Orphanages
May 2007
A GLIMPSE IN THE LIFE OF:
Sikota - boy 5 years:
Naught little short man. You would in love just to see the his wide smile. He has the wildest smile in all the Orphanage. He was born in Prison and he came to the Orphanage when he was 5 months. Sikota’s mum is alive and is in prison for murder of her husband. She is prison for life and no parole. Sikota with his mum live over 800km from Lusaka in the remotest area. It was a transfer from a small prison to maximum prison out of Lusaka. He is in grade 1 at a pre school.
Maria - 5
She is an Orphan. She came to the Orphanage 3years ago after her mother had died in hospital. We never got to meet her mother neither did we know anything about her. The Catholic Church near the Orphanage asked us if we could keep the child till they locate the next of kin of Maria. Four months passed, Maria’s dead mother was still in the morgue with no relatives to witness the burial. The hospital authority in Zambia buries unclaimed bodies to bury in unmarked graves. So we had to try to locate Maria’s relatives. It took us 900km to search and ask at every stop we made until we found some one who knew the family. We came back to Lusaka together and buried Maria’s mother’s decomposed body. All that I have is a picture of her as she lay in death.
Stan - 4
One Tuesday morning we had a visit by the hospice staff for the terminally ill some distance from the Orphanage. Our visitors came to us if we could help a three months baby whose mother was admitted in the hospital as she has no relatives who is capable of looking after her son. Indeed we went together and found Stan’ mother very sick with her baby next to her. She was very thin and did not need to confirm what she was suffering from as she was in the hospice for the terminally ill. These hospices are “new in Zambia “because of the HIV that is prevalent in Zambia. She was able to talk but with a lot of difficulties, she asked us if we could take her baby and she was going to come and see him when she gets better. The very next day, Stan mother died. Since then Stan has been with us. His development is excellent and he is HIV-. We thank God for that. No one from his family has come to see him since 2003
Enock- 4
Due to distances to clinics in rural areas, a lot of organisations operate mobile clinics to help people in remotest area. One lady who works for a physiotherapy under the Christians nuns, came to inform us about a mentally challenged girl who keeps on having children and points to any man as her husband, due to that , many men started reacting to Enoch’s mother’s allegations by either ridicule her or hit her. Meanwhile she was everywhere with her youngest child whom she starved. She could stay for days without food and believed too that her baby of 10 months could do without food like her. She had no home and wherever it got dark, that’s was her home for the night. Enoch does not even have a surname because no one knows who the father is. No man would want to be associated with such a woman? To us, Enoch is a child who needs our love and care, we have managed to give it to him, from 10 months to 4 years now and he is in a pre school. Once in a while we see signs that indicate abnormality. Please join us to pray for Enoch who had no choice of who is his mother was going to be.
My children and I will ever remain grateful to you for your support.
Angela and kids
