4/10/2008 4:00 PM
By: Paul Brown
By the year 2015, there will be nearly 20 million orphans in India -- roughly the current population of Texas.
That's according to the nonprofit The Miracle Foundation. Its founder changed her life's direction to do something about it.
Read More.........
Monday, April 14, 2008
Ministry to help orphans in Rwanda
By staff reports The Christian Chronicle
KIGALI, RWANDA - Charles Kabeza was one mile from the border when the death squads found him.
The year was 1994, and Kabeza, then 15, was fleeing the genocide ravaging his home country. His father died when Kabeza was 5, and he lost his mother just months before the killings began. Left on their own, Kabeza and his six siblings were attacked as they attempted to reach Rwanda’s border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Kabeza hid his two younger siblings as the death squads, on a mission to ethnically cleanse their nation, killed his two older brothers and two older sisters.
Read More...........
KIGALI, RWANDA - Charles Kabeza was one mile from the border when the death squads found him.
The year was 1994, and Kabeza, then 15, was fleeing the genocide ravaging his home country. His father died when Kabeza was 5, and he lost his mother just months before the killings began. Left on their own, Kabeza and his six siblings were attacked as they attempted to reach Rwanda’s border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Kabeza hid his two younger siblings as the death squads, on a mission to ethnically cleanse their nation, killed his two older brothers and two older sisters.
Read More...........
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Teen battling rare cancer hopes to build home for African AIDS orphans
Monday, April 07, 2008
By Terri Jo Ryan
Tribune-Herald staff writer
Kristin Elizabeth Elliott, 18, who hopes to enter Baylor University this fall, goes to church each week in a movie theater. Her own melodramatic life story could make the screenplay someday for an inspirational film to be shown there.
Kristin, a senior at Faith West Academy in Katy, Texas, has been battling a rare form of cancer for more than two years, a disease with only a 50 percent survival rate after five years.
Yet when she was asked last July by the Make-A-Wish Foundation what she hoped for, she requested not a celebrity visit for herself nor a fantasy vacation for her family but to share her wish with others.
She thought back on an earlier trip with Family Legacy Missions International to Zambia, a journey with her sister, Mandy Michelle Elliott, a 20-year-old Baylor junior. There, they spent days at Camp Life outside the city of Lusaka, working among the children orphaned by AIDS.
According to AVERT, an international AIDS charity, Zambia in southern Africa has one of the world’s most devastating HIV and AIDS epidemics. One in every six adults in Zambia is living with HIV, and life expectancy at birth has fallen to less than 40 years.
“God placed it on my heart to leave something for these kids,” Kristin said.
So she requested that Make-A-Wish help her start Kristin’s Miracle House, a home for 20 of the more than 1 million children orphaned in the poverty-stricken African nation by this modern scourge. The home would be part of a village established to give educational opportunities and medical attention to the ostracized children.
Read More...............
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WOW, what Faith!
By Terri Jo Ryan
Tribune-Herald staff writer
Kristin Elizabeth Elliott, 18, who hopes to enter Baylor University this fall, goes to church each week in a movie theater. Her own melodramatic life story could make the screenplay someday for an inspirational film to be shown there.
Kristin, a senior at Faith West Academy in Katy, Texas, has been battling a rare form of cancer for more than two years, a disease with only a 50 percent survival rate after five years.
Yet when she was asked last July by the Make-A-Wish Foundation what she hoped for, she requested not a celebrity visit for herself nor a fantasy vacation for her family but to share her wish with others.
She thought back on an earlier trip with Family Legacy Missions International to Zambia, a journey with her sister, Mandy Michelle Elliott, a 20-year-old Baylor junior. There, they spent days at Camp Life outside the city of Lusaka, working among the children orphaned by AIDS.
According to AVERT, an international AIDS charity, Zambia in southern Africa has one of the world’s most devastating HIV and AIDS epidemics. One in every six adults in Zambia is living with HIV, and life expectancy at birth has fallen to less than 40 years.
“God placed it on my heart to leave something for these kids,” Kristin said.
So she requested that Make-A-Wish help her start Kristin’s Miracle House, a home for 20 of the more than 1 million children orphaned in the poverty-stricken African nation by this modern scourge. The home would be part of a village established to give educational opportunities and medical attention to the ostracized children.
Read More...............
--------------------
WOW, what Faith!
Plight of Hoi An orphans moves US doctor
(06-04-2008)
For US doctor Josh Solomon, a holiday to Viet Nam turned into a long-term mission to help local orphans. Ngoc Tuan and Mai Suong find out why.
