GO! Stories | "Justine"

A Place, A Story, A Journey
September, 30, 2008
by Scott A. Nordstrom

I have not yet had the honor of meeting Justine, but look forward to getting to know him in November.

Justine came to our home on July 4, 2008. You might say that this was his ‘Independence day’! We think that Justine is about 11 years old and he was hurting when he arrived at House of Faith Orphanage (HOFO), both physically and emotionally. You see, Justine is from the surrounding rural area, and has been sleeping outside for quite some time. Just because a child has a home doesn’t mean that there being cared for properly. Justine was charged with caring for the family’s goats.

It is not uncommon for a family in Zambia to be somewhat involved in caring for an Orphaned child. In fact, some research I read recently indicated the 60% of all families in Zambia are somehow involved in caring for these children. The challenge is that these families are dealing with very limited resources. When it comes time to decide who gets a bigger portion, or who gets to go to school, the biological children take priority.

Unfortunately, this dilemma is creating a second class of citizen. Not that these children (or adults when grown) are looked down upon because of their family status, but they are more vulnerable based on a lack of education, poor health, and lower overall personal development. There is an estimated 75,000 children living on the streets of Zambia with no clear direction or opportunities for choice in the future. No choice as to where to live. No choice as to which school to attend. No choice for vocation. Just no choice!

I firmly believe that, one child at a time, we can encourage Hope that can actually give these children choices for their future. This is not easy work. This investment in these little lives will require time, treasure, and talent. I wish that you all could see what I have seen. All of these children that need help! The look in these children’s eyes! They look to you as they wonder if you will reach your hand down to lift them up. Will you provide any hope? Will you provide any relief? Can you be the one to come to their rescue?

Justine lost his last parent in 1999. The story goes that his mother had a seizure and fell into the fire and burned to death. His father had died of malaria several years earlier. Justine has had no parental care for almost 9 years now. No Mommy or Daddy to tuck him in. No Mommy or Daddy to take him or pick him up from school. You see, Justine was lucky to go to school at all before he came to HOFO. Justine didn’t have the proper nutrition before coming to our home. Justine lacked even a hug or any effort to help him learn to read. Before coming to HOFO, Justine was destined to spend the rest of his days with goats. Oh ya, Justine is also HIV/AIDS positive, but is now receiving the necessary medication to lead a close to normal life at HOFO.

FACT: 10%, or 1.2 million, of Zambia’s population are Orphaned children. 10%, or 120,000, of the Orphaned children of Zambia are HIV/AIDS positive. For more info on how you can help go to www.globalorphanrelief.org/ChildrenofSilembe.

Grandparents forced to care for orphans

Press and Journal - Aberdeen,Aberdeenshire, UK
Published 29/09/2008

The number of grandparents caring for grandchildren orphaned by Aids worldwide has doubled in the last decade, according to new research by Help the Aged.

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GO! Stories | "Brothers"

A Place, A Story, A Journey
September 4, 2008
by Scott A. Nordstrom

It was Christmas of 2006, and we were in Juarez for our 2nd Christmas Over the Border mission. This year it was different though. It wasn’t just our family blessing 20 children with Christmas gifts. This year it was three families blessing over 70 children. It was incredible to have a team beyond our own family, and it was great serve so many of His children. Admittedly I was a little stressed with the responsibility, but most things went smooth.

Most of the group stayed at the YWAM facility in Juarez, while our family again stayed at Casa de la Nueva Vida. The team spent Christmas Eve at the respective locations, and we watched a movie in Spanish. The children had a great time, and I believe that His love was shown during this experience for them.

The most difficult aspect of the trip was moving. We had 3 different vehicles and I didn’t know my way around that well. There were several times back and forth between our locations, and then there were the two border crossing –never a fun thing.

On Christmas day we were going to drive across town to another home that I had visited earlier in the year, but I had only been there one time. We would again be in our three vehicle convoy, and my directions didn’t seem that detailed and my memory worse yet.

We did arrive downtown without a hitch, at least to the right neighborhood, but we couldn’t find the home. We drove around, and around, and around again, but we couldn’t find it. I knew that the Girls Home was in this vicinity, but where had I gone wrong? We decided to stop for directions. After knocking on a few doors we found someone willing to talk to us, but it was in Spanish. I quickly dialed Sergio on our phone knowing that he could translate for us, and handed the phone to our new-found Spanish-speaking friend. After several nods, a grunt, and eventually a smile, he hung up and started for my car. What else could we do, but agree to go!

