JAN/MARCH 2020 NEWS FROM MUFINDI
All precautions are in place at the Igoda Children’s Village to keep it as safe as possible from the Coronavirus. STAY HOME, KEEP SAFE!
Nache, Fanuel and Kaiza. Nache was brought to our Children’s Village on death’s 
doorstep, battling daily to survive in May 2013. His CD4 was tested at count of 2, meaning he had virtually no immunity to any disease. His lungs were both failing due to prolonged lung disease. Since Nache has been at Igoda Children’s Village, he has had expensive lengthy stays at hospitals, where he battled TB, pneumonia, and shingles. We have been fortunate to have had several visiting health volunteers to help keep him alive. He is now on the ‘last line’ of Anti-Retro Viral treatment of HIV that is available in Tanzania as his body has become resistant to ‘first-line’ ARVs. Incredibly his health turned for the better. After months in bed and visits inand out of the Hospital, he got his life back! Due to continuous illness, he never had the opportunity to go to school regularly, meaning he never learned how to read, write and do basic maths. He attended the kindergarten at the Children’sVillage everyday when he was 13 years old. Today Nache is in grade seven at Madisi primary school, he should sit for his national exams this year in September, if schools are reopened, and due to the tremendous success of his entire support system and his incredible will to survive, each one of us that has the pleasure of working with Nache walks away with admiration for this young man who has beaten so many odds. He is a special and wonderful person with a shy smile and a heart of gold.
Fanuel has always worked hard with his garden projects raising money for extras, he’s now managed to buy a small radio which he and his friends thoroughly enjoy.
Zulea sends greetings to all who know her and thanks to all ‘Mufindi Friends’ in Finland when she recently needed urgent medical help. Zulea gave permission to tell about her difficulties which is connected with her skin problem Xeroderma Pigmentosum. She passed her Secondary school exams well and it was arranged for her to attend Kibao Catholic Girl’s School. It then turned out that she could not see the blackboard during her Maths, Physics and Chemistry lessons. Until then, she listened and made notes doing very well, she is a gifted girl! Zulea was desperate when she had to leave the school but then things moved fast. With Mama Dorcus she caught an early bus at 4am, travelled to Ilembula, 150km away. Eric Msigomba, the eye doctor, checked her and gave a referral letter to KCMC Low Vision Unit. Then by bus 200km to Iringa to stay overnight, onto to Moshi, almost 900km a 14 hours drive, where she had further eye examinations. The following day, Zulea was given a 6x Telescope for blackboard reading and a 6x Magnifier for close work. She must always wear sunglasses outdoors. A very happy girl returned from the long journey and back to school. She has gone through a lot, from 2003 there were large wounds on her scalp from her condition and the dressings have been painful and troublesome. Zulea does has parents but the wound care was difficult to perform at home. As we have an onsite clinic with dressings available, Zulea has stayed at the Children’s Village since. She also had treatment in America paid for by visiting volunteer doctors. Her scalp is now fine, but keeps it protected with hats. Fingers crossed that everything goes well at school.
It takes a village...to decide how to help a little school girl whose mom had died a while ago, her dad is very old and had broken his hip, mentioned in our previous report, he cannot walk and stays with his younger brother in the neighbouring village because he requires help day and night and needs a relative to escort him to hospital. This little girl lived in a run down house with her 14 year old sister who was working on the tea fields and stole food sometimes for both of them in order to survive. She had not taken her daily medicine for about half a year and not at school nor at home for a couple of weeks when Dr Leena, our volunteer doctor, and Susan Vincent tried to find her with nobody knowing where she was. She was later found at school, hungry, and on checking her house found there was absolutely no food. Our Social welfare officer, Joseph, Village Chairman, Headmaster of the Primary School, Susan Vinton and Dr Leena thought that in order to survive she needed the care that the Children’s Village can offer.
Just received – 2/02/2020: “She has now settled and taking her HIV treatment as she skipped it for eight months. So she is fine and happy here. Her sister is also here and attending the hotel managent ( learning about different cookings) at the vocational training centre close to our CV. Now school has closed because of Corona and they are both at the children’s village” Joseph, Social Welfare Officer.
There are those who still say that home is the best place for children and all childrens’ homes should be banned! We would be very happy if all orphans/vulnerable children could stay with their relatives in the village but sometimes it is just not possible.