Josh Solomon intended to come to Viet Nam in 2003 to tour the country, but five years later he is so involved in his work at an orphanage in central Hoi An that he doesn’t know when he will return home.
"After seeing the condition of these children, I decided to stay to help them," the 35-year-old doctor said.
Read More..........
For US doctor Josh Solomon, a holiday to Viet Nam turned into a long-term mission to help local orphans. Ngoc Tuan and Mai Suong find out why.
Josh Solomon intended to come to Viet Nam in 2003 to tour the country, but five years later he is so involved in his work at an orphanage in central Hoi An that he doesn’t know when he will return home.
"After seeing the condition of these children, I decided to stay to help them," the 35-year-old doctor said.
Read More..........
Rwanda: Restoring the Rhythm of Life for Orphans
Focus Media (Kigali)
6 April 2008
Posted to the web 7 April 2008
Timothy Kisambira & Sam Ruburica
The Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) is an American Jewish group which offers charity contributions to Shalom project, a project that helps genocide orphans on skills development.
The delegation of JDC visiting the construction works of the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village.
A delegation of JDC was in the country last week to launch the Agahozo youth village in Rwamagana District, the first project funded in Rwanda by the organization. At the same time, the organization wants to invest in the country.
Read More..........
6 April 2008
Posted to the web 7 April 2008
Timothy Kisambira & Sam Ruburica
The Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) is an American Jewish group which offers charity contributions to Shalom project, a project that helps genocide orphans on skills development.
The delegation of JDC visiting the construction works of the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village.
A delegation of JDC was in the country last week to launch the Agahozo youth village in Rwamagana District, the first project funded in Rwanda by the organization. At the same time, the organization wants to invest in the country.
Read More..........
Madonna-style adoptions create more orphans
By Bonnie Malkin and agencies
Last Updated: 2:10am BST 09/04/2008
Psychologists have warned that "Madonna-style" inter-country adoptions are causing a rise in the number of children left in orphanages.
Researchers from the University of Liverpool found that EU countries with the highest rates of children living in institutions also had high proportions of international adoptions.
This did not reduce the number the number of children in institutional care but attributed to an increase.
Madonna adopted a young boy from Malawi in 2006. Yesterday it emerged that she was also going to adopt a girl from India.
The study found that people in countries such as France and Spain are choosing to adopt healthy, white children from abroad rather than children from their own country.
Read More........
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This appears to be a very myopic point of view. If some adopts, and elects to do a inter-country adoption, it may negatively affect the number of Orphans domestically, but the total number of Orphans doesn't increase.
Last Updated: 2:10am BST 09/04/2008
Psychologists have warned that "Madonna-style" inter-country adoptions are causing a rise in the number of children left in orphanages.
Researchers from the University of Liverpool found that EU countries with the highest rates of children living in institutions also had high proportions of international adoptions.
This did not reduce the number the number of children in institutional care but attributed to an increase.
Madonna adopted a young boy from Malawi in 2006. Yesterday it emerged that she was also going to adopt a girl from India.
The study found that people in countries such as France and Spain are choosing to adopt healthy, white children from abroad rather than children from their own country.
Read More........
--------------
This appears to be a very myopic point of view. If some adopts, and elects to do a inter-country adoption, it may negatively affect the number of Orphans domestically, but the total number of Orphans doesn't increase.
Monday, April 7, 2008
WOR | Silembe Update 06 April 2008
We heard from our Orphanage Director Jo Anne Byrum earlier this week, and I will attempt to communicate her message here:
Well I am back for m the children's home again. I do enjoying going out there and staying with the children. I hope you don't get tired of me writing.
Well I took the children to the nearest health care clinic to be seen. It seems that the one (near by) is only 23 kilometres away. Just down the road. Funny thing is its only 28 k back to the house in Kalomo. Anyway, the three oldest boys went. I especially have had a burden to get Lovemore to the clinic because of this fungus on his body. They didn't see Blessing because he is well.
Sibajane is on Amoxicillin for his cough.
Now Lovemore -as you recall from my last communication is sick. So please keep in prayer to our Father for healing. He has a fungus that is all over his body growing on his skin, he has scaring on his right eye, and I don't know how much of his vision is impaired. He weighs only 52 lbs and is tall. I don't know his height but he is tall when compared to the other children here. So the clinical officer is concerned that he may be immune comprised. He tested him for HIV and the first test showed positive. He did a second test that showed negative. So now he has referred him to Zimba where they hopefully will do further testing and make sure that the antifungal medication is the proper one for the fungus he has. He should also be able to visit the eye clinic there in Zimba. Zimba is a Wesleyan Hospital just south of us. It will take 30 mins. to get there from Kalomo and 2 hours from the House of Faith. So I will keep you all updated as to the outcome of Lovemore.