After everyone regained their positions in their vehicles, my new friend pointed to by dash and said in broken English, “Brother”. I didn’t understand, but acknowledged him. He did it again, “Brother”. I then realized that he was pointing to the Bible on my dash. He then pointed at himself, me, and then 3 different houses on the same street with a “Brother” each time and finally in broken English “Christians”.

Wow, what were the chances that this gentleman and I would meet, or will ever meet again, but for that moment he was an encourager as we finally made it to our destination just several blocks away. We thanked our new friend, and I watched as he walked around the corner on his way home. We were only two blocks away, but would have never found this place without this Brother.

FACT: Juarez, Mexico is home to 29 children homes. Many of these children are oirphaned and others have been taken away from their parents. Mexico is home to 1.6 million Orphans. Global Orphan Relief has completed 5 missions to Juarez, Mexico, to serve these children. For more information see http://www.globalorphanrelief.org/.

Government urged to do more in fight against HIV in Africa

Matthew Pearson , Canwest News Service

Published: Saturday, September 06, 2008


OTTAWA - Siphiwe Hlope looks like a superhero.


Wearing a red cape and brightly-beaded belt, her small stature could belie the might she has shown in her fight against HIV and AIDS. The devastating disease has killed 17 of her 24 siblings and orphaned 13 million children in sub-Saharan Africa.



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Christian volunteer to address local audiences on plight of orphans in Sudan

Published Sunday, September 7, 2008



FAIRBANKS — It was nearly a decade ago that Lillian Klepp, a Christian from Wisconsin, heard a speaker talk about the plight of the widows and orphans in Sudan, victims of a civil war that disrupted the lives of millions.


She asked herself afterward, “What can I do?”



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‘Kids I could love’

Publish Date: 9/7/2008
By Melanie M. Sidwell
Longmont Times-Call


Area nonprofit mentors families looking to adopt from Ukraine


LONGMONT — The summer camp was anything but typical.


The kids went camping near Cameron Lake. They attended a Colorado Rockies game. They watched SpongeBob.


What they loved most, though: family.



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Princes revved up for great trek of Africa

September 8, 2008



LONDON: The epic trip will combine three of their greatest passions: Africa, motorbikes and charity work. Princes William and Harry are to embark on one of the world's most arduous motorcycle rides to raise money for orphans and people with AIDS.


Amid tight security, the brothers, aged 26 and 23, will make the 1600-kilometre trek across South Africa and Lesotho in a journey resembling that of Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman in their TV series Long Way Down.



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Coca-Cola supports orphan children

Riyadh: Mon, 8 Sep 2008



Coca-Cola launched its promotional campaign “Ramadan … Sharing, Togetherness and Acceptance”, in cooperation with “Insan” (Charity Committee for Orphans Care).



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This NY model adopts cause of orphans

8 Sep 2008, 0453 hrs IST, Kumar Manish,TNN



AHMEDABAD: She has walked on ramps for international apparel brands like Tommy Hilfiger, Jessica Simpson among other international brands. She is also a peace singer and songwriter from New York.



Now, Leah Martin is in Ahmedabad, following her heart - to make a difference to millions of orphaned children in the state and country.



Martin is using her musical prowess to make a point on adoption. Martin said, "There are around 12.4 million orphans in India. Last year less than 3,500 got a home. The best way to help orphans is to adopt them and I want to create more awareness about adoption in the country."



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GO! CORNERSTONES | "The Rescue"

Of Faith, Hope, and Love
September 2, 2008
by Scott A. Nordstrom

Often times when I write it seems like I am repeating myself or that it is some kind of bizarre deja vu. I suppose that there might be common themes that stream through my thoughts that eventually land on paper. I also admit that there may be times you find me simply repeating myself or that maybe repetition is important in some other way.

I believe that I better understand the love of the Father since I now have been a father to my own children. I am not fully comprehending –only closer in understanding His love for us. I have been attempting some deep father-daughter conversation lately, but I am not sure that I am getting through. As with most teenagers there is a time that some struggle to find the way that they should be going or the place they should be focused on. In this incredible landscape of media it is difficult to focus on any one thing, but it can also cause us to crowd-out things or people of importance as we intently focus our concentration as to not be distracted.