Thank you
For your continued support, if you feel you would like to help us keep the Children’s Village going through these difficult times, please click on the link below.
https://www.goldengiving.com/charity/orphansinthewild
Also much appreciation to those who continue supporting us through regular Direct Debits..
Please contact us if you would like further formation
email: marion@wildorphans.org Tel: 07759 219 708
On 2nd October, we were very excited to welcome Dr. Leena Pasanen, our volunteer doctor back to Mufindi, the Children’s Village were delighted to see her again. Dr Leena spends six months of the year in Mufindi and then returns to her home in Finland. Her Finnish friends raised funds for her to buy clothing and shoes for the children. On the 15th another volunteer, Dr. Alex, joined her and they have spent many hours during remote outreach visits, covering many miles, treating patients in their own homes.
Sam Sofya, our volunteer d
“This is Sijali Kitalika, our nurse at Igoda Children’s Village, as she was conducting seminar to the house mamas on how to provide the First Aid to the children who might suddenly have health issue before sending them to the hospital. Important matters to this seminar were wound care, steps to help a child falling from different levels of epilepsy and how to help a child who is frequently vomiting and diarrhoea leading to dehydration.”
“In May, we received a request from Kidete village for this baby, Kefa Patrick Kigulu, to receive custody here at the Children’s Village. This is due to the serious sickness of the mother who currently can’t breast feed. As this family has five other children at home with their father taking care of their mama, he finds he cannot cope and asked for help. So Kefa will be staying at the Igoda Children’s Village until such time that his father is able to have him back, when the Mama recovers. The photo here is shown with his sister.”
“Flora, a little baby girl who joined our Milk Powder service from the Outreach Program as the result of her mother having fungal infection in her breasts causing her to stop feeding her baby. The help request was received when she was 3 months old as the family couldn’t afford to buy 6 cans of milk powder which would have cost them more than 108,000/- Tsh (£38) every month. 6 months later we were informed her mother died and there was no option for her to stay at her family home. We received a request from the Village Child Committee for the baby to receive custody at the Igoda Children’s Village. Flora has been at the CV since June 2019 and is settling in very well.”
Manuse, standing, arrived at the CV after being found still attached to his mother who had passed away in a field trying to get to hospital in December 2017. As you can see he is a healthy little boy who has made friends with Fransisco who came to live at the Baby House too in January 2019. Unfortunately, his mother had passed away too. These two have bonded and are inseparable. It is very rewarding to see how all these children are flourishing. This is all thanks to our lovely supporters and amazing House Mamas, without whom they wouldn’t be able to be loved and cared for.
Gloria had her Cleft Palate and Lip Surgery on 10th April 2019! She gained the desired weight of over 10kgs which has been quite difficult, besides enjoying her food and having a healthy appetite, she has a malabsorption problem so it has taken her a long time to gain the weight needed. Her operation has been a success and returned home with House Mama Salome on Wednesday 17th April looking amazing. She will soon heal and start a new life of eating and breathing so much easier! She still had her stitches in this photo.
Gloria was born on 1st June 2016 and arrived at the Igoda Children’s Village three weeks later weighing less than 3kgs. Her mother has intellectual challenges, making her unable to care for her baby and she couldn’t feed well enough, the father is not involved in Gloria’s life. She had a cleft lip and partial cleft palate that extended slightly into her nasal cavity, making activities such as eating and breathing difficult for her. At the Children’s Village, Gloria was given round the clock care and gradually her health improved.
After a very successful appeal to replace Hezron’s Wheelchair, he was taken to the CCBRT Hospital in Dar-es-Salaam accompanied by Maneno Kalinga, his full-time carer and Joseph, his House Father, Social Welfare Officer and Counsellor, where a team met up with him, assessed his disabilities, gave him some physiotherapy and fitted him for his wheelchair. See the video below of his first attempt to manoeuvre his chair which is very moving when you see his smile spread from ear to ear!
with his friends and other pupils from the CV where he can participate in activities to improve his hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills. Maneno, performs physiotherapy exercises with him regularly and each month he is taken to the Mdabulo Care and Treatment Clinic (CTC) where he receives medication. Hezron will always have a home at The Igoda Children’s Village where he is relaxed and has many friends.