It is most important that we pray for complete healing for this child. Your Father is able to do everything and people here have been healed of HIV before by our Father. I personally have had 6 children test negative after being positive; so I have great Faith!
I am sending many pictures of our time together. Our greatest adventure was a bat flew into the latrine and got stuck on the fly paper. So I had Golden, a man strong in the Faith. bring it to the school. I thought what a great opportunity for the children to see a real live bat. Many thought that they were birds that just flew at night. Of course they do have birds here that fly at night, but these bats are a little different. The teachers had never seen a bat before either, so I had to tell them about how they are blind and us a radar to fly and they eat bugs and mosquitoes. I got to be the teacher for a while. They wanted to know whether it was a mammal or a bird, or a rat with wings! It was a real treat.
The other pictures is how the evenings are spent around a fire, they enjoy roasted maize at harvest -that's the only time they have it because the rest of the maize will be dried and stored for eating through out the year. I also took out some marshmallows, chocolate, and some graham crackers my sister had sent to me. We made samores. They thought they were too sweet. I could not believe I was hearing that.
They put so much sugar in tea and the porridge, but they thought the samores were too sweet. So any way they did like roasting the marshmallows. School is closing for the break. It will reopen in May, so I plan to be out there a lot this month teaching the children as much as I can. So thank you for all your prayers and I will be talking to you soon. Your faithful Servant, Jo Anne <><
Well I am back for m the children's home again. I do enjoying going out there and staying with the children. I hope you don't get tired of me writing.
Well I took the children to the nearest health care clinic to be seen. It seems that the one (near by) is only 23 kilometres away. Just down the road. Funny thing is its only 28 k back to the house in Kalomo. Anyway, the three oldest boys went. I especially have had a burden to get Lovemore to the clinic because of this fungus on his body. They didn't see Blessing because he is well.
Sibajane is on Amoxicillin for his cough.
Now Lovemore -as you recall from my last communication is sick. So please keep in prayer to our Father for healing. He has a fungus that is all over his body growing on his skin, he has scaring on his right eye, and I don't know how much of his vision is impaired. He weighs only 52 lbs and is tall. I don't know his height but he is tall when compared to the other children here. So the clinical officer is concerned that he may be immune comprised. He tested him for HIV and the first test showed positive. He did a second test that showed negative. So now he has referred him to Zimba where they hopefully will do further testing and make sure that the antifungal medication is the proper one for the fungus he has. He should also be able to visit the eye clinic there in Zimba. Zimba is a Wesleyan Hospital just south of us. It will take 30 mins. to get there from Kalomo and 2 hours from the House of Faith. So I will keep you all updated as to the outcome of Lovemore.
It is most important that we pray for complete healing for this child. Your Father is able to do everything and people here have been healed of HIV before by our Father. I personally have had 6 children test negative after being positive; so I have great Faith!
I am sending many pictures of our time together. Our greatest adventure was a bat flew into the latrine and got stuck on the fly paper. So I had Golden, a man strong in the Faith. bring it to the school. I thought what a great opportunity for the children to see a real live bat. Many thought that they were birds that just flew at night. Of course they do have birds here that fly at night, but these bats are a little different. The teachers had never seen a bat before either, so I had to tell them about how they are blind and us a radar to fly and they eat bugs and mosquitoes. I got to be the teacher for a while. They wanted to know whether it was a mammal or a bird, or a rat with wings! It was a real treat.
The other pictures is how the evenings are spent around a fire, they enjoy roasted maize at harvest -that's the only time they have it because the rest of the maize will be dried and stored for eating through out the year. I also took out some marshmallows, chocolate, and some graham crackers my sister had sent to me. We made samores. They thought they were too sweet. I could not believe I was hearing that.
They put so much sugar in tea and the porridge, but they thought the samores were too sweet. So any way they did like roasting the marshmallows. School is closing for the break. It will reopen in May, so I plan to be out there a lot this month teaching the children as much as I can. So thank you for all your prayers and I will be talking to you soon. Your faithful Servant, Jo Anne <><
Please keep the home, the staff, and most of all the children in your prayers. Blessings, Scott
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