Why we had to say “no” to a baby this week (caution - graphic photos)

I always hoped we would not have to say “no” to a child in need, but this week it happened.

There are certain criteria that we have when accepting children, but it is more age related than anything else.  We welcome children who are HIV positive and even those with serious medical conditions that require hospitalization or surgery (see last week’s story about Phephile http://janinemaxwell.blogspot.com/2015/09/2-year-old-has-five-breaks-in-her-right.html or River’s story at  http://janinemaxwell.blogspot.com/2015/06/baby-river-is-home-after-7-surgerys-and.html).

Our focus is accepting children under the age of 12-months.  We have made a few exceptions to that rule including Gabriel, Rose, Grace, Jared, Thando, Junior and Phephile, but for the most part we accept small babies.  In fact 50% of our children arrive under 30-days old. All of the children will stay with us until they finish high school and find their way in to University, vocational training or find employment.

Another guideline that we have is that we do not knowingly accept severely disabled children.  We do not have the staff or expertise to manage children with disabilities and the Social Welfare officers know what our guidelines are.  That being said, we do have two children who are blind (Grace and Michelle) and we have another 10% of our children who have some kind of long term disability, typically Cerebral Palsy related, that was not identified until the child was old enough to be assessed.

But this week was different. 

I was called about an urgent case of a 9-month old child who needed help. I asked about the child’s health status and was told that the child was fine, just couldn't sit by himself, but that was likely due to his malnourished state.  I was asked to come immediately while a court order was being sought.   I took Welile (our baby home Sr. Supervisor) and Chris Cheek so that we could assess the child in person. Things are not always as they are told to us on the phone. 

We drove for 2 hours and found the child sitting on a piece of cardboard outside the Social Welfare office.   Immediately we knew that things weren’t as we had been told.  The child was actually 1-year old and we instantly knew that he was totally blind.  We asked the mother if he was born that way and she said, no.  He had large bumps down one side of his body and ended up in the government hospital for 3-months. He became blind during that time.  He had no muscle tone at all in his body and his head flopped from side to side as his mouth moved in a very strange way as his head fell backwards.

His diaper was simply a plastic grocery bag and he needed to be changed so Welile offered a diaper and wipes.   When the mom wiped his bottom we saw huge scars where much of his right buttocks had been removed.  We were shocked at the site/sight and when we asked her about it she said that the hospital had cut some of the lumps out and that is how the scaring happened.  

Then I asked to see the child’s health card.  That is when we saw the worst of it – he had Tuberculosis (TB) and he was not on treatment (which is free here). He had a terrible cough and was a sick little boy.  Sadly, none of the mother’s stories seem to add up.   Each sentence would contradict something that she had just said so we really weren’t able to get an accurate history. 

As Welile, Chris and I discussed the situation and it was clear that this child needed help, but it was not help that we could give.  Bringing a sick, coughing child with TB into a home with 101 others, many who are immune compromised, would be a disaster. 

I have learned A LOT about pediatric medical conditions since moving here.  Here is what we are “guessing” happened to the child.  We think that the large
“bumps” were a result of having TB - severely swollen/abscess glands are common.  We are assuming that the child had meningitis (brain infection) while in hospital which caused the blindness and the Cerebral Palsy-like symptoms.  We really don’t know what is going on at home and don’t have any confidence that the story told to us by the mother is in any way true or accurate.  Social Welfare has more investigating to do in this case.  We gave the mother some money from my Compassion Purse and drove back to town where Phephile was getting a hard plaster cast on her broken leg.  

Wednesday was a tough day, but I do know that we can’t save everyone.  We are called to be prayerful about who comes to the home and protect those who have been placed in our care.

I will continue to pray for this child, his mother and others who are in desperate need. And I will continue to give thanks to the God who sees and ask that HE provide His comfort to us all.

Live from Swaziland … the good news is Phephile is doing well and now living at the toddler home.

Janine

This is easy.

My last few blogs have been pretty heavy so today I am going to be short and sweet with hopes that every single person who read this will share this blog with friends and family.  Here are a few key facts:

1. Raising 101 children is expensive. 
2. I hate putting my hand out and asking for money/donations.
3. Most of you will buy Christmas gifts for friends and family this year. 

