where they know they are safe. The only return home to their caretaker at night to sleep
Mama Christina has put together a soccer team of her older boys and we provided them uniforms and equipment and then invited them to a tournament we were hosting with other schools. Her boys won the tournament and we saw that Mama Christina is a true Soccer Mom at heart! She has also started to teach the older children how to garden and has given each one of them a small plot. We are able to provide the seed and tools. Last September we had a nurse and nutritionist from a missions team evaluate the kids. With their suggestions we have added a variety of foods to their diet which is having a wonderful affect on the kids. In January we started adding some standard preventive medicine for the children and they are doing very well. Dan Fair, April 2009