Articles on this page have been taken from various Orfund Newsletters, which are sent to sponsors three times a year.

ARTICLE

Talk about action packed!  This year myself and the rest of the team have hardly had chance to catch our breaths - beginning with the new involvements in India (as detailed in the Spring newsletter), progressing to the latest building extension project in Malawi.

The extension had been discussed and planned for some time, but due to various problems in the Banda household, things had to start virtually from scratch as I arrived in Dedza in April this year.

It was hard going from the outset, as almost immediately I had to make quite significant design changes, but through the trust and friendship Isaac Banda and myself have with one another we were able to make steady progress, seeing the building work through from ground clearance right up to the finishing stages.

Even though we were very late and unprepared in starting, I still had high hopes of being able to finish in the 12 weeks I had set aside - but it was not to be.  Nevertheless, when I left, all of the structural, plumbing and electrical work had been done, and the finishing materials had been bought.

Now as I put the final touches to this newsletter I have had confirmation that the block has been finished.  Window panels and doors are now in (though all frames were in from an early stage), and drainage runoffs in place ready for the rains.  Painting is also finished-this having been done by a group of British volunteers from World Challenge Expeditions, who not only did the work but paid for the paint!  Really God's plan for this project, which has finished an incredible 2½ times over budget!

Over budget or not, the extension is a real answer to prayer.  It actually doubles the amount of building we can work with, providing a new kitchen with greatly improved cooking facilities, an office and storeroom, a guestroom, a new children's bathroom with toilets, not to mention two dormitory rooms.  This block enables us to give a proper separation to the sexes (previously they had separate rooms but stayed in the same block), and much improved sleeping and living arrangements for the existing children.  It also brings us into a position of being able to take in more children.

As regards this last point, we are in the happy position in our Molima Home to be fully sponsored at present - even there are a few sponsors waiting for the new children to come in.  To those sponsors who are waiting, you will appreciate from what has been said why there has been a delay, but you will also appreciate your money has been and is being spent wisely.

Although under a heavy workload we did also conduct child interviews in liaison with the District, Community, and Village AIDS Committees, who work with NGOs and the Social Welfare Department to coordinate various programmes with AIDS sufferers, and also to manage certain community activities with orphans.  All in all we interviewed around a hundred orphans, with the aim of admitting the most needy when both the building and our staff are ready - which we hope will be in the near future.

Total involvement with the building work had its advantages, but being so focussed rather disconnected me from the object of the exercise and the beneficiaries of the project - the orphans themselves.  It was therefore good to have a timetable of interviews, even though it was quite a stressful thing dealing with building issues and at the same time interviewing children.  It refreshed not only my own perspective on the orphan crisis in Malawi, but also that of the Banda family and the wider team involved in the project.  The great poverty and bad treatment that some of these children have to face is really a shock to hear of, and makes us wake up to the need for action.

Most of the children we interviewed had neither mat to sleep on nor blanket to cover them where they came from - and in the Dedza district it can get pretty cold at night in the winter.  Nearly all were staying with old and sick guardians who having suffered the shock of the deaths of their sons, daughters, and other relatives, were now in the end stages of their own lives left caring for little children.

In interview it is only possible to go so far in getting a story, and the reality in many cases was worse than could be explained, but it gave an idea of what a responsibility and opportunity the Molima project has.  Please pray that we will soon be clear to start taking in some of those interviewed.

ARTICLE

Dear Friends

We are very happy to share in this Newsletter that so many developments and improvements to our partner projects have been possible - a real Christmas tonic for you I hope!

Also later in the Newsletter there is an article by two sponsors who went out to our Indian home at Christmas last year, which I hope you will also find most encouraging.  In fact every Orfund News this year we have been blessed with testimonial articles from people who have had opportunity to see for themselves the work that is going on, and the need for the work to continue.

But while there has been a good deal of visiting in the Indian home, our African Molima Home has quietly been going great guns.

Since I left them about 18 months ago, the project has really increased dramatically.  Firstly numbers have steadily risen so that now we have 30 orphan boys and girls with us-in fact it is really only the physical size of the home that is holding us back-something we are continuing to work on.