I am asking you to buy Christmas gifts from Heart for Africa where 100% of the profit goes back to buying diapers, formula, food, and paying for caregivers, nurses, doctors and education. It’s not a donation, it’s Christmas shopping made easy.

We have 54 full time employees at the Khutsala Artisans shop on Project Canaan in Swaziland, Africa.  They have been working since January to make Christmas tree ornaments to help with our goal of becoming self-sustainable.  We have 12,000 ornaments made, they are in the US now and ready to ship to you!

They are flat, they fit easily in a Christmas card, they can be used as a decoration on the top of a gift, they are the perfect teacher gift and they are only $10 each.

Will you go on line and buy one (or MANY) today?  Everyone can help us provide for our babies by simply shopping.  Just go to https://squareup.com/market/heart-for-africa

Enoch our Christmas Elf.

Fun facts:

Each Star has 790 beads, and uses 12.5 feet of wire.

Each Tree has 460 beads and uses 12.8 feet of wire.

Each Angel has 560 beads and uses 23.3 feet of wire. 

Each ornament takes approximately 4 hours to make.

Thank you for reading, thank you for shopping and thank you for sharing.

Live from South Africa … celebrating Ian’s 50^th birthday this weekend.

Janine

2-year-old has five breaks in her right arm?

This week I got a call about a child who is 2-years old and had a broken leg.  I was told that the hospital would not operate on the child until they were assured that she would have a place of safety to live when she was discharged from the hospital.

That was Wednesday. 

Thursday I met the child. It wasn’t just a broken leg that this child had, it was a year-long history of living in hell with family members who were abusing her.

Her right arm had five separate breaks, but the Doctors told me that many of those breaks had been broken again after they had healed.  Then there was the leg.  Both the femur and the tibia were badly broken. The Doctor said it was a classic case of child abuse because the breaks were just on the top and bottom of the knee.

  

When we removed the bandage that wrapped the arm for protection from further breaks we discovered large burn scars and rotting flesh.  She is also missing the end of the finger next to her pinky.  She doesn't speak at all. No words. She understands direction and raises her eyebrows to acknowledge that she heard the question, but not a word has been spoken from her lips.

The mother of the child was with her in the hospital, but she has the mental capacity of an 8-year-old.  She just smiled every time we looked at her, while her child went in and out of consciousness due to the pain she was in.  The leg had been broken on Sunday, and it was now Thursday.  The aspirin equivalent that she was given just wasn’t enough.  The mother had no idea how the child’s bones had been broken, no idea how she had been burned, but said that some children had been hitting her finger with rocks and finally the end of it just fell off.

After a long day and the help of the Magistrate’s Court and Social Welfare Office I was heading to a private hospital with the mother and child in the back seat of my borrowed vehicle (our cars are broken down).  When we arrived we met with the Orthopedic surgeon right away and after looking at the x-rays he said that he would do surgery the following day to wire her bones back together.  After looking at her arm, he said he would need to work on a “strategy” for the arm because there were so many breaks that hadn’t healed together and there were two fairly new ones that had started to heal.

Yesterday the child was operated on and just an hour in to the surgery I received an urgent call from the local laboratory.  They asked if I was the legal guardian for the child and I said, yes.  They asked if I would be paying the bill for the child and I said, yes.  They told me that she needed a blood transfusion and would I come in and pay for the blood immediately so that they could send it to the hospital.

I was an hour’s drive from town and she was lying open on the operating table.  Thankfully we have an account with that lab (based on the number of sick/hurting kids we deal with) and I was able to assure her that I would pay the bill.  (30-minutes later the Accounting department called and asked for my email address so that they could send me the bill straight away).  Yes, we will pay the bill.

There is more to the story that I can’t share in a public blog because it wouldn't be right for the child.  But rest assured that a team of people from Social Welfare and the Child Protection division of the police (and me) will be on this case until someone is in prison.  

Pointing out the breaks in her arm.

