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.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Depression common among Rwandan youth who head households
Contact: Keith Brannon
504-862-8789
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."
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”.
Read More......
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”.
Read More......
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.
Read More........
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.
Read More........
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.
Read More.........
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.
Read More.........
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.
Read More........
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.
Read More........
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.
Read More..........
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.
Read More..........
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