I probably fall into the category of the former as my interest range across a wide spectrum. Maybe this is why my relationship with God has so many peaks and valleys. I don’t know that I am unusual, as I probably share many of the struggles that you have. Life can get me down from time to time, but my saving grace is the mercy of God. I can’t tell you how many times over the last year that I felt myself leaning over the abyss only to be caught and captured by God’s love for me.

As I deal with my own challenges of life, I encourage my daughter to rest in His arms to realize His peace, and to know that He loves her so very much. The only thing that saves me from being consumed by my own demise is the fact that He is there for me. I move forward in great expectation, with courage, and I am not afraid because He is with me. My admission to you is that He rescues me everyday, and my comfort comes from knowing that He will rescue me tomorrow. My challenge is to keep my eyes on the prize, and to keep myself on the way.

I am sorry that I am in the need of rescue, and I wish I had it more together. My knowledge and wisdom is fleeting as my patience wears thin. Many have ‘arrived’ it seems -though I am still running and running. My legs grow weary, and my heart aches as the darkness surrounds me. Will this burden ever leave me? I keep running though because I know that he is there somewhere beyond the darkness. He is waiting to consume me with His light, as it is written, He will bring to the light what is hidden in darkness. I will be rescued, and He will be the One who rescues me.

Psalm 31:2 Turn your ear to me, come quickly to my rescue; be my rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me.

Peace, and be Blessed!

Children Silent Victims Of Political Impasse

ZIMBABWE INDEPENDENT
Thursday, 04 September 2008 20:46

"COME here as a visitor and not as a spy," reads a warning sign on a rusty metal stuck on to a wooden gate at a home in Nyatondo Village in the Eastern Highlands district of Nyanga.

For a moment one hesitates to enter the homestead, not sure how they would be identified — as a visitor or as a spy.

A narrow path leads to a tiny kitchen hut that smells of fresh cow dung that has just been used as floor polish. Beside the kitchen is a neat pile of firewood. Opposite the kitchen is a two-roomed hut with a small shining verandah.

Everything at the homestead appears to be in order and one would expect to find an adult at the home. But that is not the case.

Running into the yard from the garden is a small boy dressed in a torn navy blue pair of jean shorts and a sleeveless T-shirt in the chilly weather. The boy is 14-year old Tichaona Mubako, an orphan in Ward 19 in the Sedze area of Nyanga, who has been staying by himself since the age of 12.

A Form 2 pupil at Nyajeza Secondary School, Tichaona began looking after himself after his parents succumbed to HIV and Aids-related diseases. Living by himself, doing the house chores, tilling the fields, maintaining the garden and protecting his late parents’ property has become a normal way of life for Tichaona.

"Sometimes I am scared of staying alone," Tichaona said. "When night falls, I get my friend who stays close by to come and spend the night with me, but most of the times I am by myself."
His mother passed away in 2004 while his father died two years later.

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BA, UNICEF out to curb mother-to-child HIV infection

DAMAS MAKANGALE
Daily News; Thursday,September 04, 2008 @20:02

BRITISH Airways (BA) and the United Nation Children Fund (UNICEF) are jointly implementing a programme titled; “Change for good”which aims at preventing mother to child transmission of HIV/Aids in 55 countries around the world, including Tanzania.

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Liberian-American Couple Assist Orphans

By T. Michael Johnny
--More Aids Distribution For Deprived Citizens

A Liberian-American Couple based in Brooklyn, United States of America has continued the donation of several bags of rice and other humanitarian supplies to several orphanages and old folk homes in Monrovia and its environs.

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GO! STORIES | "Sibajane"

A Place, A Story, A Journey
September 3, 2008
by Scott A. Nordstrom

It was Sunday, March 10, 2008, and we had just had finished up a great time at the local church in Silembe. I was truly blessed to have shared with the people there, and they seemed so happy to have us visit. We were wrapping up our time in the bush, as we would depart the next day for Livingstone.

Word came to us from the Head Man that his relatives at a nearby village would like to see us about a child that they could no longer care for. The orphanage was almost ready, but we hadn’t started receiving children as of yet. Elizabeth would be our first house-mom, and she was prepared to start living at the orphanage when we needed her to. Several of us decided to make the trip that afternoon to meet this child who might come to live at House of Faith Orphanage.

Of course it was a bumpy ride to their location, but many us were so tense with expectation we hardly noticed. What would this child be like? A boy or a girl? I always thought our first child would be a girl; maybe because of our baby Faith of 2005 for some reason.

