Gerladina Orphanage & Education Centre

MY VISIT TO THE CENTRE

I arrived at the Centre at 9.30 pm after a long journey of about 39 hours drive from Dar es Salaam to Bukoba. I was very tired the time I arrived but the welcome I received from the children in the Centre made me feel well instantly. It was very exciting to me as it was my first time to see them in our Centre. I moved from here and there to see how things are arranged. Every child was very anxious to show me where is sleeping.

How is the place, is it good for you? I asked Evodius who is almost 9 years old.

Evodius- This place is very good.

Why do you say is very good? I asked him again

Evodius- I used to sleep down on grass, now look, we have new mattresses, new blankets and new bed sheets.

In the next morning some children woke up very early at around 6.30 am, one of them was Revinius. I was very inquisitive and asked him, why do you have awaken up so early?
“Is this early?” asked Revinius. At home we used to wake up earlier than that for casual labor. This gave me a picture of child labor.

These comments from Evodius and Revinius encouraged me on what we have decided to do. I saw the value of what God has enabled us to do.

On Saturday I went to visit the area where we are looking for the plot for building the centre, this took us from 10.00 am to 2.00 pm. I did this to see if there are other good plots aside from the one we saw in my last visit to Bukoba. The owner of the first plot had not yet arrived from Dodoma and we are expecting him to arrive today. By Friday I will be certain of which plot we have identified as the best and its costs.

In the evening I went to visit the grandmother of Evodius, Revinius and Veldiana. Below is the photo showing that grandmother standing with her grandchildren in front of their house.

LIFE IN THE CENTRE

These are the children in the centre on Easter

Life in their bedrooms

Gisela on her bed

The boys bedroom

The full team at the Centre
At the back from Left is Jovitha who is dealing with logistics and children health issues, at the middle is Eugenia, the house mother and right is Florida who is dealing with the general cleanliness of the centre.

Rear of the house …. look at all those tiny shoes

Front of the house

Side of the house

We love each other

Easter celebration - We danced together

We ate Easter dinner together

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GERLADINA ORPHANAGE AND EDUCATION CENTER

Today is the first day for the Gerladina Orphanage and Education Center! The first 7 children officially moved in today. They will each have a single bed with 2 sheets and a blanket for likely the first time in their lives! Today is also my birthday … so from now on the Gerladina Center and I will celebrate our birthdays together. It is truly amazing how God is working in this project. I see amazing examples day after day that totally overwhelm me.

Thadeus was not able to make it to the center for today but asssured me that the house mother would get the children all settled in. He is planning to travel there in a few days. For the time being it is a long journey for him to get to the center, which is in the area he was born and raised, but he will be moving there full-time in the near future.

I mailed a HUGE box of clothes for the children today …. hope it doesn’t take too long to get there. Also included some coloring books, crayons, pencil crayons, blank paper and envelopes so the children can write or color something to send to their sponsors. Postage was crazy expensive though … may have to find a better way to do that.

So it was a very exciting day …. i can picture the children bedding down in their own beds and having real meals.
First thing to do is to get the 2 older children registered in the closest school. It is so exciting to know we are making a real difference in the lives of these children.

In July 2005 I spent 3 weeks in Tanzania, Africa as a volunteer with World Vision. Thadeus is the head of child sponsorship in Tanzania and joined me on some of my visits to children and their families. We drove out into the rural area in our Land Rover over dirt roads that quickly turned to little more than a bumpy path. Finally the path came to an end and we had to stop. Now we had to walk the rest of the way to Geni’s house. We were hardly out of the vehicle when we saw that Geni had walked to meet us. Here is a photo of Thadeus and I greeting Geni. The fellow behind Thadeus is a translator. Geni’s family only spoke a tribal language, so this fellow translated their language into Kiswahili to Thadeus, who in turn translated from Kiswahili to English to me.

The highlight of the trip for me was meeting the 2 children I sponsor in Tanzania. I had sponsored dear Leonard for about 6 months before I met him and his family but we had already made a great connection through our letters. I was so happy to bring small gifts for each member of his family. Recently Leonard’s family was able to move to a better area which is not in a project being run by World Vision so his sponsorship was cancelled. I miss him and think of him often but am so glad his family is now in a much better position.

Here is Lucia, a child I still sponsor in Tanzania. She is a very outgoing girl and was a delight to meet. I always love receiving a letter from her.

I also met children who had full blown AIDS acquired from their mothers when they were born and orphaned children looking after their younger siblings. It is really hard for those of us who have never seen it first-hand to imagine the impact of HIV/AIDS on the continent of Africa. The first solution is education which is happening now in most countries …. the children are being educated about the cause of HIV/AIDS and I think with the next generation being educated the rate of this horrible disease will decrease. But in the meantime a whole generation of people is being eradicated. The heroes in this sad situation are the grandmothers who despite their age and poor health are taking in all these orphans. The problem is that they are aged and do not have work so they have no way to provide for the children. It must break their hearts to know their children are dead and their grandchildren have no future. Here is a photo of a grandmother and her 2 grandchildren. These 2 children, Irene and Lillian, will be moving into the orphanage as the grandmother has no house, no job, no way to feed and clothe them. I am the sponsor of Irene….. her picture just captivated me and I could not forget her face. This picture sears into me the tragic stories of so many grandmothers who are not able to look after all their grandchildren.