I went to visit her this morning and took some children’s DVD’s (we have a portable DVD player that goes on all hospital stays) and snuggly toys. Today she will see the first movie of her whole life.  Today she is safe. Today her body will start to heal and we pray that her heart and her memories will begin to heal too. One day she will speak and sing and dance.

Phephile (Pa-pee-lay), you are loved.

Live from Swaziland … I just don’t understand child abuse.

Janine

We now have 100 children under the age of five.

It is hard to fathom that Baby #100 arrived this week. My heart rejoices that another little life was saved, only to break again as I think back through the past 3 ½ years of pain and suffering felt by these innocent and helpless babies.   We have received many babies who have been dumped in pit latrines (outdoor toilets), left on the side of a river, lit on fire by their parents or are the result of incest and/or rape.  In fact, at least 30 of our children have been born to mothers who were ages 12-15 years old.  It is heart breaking and there are many days that I want to stick my head in the sand and pretend that this is not happening, but it is.

On March 1, 2012 we received our first baby. His name is Joshua. His mother was mentally unstable and unable to care for him and his father was unknown. After trying to abort the baby several times without success, Joshua’s mother decided to contact Social Welfare in order to try and find a solution for her unborn child. Joshua arrived at the baby home when he was just a few weeks old, covered in syphilis and sick with other medical issues.  Today he is healthy and strong.

His own mother named him Joshua after hearing that he would be living at Project Canaan.  She knew the biblical story of Joshua entering the “promised land” of Canaan and knew that he must have that name since he was the first to arrive.  The Lord told Joshua that Canaan would be a land flowing with milk and honey and true to that, Project Canaan now has 73 cows providing milk and the bees are making honey for us to sell. 

On August 27, 2015 we received our 100^th baby.  His name is Sipho, which in English means “Gift” and he truly is a gift to us. Sipho has been living in the nurse’s station at a hospital for the past three weeks after his mother was admitted to the Psychiatric hospital. He arrived to us with pneumonia, anemia and is HIV positive, but he has the biggest smile and laughs quickly and easily.  He is home now and is receiving one-on-one care by highly trained people and two full time nurses.

We have 51 full time staff at the Children’s Campus on Project Canaan.  That includes cooks, cleaners, nurses, Aunties, Uncles and a nightshift for the smaller babies.  All of this happens under the close watch of Helen Muli, who I want to mention by name now.  Helen is love and you can see that in the photos I have attached of her in 2012 and now with Sipho in 2015.  Thank you Helen for your sacrifices, your leadership, your friendship and most of all your commitment to serving our Lord in everything you do.

 

Now, if you are reading this, I am asking for your help.  I am asking for 100 of you to give $100 for our 100 faces of hope to help us celebrate this milestone in our journey.   For some of you that will be a sacrificial gift and for others it is nothing.  Will you partner with us today, right now?

In the US click on 100 Faces of Hope

In Canada please click on 100 Faces of Hope Canada

I also want to say a big THANK YOU to Beth Blaisdell, our Executive Director at Heart for Africa, US because she is the one who created the “100 Faces of Hope” campaign as a way to help us continue to be able to provide the best care possible for these children.  Beth is tireless in working to get people to sign up monthly to support each child who comes in.  None of us ever want to say “no” to an abandoned baby because we don’t have the funds. Thank you Beth for ALL you do in the US to support everyone in Swaziland.  You carry a big load and we are thankful for your commitment and love.

Live from Swaziland … 100 Faces of Hope.  Wow.

Janine

Waiting on baby #100

This week we received a little baby named Lydia.  She was born 3 months premature and weighed only 1.2 KG (2.6 pounds) at birth.  She is the 99^th baby to have been placed at the El Roi Baby Home by the Social Welfare department of Swaziland.  

With no money to buy diapers the baby was wrapped in a hand towel with a plastic garbage bag on top.

The routine of picking up a child is much the same.  I sit in the Social Welfare office and hear another heartbreaking story, often about rape, poverty and inevitably hopelessness that lead to the child needing to be placed in an “alternative care facility”.  Reports are written, Court Orders given and the child is handed over.  This week, Lydia’s story was no exception.