As the vehicle pulled up to the little compound, most of family was gathered around in an outside area. We met his caretakers, and we were then able to meet Sibajane. What a beautiful boy! He was a little shy, and I think a little taken back by all the attention. We talked with him and his family about his situation. The family was encouraged that he would be well taken care of, and that he would be living in the area.

Jo Anne, our orphanage Director, went through a myriad of questions with the family. I could tell that she is a collector of data. She is perfect for our operation in Zambia, and I was impressed with the way she went about putting the family at ease, but also in the way that she was able to gain their cooperation and engage them in the conversation about Sibajane. I was also observing the boy wondering what was going through his mind. Was he sad about potentially leaving his family? What of his older brother? Was he close with him? What kind of life would we be taking him from, and how would his new life be different?

Before leaving we took some snaps of Sibajane and offered some hugs. I felt sad to know that it would be so long before I would see him again, but he’d be in good hands with Elizabeth and Jo Anne at the orphanage.

FACT: Sibajane was approximately 7 years old when he moved into the House of Faith Orphanage on March 14, 2008. Sibajane’s mother and father are both deceased. Sibajane’s name means, “I have not found him.” We believe that the meaning of his name is that his father did not see him before he died and he did not see the father. He has one older brother who is fourteen years old, who tends cattle for the family and goes to the same school as Sibajane. Sibajane lived one and a half hours walking-distance from school, which caused him to miss a lot of school. Now he is attending school regularly, also being taught numbers and ABC’s at home.

As of September 3, 2008, we now host 18 children at House of Faith Orphanage, and many remain in the need of sponsors. For more information see www.globalorphanrelief.org.

Zambian President Mwanawasa buried

Wed 3 Sep 2008, 14:50 GMT
By Shapi Shacinda

LUSAKA (Reuters) - Thousands of Zambians mourned late President Levy Mwanawasa on Wednesday as he was buried in the southern African country that he had made a rare success story on the continent.

Regional leaders also attended the ceremony for Mwanawasa, who pleased donors and investors with financial reforms in the copper producing state and took a stronger stand on the crisis in neighbouring Zimbabwe than many of his counterparts.

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Chiropractor helps ‘orphans and widows’

Heather Mays - Thu, Sep, 4, 2008

A local chiropractor hopes to touch the world through his ministry, Matthew 10.

Dr. Pete Sulack, owner of Exodus Chiropractic and pictured right, founded Matthew 10 in 2004.

The ministry is based on Matthew Chapter 10, which speaks of Christians’ obligations to extend love and care in return for God’s love.

“There’s a key phrase that says ‘as freely as you receive, freely give,’ and it was just an opportunity [with] children’s homes for tsunami victims in India,” Sulack said.

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Orphans Walk 60km to Beg for Food

MASVINGO, September 3 2008 - Two orphaned brothers from Zaka district recently walked sixty kilometers to get to their next of kin where they intended to beg for food, as isolated cases of starvation begin to mushroom in the province, hard hit by acute food shortages for the past six years.

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GO! STORIES | "Willie"

A Place, A Story, A Journey
September 2, 2008
by Scott A. Nordstrom

When we first visited Zambia in 2006 we were greeted by a number of strangers as they were there to provide us transport to our next unknown destination. Flowers in hand, and hugs or hand-shakes for everyone -it seemed that we had immediate friends in this strange new place. This was good.

After we finally did get our bags through customs we were taken to a local meeting place that they called a prayer center. We talked and shared our hearts over the next several hours as we described why we thought we were lead to Zambia –to serve Orphans.

During our talk with our new found friends we were encouraged to use this trip to establish a beach-head in their country to serve Orphans and to ultimately advance the kingdom. After we concluded our discussion with prayer, we loaded up the vehicles for the drive north to Ndola.

Rick and I were paired up with Willie for the journey. Willie was a young man, I’d say in his mid-twenty’s, and was an elder in his local church. He was so young it seemed to be an elder. He was very eager to answer our barrage of questions. It seemed that Willie was a business man, and would really do about anything ethical and legal to earn a wage. Young Willie was impressive from the stand-point that he had his own car, and I was encouraged by his demeanor.

