Orphans

I had been lacked energy for a long time but now I am back! I could say that because I came through 4 nights 5 days business trip with Jim. We visited 12 orphanages around Blantyre area and dropped off tons of Vita Meal packages.

It is not easy to determine who are the most needy vulnerable people to get vita meal and how we could bring it to them continuously. So, this trip is a kind of assessment for a new distribution system. We rent a 10 ton truck with a driver and an assistant and Jim and I drove our Land Rover.

We saw the reality of orphanages. This country's government does not help orphanages at all because of too much cost. The orphanages are assisted by the oversees charities. Some of them are big which called "village" and they have homes, preschools, primary schools, secondary schools, clinics, farms, etc. etc. in the village. ( not all of them) Loving staffs taking care of children were highly impressive for me. The other hand, they told us several heartrending stories happened to vulnerable kids. The boy surrounded by a crowd of children, about 2 years old, was found crying near an airport 2 days ago. The police took him to this village home. He was not crying any more but still could not talk.

The other baby girl sleeping in a baby bed had rope marks on her neck. It told us the brutal days she got before.

One of the twin sisters I saw her this February, she was sitting on the grass. 　She was being well taken care of by the loving staffs and looked healthy. She went back to her own mother and was neglected. She could not get enough nutrition and died recently. The twin sister was taken back to the home again. (this mother had mental problem .......)

The Madonna’s adoption news is still fresh in our mind. Malawi Court rejected her offer in March but ended up they accepted. (It was just 10 days ago!) We visited the orphanage that took care of the girl. The girl? She had already flown to London by the Madonna's jet.

There are 405,000 kids who lost both parents, plus 600,000 lost one parent by AIDS. About 50 orphanages in this country. We visited just 12 orphanages and saw less than 1,000 orphans.

It means the orphans who are living in these facilities are only a few % and all others are living in villages or towns.

Here are the pictures.

1. The kids living in one of the orphanages.
2. Teenage boys who used be street kids, living in the facility helped unloading vita meals from the truck.
3. The boy left at near an airport 2 days ago. The police still looking for his family.