Receiving a new baby is a bittersweet experience.  There is great joy at receiving a new life knowing that he/she will be loved, cared for and grow up to know who Jesus is and also be a contributing member of society.  And as soon as that joy starts to penetrate your heart, the absolute sadness of why a baby has been abandoned by his/her parents starts to sink in.

We receive a new child on average every 12.7 days and now we wait expectantly for baby #100.  There is a big part of me that hopes that phone call never comes.  I hope that something changes in this tiny Kingdom, that we love and call home, so that no child is ever abandoned again.  But the reality is that there will likely be baby #100 who comes to live at Project Canaan, within the next 12.7 days. Who will this child be?  Will it be a boy or a girl?  Will he/she be sick or healthy?  What horrific set of circumstances will lead him/her to need a new home?

Like an expectant mother I sit and wait, and hope and pray for the little one who is coming to us in the days or weeks ahead.  I also pray for the day that my phone doesn’t ring to pick up an abandoned baby because social change has happened and hope is restored in Swaziland.

Live from Swaziland … waiting on baby #100.

Janine

Does God care about the holes in the bottom of her shoes?

The People Mover

For four years everyone had to walk to work at Project Canaan.  It took some people as short as 2 hours and some as long as 2.5 hours.  When they tried cutting across neighbors properties they were threatened with bush knives, guns and even had threats of death if they trespassed again, and so they walked the long route.

In the winter (May – August) the sun comes up at 6AM and goes down at 5:30PM so the walk to be at work at 7AM and leave at 4PM is mostly done in the dark.   The roads coming to Project Canaan are not safe for women walking alone and not safe to anyone walking in the dark, but still, they walked to and from work because they were employed in a country where there is as high as a 70% unemployment rate.

One day in 2013 a group of women from an organization called WLA within the US Bank came to visit us and they saw the people walking to and from work.  They met a 62-year old Grandmother named Mona Lisa and learned that she not only walked 5-hours each day, but then cared for 8 Grandchildren when she got home. Within a few months these amazing women raised funds for us to buy a big open truck that we call the “People Mover”. 

From 2013 the “People mover” traveled 107 miles per day, making three trips each way to both of our local communities, transporting 280 people to and from work.  It was life-changing providing an extra 5-hours every day for them to help their children with homework, prepare meals and provide protection.

But then it stopped. It broke down.  The harsh roads and heavy loads caused the broken clutch power cylinder, oil slinger and oil seal it has been down for several weeks, while we await one of the parts that is being sent from JAPAN so that it can be fixed.

The people are walking to and from work again and we pray for their safety every day. 

But here is a REALLY cool part of the story.

Last Friday morning one of the Aunties went to Helen and showed her the holes in the bottom of her shoes that were now being worn down during the long walks.  She shared how tired she was when she got home to her seven children after looking after children all day.  Helen looked at her and told her that the 5-hour walk to and from work was a wonderful time for her to be praying for the babies at Project Canaan, praying for all the people who work here and, while she’s at it, pray for a new pair of shoes.

God does care about the hole in your shoes Gcebile.

On the following Monday morning Teri and Morgan McClure arrived at Project Canaan and the first question Teri asked Helen was if she would be able to buy each of the Aunties a new pair of shoes to bless them. They didn’t know the People Mover was not working, they hadn’t seen the holes in that Aunties’ shoes, but she felt prompted to go and buy them all shoes!  

Thank you Teri and Morgan from Gugu and all 51 Caregivers who received shoes.

Khosie and Mcebo with their new shoes.

Helen squealed with delight, as only Helen can do, and she clapped her hands and said, “That is GOD!  It is God who is providing shoes to the Aunties who are caring for His children.” 

Yes, He is our provider, and gives each of us the opportunity to be used by Him, for His glory. 

Thank you Helen for always pointing people to Him.  Thank you Teri, Morgan and ALL the people who bring the perfect gifts at the perfect time.  May the Lord continue to bless you in a mighty way.

Live from Swaziland … praying for protection for our workers and our People Mover to be fixed soon!

Janine

This week: emergency brain surgery on one of our children. (This is not getting any easier)

Grace when she first arrived.