But it is not only numbers, but there have been great strides made in terms of general improvements and facilities.  Firstly they have built a chicken house, where they can keep chickens safely away from hyenas (yes hyenas!) and other wild animals.  The Bandas did keep poultry when I was with them, but at much lower numbers.  The purpose-built units are now up and running with over 1000 hens - to the delight of everyone concerned!

Then we have two new workshops on the property, one for carpentry and the other for tinsmithing.  These are used one day a week, when we get in qualified teachers and craftsmen to train orphans (mostly those who are older and not staying in our home), and also handicapped youngsters.

The first photos we got, were of them producing very strange outsize musical instruments, but they have since advanced into crafting much more practical furniture items.

Another important skill is tailoring, for which we have two machines.  Like the carpentry and tinsmithing, the project is active one day a week, training orphans and handicapped youngsters, and also our own children.

Those learning to tailor and use sewing machines are all girls-though the trainer (pictured here with the striped shirt) is a man.

We are extremely encouraged by the way Molima is expanding and developing.  Through very difficult times God has really blessed us-long may it continue!

SPONSOR ARTICLE

What a wonderful Christmas we had last year at the Molin home in India - a privilege it was to share it with them, and the welcome they gave us was just overwhelming.  Our most remembered memory of the month was of the children's joy, happiness, openness, and comradeship with each other, and of a home of order and harmony - in spite of the children having so very little to call their own.  To watch television was a special treat!

It was amazing to Stella and myself to see how the children adapted so quickly into such a large family, when coming from sad and difficult backgrounds – even seeing children who had barely been there a few days mix in like old veterans.  It made us realise how much energy and time we spend on material goods, which we feel we cannot do without.

For our first two weeks we stayed in a hotel near the home, and some of the children had the opportunity on occasion of sharing those facilities, and of course the swimming pool, this being a new experience for them.  Then Geoff took Stella and myself on a tour where we saw some of the interior of Tamil Nadu, also a home for gipsy children, and some gipsy camps—some of tents, some of low cost housing.  It was really interesting, a proper eye-opener to see the land and how the people live, particularly the poor.

After our return and for the rest of our trip we were able to stay in the home itself, sharing in all their days programmes.  Never a dull moment, 100 children on school holiday for much of the time.  We took all the kids to the fun fair, and on several occasions swimming to the beach only ten minutes walk away (under Geoff's capable control).  These expeditions brought great enjoyment.

So many things come to mind from that time – the daily prayers, the children singing lustily, their reading and praying totally spontaneous – a real a joy to hear them.  Then there was always the hive of activity all day around the well just outside the gates, from very early morning bathing, to washing clothes which seemed to go on for much of the day.  Then we remember the cooking in cauldrons on an open fire for over 100 people, a mammoth task that had to be done when no gas cylinders were available because of a strike.

Would we like to go again?  Yes yes yes we would recommend it.  If one is willing to step outside logic based Western thinking, India provides some of the most intricate fascinating and rewarding spectacles clamour and diversity.  All your senses experience a new exuberant colourful culture mixed with poverty, the beggars, the maimed and the street children.

Abundance of patients is required, for time is meaningless.  Hopefully all our experiences one day will be relived.  In the meantime we pray for every child, that their individual needs may be met.

ARTICLE

Dear Friends,

Where did all the time go we hear the cry?  Quite fascinating and extraordinary to look back through the years since Orfund started up in 1983.
Whilst I am not one for anniversaries, such occasions do prompt us to reflect, and although the temptation is always to reflect with an uncritical eye, it is not altogether unworthy to remind ourselves of our benefits.

It tends to be a bit rare, but just occasionally one of our ex-home children contacts me, and just the other day was one such occasion.

John Peter an ex-home boy from our first partner home phoned me up to say hi, and let me know what he was up to.

He seemed very happy to give me his mobile phone number, and let me know that he was in good health, and doing an office job in Dubai.  But how so Dubai you may ask?  An orphan boy from a poor family in a poor village, now working in an English speaking office in the Middle East?  But yes, in no small part due to his years in the smaller Indian home, a boy with no chance of learning English has had his life turned around.

And incredibly John Peter is not alone in going abroad. Senthil Kumar has been in Singapore for four years now, Saravanan who is a fully trained industrial welder got a job there last year, and I think Manivel and Velmurugan are also there.