After nearly 4 hours in the car, we had covered almost every subject you could think of. Rick was the most inquisitive as he asked questions I couldn’t have even thought of. I had had several cat-naps along the way, and toward the end of our trek north -I just wanted to be there already. We then broached the subject of Willie’s family. Willie was not yet married, but came from a family of 7 brothers and sisters, and of the 7 siblings only 3 were still alive to include Willie. One had died of HIV/AIDS and others from various other means. What struck me as unusual is that Willie didn’t miss a beat as he described his deceased family members. It was almost a matter of fact, not emotion. You see, death is something that Zambians must confront often. Later I found out that work attendance is an issue in Zambia, not only from a sickness stand-point, but there are many funerals to attend in any given year. I was beginning to connect the dots. Not only was Willie a member of a new and vibrant congregation, but there weren’t an abundance of older men at the church to fulfill the responsibilities of elder. There aren’t an abundance of older men anywhere in Zambia.

FACT: Life expectancy at birth in Zambia is 38.59 years of age, as compared to just over 78 years of age in the U.S. With a population of less than 12 million people, Zambia has the 1.1 million people living with HIV/AIDS.

Of the 1.2 million Orphans present in Zambia, or 10% of the population, 130,000 are HIV/AIDS positive, 600,000 have been orphaned by the disease, and 75,000 live on the street.

Depression common among Rwandan youth who head households

Contact: Keith Brannon

504-862-8789

JAMA and Archives Journals

More than half of orphaned youth age 12 to 24 who head households in rural Rwanda meet criteria for depression, according to a report in the August issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

The combined effects of the 1994 genocide and the HIV epidemic give Rwanda one of the highest numbers of orphans in the world—an estimated 290,000 in 2005, according to background information in the article. "Most African orphans have been absorbed into informal fostering systems," the authors write. "Such systems, however, are increasingly overwhelmed, and many orphans either head households or live on the street."

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Lost and not found: Orissa’s orphans

Zia Haq, Hindustan Times
Padampur, August 31, 2008

First Published: 01:02 IST(31/8/2008)
Last Updated: 01:04 IST(31/8/2008)

A blue, Team India t-shirt still hangs on a clothesline. Size: small. It belongs to 13-year-old orphan Golki. His whereabouts: unknown.

Almost five days after a mob set on fire a remote orphanage run by a Christian organisation, nobody can tell us for sure where and how the little children — 21 in all — are coping.

The children escaped the deadly communal fire because their caretaker, Rajani, managed to pull them out on time through a small path. Rajani, however, died after she was allegedly pushed into the fire by rioters. Ask officials in this far-flung, tiny, subdivisional town and their standard reply is: “They have all gone back to their native villages nearby”.

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From Russia with love

High Desert families give international children a home

August 29, 2008 - 2:56PM
BROOKE EDWARDS Staff Writer

VICTORVILLE — When Katya Hughes and her best friend get together, they have more in common than concerns over starting college and boys. Both are Russian orphans who were given a new start in life after being adopted by parents from the High Desert.

Steve Hughes and his wife Jan of Victorville have adopted eight children in all, ages 8 through 23. Seven are from Russia and one, Nathan, is from a bit closer, just two hours away in Bakersfield. All of the children were adopted through Nightlight Christian Adoptions of Fullerton.

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Feature: The orphans of war

Last Updated: Sunday, 31 August 2008, 10:11 GMT

The war in Sudan, Africa's longest running conflict which left two million dead and forced four million more to flee their homes, ended in early 2005 after more than two decades of fighting.

Many, both inside and outside the continent's biggest country, fear that growing tensions between north and south might shatter the fragile peace.

In the last of his reports, correspondent Mike Thomson visits a children's home in the southern Sudanese city of Juba to hear the stories of two young boys who were orphaned by the last war.

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Makindu trip fortifies pledge to help children

By Jill Aho
The Register-Guard

Published: August 31, 2008 12:00AM

Mutuwa lives with his guardian, Ngwenze, in a small earthen-brick structure supported by sticks and sheltered by a corrugated tin roof. It has no electricity and no running water.

The orphan is one of more than 400 Kenyan children who are fed, taught and given emotional support by the Makindu Children’s Program headquartered in Eugene. Many of the orphans have lost their parents to the raging HIV/AIDS epidemic.

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US-Vietnam adoption pact ends, hundreds in limbo

2008-09-01 09:28:04 -

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - A U.S.-Vietnam adoption agreement expired Monday with the two sides unable to resolve disagreements over fraud and corruption, disappointing hundreds of prospective parents who will have to seek children elsewhere. The two countries said they will continue trying to iron out their differences, but for now the program will be
suspended indefinitely.

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