When you have 98 children under the age of 5 there are very few weeks without hospital, clinic or visit to the nurse.  This week was a tough one though when we discovered that our little girl Grace had undiagnosed hydrocephalus and then had a brain bleed when she accidently bumped her head, which quickly lead to emergency surgery to put a shunt in her head to drain the fluid that had built up over a year.

Who is Grace?

Grace came to us when she was 18-months old.  She was a sick baby and her mother couldn't handle a sick baby so she left Grace on the side of the road with a note attached saying,  “ My baby is sick. I am going to see my boyfriend”.  And she left.

Someone found Grace on the road, recognized her and took her to her Grandfather’s house. He in turn sent her to the hospital with an Aunt and by the time they arrived Grace was in a coma.  This poor little girl had meningitis, Tuberculosis and pneumonia.  A week later, she came out of her coma and was blind. 

We have a policy about not accepting disabled children, but we were not told that she was blind or severely disabled when she was placed with us by the Social Welfare department, mainly because they didn’t know either.  That has happened a couple of times and I can only see it as Gods’ way of making sure that the children HE is placing at Project Canaan are accepted, rules or no rules.  It’s as if HE sneaks them past us.  My friend Sandra Stanley was with us when Grace was placed in our care and it was Sandra who gave the child the English name “Grace” because this baby had been so sick and through so much, Sandra said that it was His Grace that would see her through. 

Back to Grace.

She is a sweet baby who really struggled in the first year she was with us.  She was carried everywhere because she couldn’t walk, crawl or even sit and while we believed that she was starting to see something, she is almost completely blind.   She was taken to Physical Therapy religiously every week and was doing her exercises daily to try to build core strength. Clearly her Cerebral Palsy has affected her whole body.

We wondered if she might also suffer with hydrocephalus, but a CT scan two years ago showed that our concerns were unwarranted. 

A wonderful friend and Heart for Africa supporter offered to get Grace a specially made walker (as in a $2,000 US custom-made walker!) and it has been life-changing for Grace. She was first strapped in to it as her core-strength was very poor, but within weeks she was running up and down the toddler home halls in her “car” as they call it.  She was standing at the same height as her brothers and sisters and they could now play and interact with her as they had not been able to do before. It was beautiful to see.

In no time Grace was walking with her walker, but not strapped in. She can walk/run only holding the handles and her strength is building daily. 

Last week she had a random bump on the head. She needed 3 stitches at our clinic, but all in all it was a typical childhood injury.  After a few days it was reported that she was vomiting and her right hand was shaking.  Our volunteer Nurse Practioner from the US (Brooke) immediately took her to town to see our Pediatrician. The Pediatrician immediately sent her to a hospital with a Neurosurgeon.  The Neurosurgeon did a CT scan, which revealed Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) that had been building for possibly one year.  The bump on the head caused internal bleeding on an otherwise already compromised situation and within hours of seeing the surgeon, our beautiful little Grace was having emergency brain surgery to have a shunt put in.

I can’t begin to put words to how we all felt and feel about this.  I can’t imagine this happening to my own biological children and how I would feel – I know I would be frantic.  But there is something quite different when this happens to a child that you have been given a God-given and government-given responsibility to care for.   I was sick to my stomach, but reached out to our prayer circle to join with us praying for favor and healing.  

On Tuesday Brooke went to see Grace and took in clothes for her to wear (we did not travel the day before expecting her to be admitted in to the hospital). The hospital had her in an adult diaper and nothing else.  As soon as they started to put her soft clothes on she starting talking fast in siSwati saying, “Oh, they are clothing me!” (SO CUTE!)  Only 5-days later she came back home to us with a draining shunt in place and a joyous welcome by her brothers and sisters (and Aunts and Uncles!).

Thank you Treasure - you are a gift to us all.

Ian and I are problem-solvers so we will work diligently with the team to improve our systems and training, but at the end of the day, the Lord stepped in and saved this little girl’s life, again.  I wonder what He has in store for our beautiful Grace. 

Live from Swaziland … things aren’t always easy here, but El Roi sees it all.

Janine