A foreign job is a target for most Indians, as the population is so high and the wages within the country are so low - many people only get in a week what is the hourly national minimum wage in Britain! Is it any wonder people are so determined to come here?

So far I have mentioned only those working abroad, but of course the majority stay in India. But there are incredible stories of those who have made it big in India. People like Manju a pure orphan who has just married Matthew another orphan from our home.  There are both working, and hoping soon to have a family of their own.

Then there are those like T. Kumar who is a pastor of his own church - and there are several others who have also become pastors and evangelists for Christ.

That is not to mention the hundreds of children that have been through our Indian homes and now have more ordinary jobs, many of whom are married with children of their own. Many have gone back to families, helping relatives with the farming work or helping in other ways. And there are many with separate families too.

All in all, very worthwhile!!

Looking back there have been partners that have gone by the wayside, like the Dhaulagri Welfare Home in Nepal, which functioned for a while, but never really got properly off the ground, and again in Zambia we just couldn't quite organise the link up with the St Laurence Home of Hope for street children, but then again that move led on to our Molima home in Malawi.

Molima, despite a great deal of negativity and opposition is now showing really incredible potential, especially with many children this year hoping to start work.

SPONSOR ARTICLE

We were spotted on the road the first time. We were making our way by foot from Dedza town to the famous pottery, much frequented by European tourists in 4x4s and the richer Malawians travelling from the capital, Lilongwe to Blantyre. Some children from the Molima home recognised the young Peace Corps volunteer walking with us, and probably our daughter too, since both had visited Molima before and walking white people are a bit conspicuous.

Would we come in? Just for a rest? There was no resisting Mr Banda (the “grandfather” of Molima) or indeed the smiling faces of his young charges. We paid a quick visit to the pottery while the children were washed and brushed up for a “state visit”.

Once inside the house we were given orangeade and introduced to Mrs Banda, to the care assistant and, of course, to the 27 resident children, all of whom sat in the polite silence which is normal in Malawi but which can seem at first unreal for visitors more accustomed to, say, a British school classroom. Mr Banda explained in Chechewa that we lived in England but were visiting our daughter, Juliet who was working for Voluntary Service Overseas as a teacher of teachers at the college in nearby Bembeke. We would be staying some time and might visit again. The children seemed interested, and we were invited in turn to say a few words about ourselves and our first impressions of Malawi. These were duly translated into Chechewa (though many of the older children already spoke good English).

It is not difficult to be positive about Malawi. Though the country is the tenth poorest on Earth, strangers are universally greeted with “You are very welcome in Malawi” and it is easy to see why this tiny country has earned the tag “the warm heart of Africa”.

Of course, the material problems are dreadful. Apart from the poverty, the impact of HIV/AIDS has been to reduce average life expectancy below 40 and (in the autumn of 2002) the shortage of staple maize was threatening starvation for millions. Mr Banda explained Molima’s policy of taking children for whom there was literally no other hope, with both parents dead from AIDs or other causes, extended family unable to offer shelter, really nowhere else to go. Molima offers food, clothing, access to education and clear moral teaching to give a few youngsters a fresh start in a society where even the fittest may not now survive without knowledge, strength of purpose and direction.

We returned to Dedza town by the field path, led by laughing, skipping children. Sort of Pied Piper of Hamlin in reverse.

Our second visit took place in early November just before we returned to UK. The mail not being entirely reliable, we had undertaken to collect Mr Banda’s periodic progress report and the childrens’ Christmas cards to sponsors in England. We approached Molima by another road this time, but the spies were out in force and we were greeted half a mile off by a tiny child whose first instinct was to offer to carry my rucksack for me! We persuaded her just to guide us to Molima instead. We had a chance to get to know the children a little better this time, and Mr Banda introduced us to Anema Julius, who we are now sponsoring. Anema is nearly 14 and has lost both her parents and her grandmother, but we are glad to learn that she is bright and happy and doing well at school (captain in her class!). Sponsorship seems little enough to do compared with the dedication of the Bandas, the Molima staff and the people who work “this end” to maintain the Orfund homes in Africa and India. We count ourselves fortunate to have seen this example of Christianity in action.

Photos coming soon (hopefully)!