Murana Umara has had a very difficult life in Sierra Leone. At an early age his mother became sick. The father took her to a witch doctor and “treated” her. She died in agony a short time later. Three months later, his father died. His brother, sister and he were all alone. With no other choices available the police put them into the care of their elderly grandmother. This strong woman loved them so much but did not have the means to care for them. As times became worse for them and food became more and more scarce, the grandmother sent his sister to the city to live with a woman. This helped for a little while, but when the sister returned the situation became worse than ever. The siblings turned to the streets doing odd jobs or stealing anything they could put their hands on. They were desperate to put food in their stomachs. The situation got to a point that the sister sold her virginity in order to feed the siblings.
This is when the group met Pastor Rogers. He was determined to help the children but had little means of his own. He enrolled them into a church run feeding program and planned to move them into an orphanage he was building. Their lives began to look brighter until a hurricane destroyed the building the Pastor was building. What they did not understand at that point was that God was working in their favor. Shortly, there after Pastor Rogers met an American missionary who connected him to New Hope Initiative. NHI came on board, aided the feeding program, and built the Karen Baird Children’s Home. Murana and his siblings were among the first children to move in. As the children grew to know Christ and gave their life to Him, life began to look positive for them and they had the hope of a good future.
Murana enrolled in school and excelled. His language and writing skills improved. Although quiet in nature, he became very well spoken. It seemed as though he was on the right track and he was thankful to God. That is when he began having headaches. Soon he was having problems seeing. The local clinic gave him eye drops. With the lack of qualified medical care and doctors his vision worsened quickly. In less than a year he has now become almost completely blind. The young boy can no longer attend school and is becoming discouraged.
Pastor Rogers and I met with the headmaster of a school for the blind. He is willing to bring Murana in for re-habilitation. He feels that within the next 6 to 9 months Murana would be able to learn to read braille, learn to type, and be ready to move back to the children’s home. At that point he would be able to rejoin his class mates in school by using a tape recorder and a typewriter. Please help NHI make this happen for this young boy. He needs to be equipped with all the items necessary at the blind school including the typewriter, tape recorder, a bed and mattress, other school materials, and every-day items. Help NHI prevent this from happening in the future by supporting the Children’s Home each month to provide for better medical care for all of the children in the home.
Thank you and God bless,
Phil d’Entremont - Project Director: Sierra Leone
We are pleased to announce that we have added a new position to our staff in Nairobi. Christopher Gitonga has recently agreed to become New Hope Initiative's Director of Special Projects in Kenya. Chris was born and raised in Nairobi and attended quality educational institutions throughout his childhood and teenage years. Spiritually his life changed dramatically when he began to play basketball at a large youth project called Hope Center in Nairobi. It was through this sports ministry that Chris developed a vibrant personal faith. It was also at Hope Center in 2004 that Chris met and became friends with Kyle Baird who was serving a summer internship between colleges semesters. Chris and Kyle were both in their early twenties at the time and have remained friends for the past decade.
It’s shortly after 8 a.m. in Arusha, Tanzania and the scene unfolding on the street in front of the New Hope Olorien community clinic, while new to me, is a familiar one for the 15+ member staff and those that live nearby. The street, unpaved and barely wide enough to fit two cars side-by-side quickly fills with dust, commotion and plenty of engine exhaust and it stays that way for much of the morning. People arrive by foot and bicycle, others hitch a ride on a motorcycle or the always entertaining dala dala (a Tanzanian taxi which was likely made to fit 7-8 riders that typically is filled to double that capacity). I watch as older men with canes, young pregnant women, a teenage boy, an entire family with an ailing aunt and an elderly Masaii matriarch - all ages, all backgrounds - all arrive to the clinic looking for answers and relief from their pain.
As we begin the new year of 2014 we are excited to share with our supporters a great improvement for our ministry in Kibera. The new year brings a brand new facility to our school compound. We have just finished construction of a dining hall and commons building. This brick structure is without question the finest school building in all of Kibera and perhaps the single nicest structure in the entire slum. The building is stone inside and out and houses a new kitchen, with a large secure pantry and pass through serving facility, as well as a seating capacity of almost 200. This will allow the entire student body to be fed in 2 convenient, efficient shifts. We have been able to feed the children of our school for the part 5 years due to our faithful sponsors however the children have always had to eat standing in the compound with their bowls in their hands. The new hall will allow the students to enjoy a more civilized atmosphere that will continue to help us promote excellence in all phases of the New Hope Kibera Primary School.
When I was young, growing up in the church, missionaries living in South America, Africa, and parts of Asia would often come to my church, telling us amazing stories about remote villages they were living in and about people being introduced to the Gospel. For years, I saw this as what a missionary was, and for that reason I determined that “I am no missionary!” With that as my definition, it never even dawned on me that I could be a part of Global Missions. In fact, for most of my twenties I was the guy happy to write the check that enabled others to go, but was never really open to going myself. Then, in late 2009 a colleague and friend approached my wife and I about going to Kenya and Tanzania in the summer of 2010 with New Hope Initiative. She had been to multiple developing countries on similar trips and was very enthusiastic about missions. I took the information in and tried to get past the idea of giving up my vacation time and the thought of getting sick in country. I considered going, just this once, so that I could check the box and move on. That was my intention, even as I stepped on that plane for that first trip.