Newsletter June 2021

Dear Friends,

we received your feedback with the suggestion to reduce the length of our newsletters in favor of some additional photographs and graphic material. In this newsletter we will try to follow your valuable advice.

Our Children

Henry* has been with us since the end of December. He was four weeks old when he arrived. His mother simply disappeared from the hospital after his birth. Henry was born with what is called “club feet” - a condition in which a newborn's feet appear to be rotated internally at the ankle. The therapy normally consists of a plaster cast worn for two months, which is then followed by surgery. After the surgery the child has to wear a cast for another month and orthopedic shoes up to the age of five. Because his condition had improved so rapidly, Henry only had to wear his initial cast for two weeks. At the same time his physician told us that surgery was not necessary. This appeared like a miracle to us. His speedy recovery saved him a lot of discomfort. The process of taking off his cast was quite extraordinary. The attending physician showed us a small water basin in which we were instructed to soak his cast. Afterwards we were given a scalpel without a handle in order to remove the cast by ourselves. Under these conditions it was not easy to take the cast off but we were successful.  

Carolina* is now almost eight months old.  In February she came to us directly from a hospital in Dar es Salaam.  Her mother, who had HIV, tragically died shortly after her birth.  HIV antibodies are usually passed on from the mother to the child.  But the diagnosis of HIV in case of infants is usually not reliable.  Positive nucleic acid tests are always reconfirmed by a second blood test. Carolina is still waiting for her second test result.  We hope and pray that the result will be negative, which would mean that she does not have HIV anymore.  

Adriana* - another girl – arrived the same day as Carolina. She will be two years old in June. Her mother is mentally unstable and therefore not able to care for her child. 

Our Volunteers

Despite the Covid-19 crisis we have two volunteers who were courageous enough to come to Tanzania in order to support us. 

Our volunteers are usually coordinated through a volunteer program of the German Government, the “Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development”. Unfortunately, last year the program was suspended because of Covid-19. Nonetheless, there are always lots of students who are asking us directly if we could need some help. For this reason, in 2020/21 we were also able to count on the support of two volunteers.
 

Melanie and Nicole have been here since August of last year. Melanie finished her Junior College in Austria and Nicole is a nurse, specialized in wound management –which is very helpful to us. 

While their daily activities focus around the education of the children they are also helping with the organization and management of the orphanage. Our volunteers commit themselves to serve for a period of 9 to 12 months. For anybody who is interested to come to Tanzania as a student volunteer, please contact us at: info@Dunia-ya-Heri.org.

Construction Projects

In order to speed up the process of the official registration of our Primary School, the Ministry of Education is asking us to begin with the construction of additional classrooms. We hope to be able to start with the construction at the end of the rainy season – around June or July.  

Before the rains we were able to construct additional pathways with appropriate solar lighting systems. 

Our water tower received a roof in order to keep the water from heating up in the intensive sunshine. This will reduce the risk of legionella and protect the black plastic tank from destructive UV-rays. 

In the long run we are planning to rely more heavily on self-supply with agricultural products for our orphanage. Our 25 acre farm, which lies adjacent to a river at a distance of approximately one kilometer (0.6 miles) from the orphanage, has recently been fenced in with two kilometers (1.25 miles) of fence material. Currently we are setting up a solar-energy powered irrigation system with our own well and a water reservoir of 50.000 liters (13.000 gallons). Water pipelines of more than two miles have been installed in order to irrigate fruit trees (mango, coconut, banana, papaya, durian, etc…) and vegetable gardens. Before the rainy season over 4.000 pineapple plants were planted. They usually carry fruit within the second year. Additionally, we started to construct workers’ quarters for the farmers and watchmen. 

Due to our current work load the construction of the planned cafeteria building still has to wait. But with the soon end of the Covid-19 crisis we hope that once again we can welcome a construction team from Germany or Poland. They will be able to help us with the structural work of the cafeteria. For anybody interested to join the team at the end of the year, please contact us under: info@Dunia-ya-Heri.org.

Peter and Fritz, two retired volunteers from Switzerland, left us recently. They helped us with some of the nitty-gritty type of work … repair jobs, which need a lot of patience and skill. We also need to mention Marti and Tomek, a married couple from Poland, who came to help as Primary School Teacher and Civil Engineer. Marti was able to teach our children a lot of English. Marietta, a retired lady from Germany, who regularly visited us for the last three years, also helped us this year in the garden. But this time she unfortunately had to leave us early. We would also like to thank all the visitors who came just for a few days, but with their suitcases full of food, medicine and important materials. 

Challenges

We are very grateful that despite the Covid-19 crisis we were able to count on your support. Once again, we would like to thank our donors – be it individuals, companies, organizations or our partner ministry “Restore a Child” – sincerely for their help. 

Thank you for your support - despite Covid-19

Your help is a great blessing to each one of our children. It fills us with TREMENDOUS JOY to be able to see the positive development of each one of them. They feel protected and loved. They are content and have a happy disposition. It is a great privilege for us to share this joy with you.  

Best regards

Thomas Küsel, Vice Chair, Dunia ya Heri
Judith Klier, Chair, Dunia ya Heri

* The names have been changed.

Donations

Tanzania

DUNIA YA HERI African Family and Healthcare, P.O. Box 71573, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
NIC Bank Tanzania Limited, Kariakoo Branch, Dar es Salaam 
Account Number USD:  2000234853 
Swift Code:  SFICTZTZ
Intermediary Bank:  CITIBANK NEW YORK, Swift Code: CITIUS33

Within the US

Donations from US-citizens are tax deductible if they are given to one of the following None Profit - 501c3 Organizations:  

• our partners “RESTORE A CHILD”: http://restoreachild.org/donate/
• OUTPOST CENTERS INTERNATIONAL: http://www.outpostcenters.org/donate/

Please do not forget to mention the project name of »DUNIA YA HERI« on your check, transfer slip or the “ministry need”.

"Kinder sind eine Gabe des HERRN."

Psalm 127,3