You probably get promotional calendars at the end of each year, but how many do you get in the summertime? As you know, we like to be unconventional!
Lalmba would like to share with you a year in the life of Africa. Our 2019 calendar includes evocative full color photographs from our projects (Jeff has some talent behind the lens!), and it notes the year’s holidays and events in Ethiopia and Kenya. This will help connect you with the rural communities that you help support. Did you know, for example, that Kenyan schoolchildren begin their school year on January 2? You will!
These gentlemen in the photo above are government officials in the rural Ethiopian village called Agaro Bushi, where Lalmba is planning to build a new clinic. You can see that Agaro Bushi is in the pre-technology era, where paper files and handwritten posters still reign supreme. Perhaps our Lalmba calendar will help keep them organized! We are very excited about starting a new project in an area without any reliable modern health care, where bare feet are the norm and Land Rovers struggle to reach, and we look forward to telling you more about it very soon.
We would like to thank our dear and dedicated monthly donors by gifting you a Lalmba calendar. You are the backbone of our work! Look for yours in the mail soon. If you would like to become a monthly donor and receive your “Year in the Life” calendar, you can set it up here:
In addition, to each of you who send us your generous support this month, we will send you our breathtaking calendar to connect you more closely with Africa for all of 2019!
Speaking of 2019, do you know what is happening exactly one year from now?? 10Lalmba supporters will be walking with Jeff 160 miles across Kenya to raise awareness for our work. The walkers and 20 camels will start outside Nairobi, walk 15-18 miles a day across wildlife preserves, camp among the stars in Kenya’s wilds, and end with a celebration and welcome in Matoso, Lalmba’s project along the shores of Lake Victoria. The Lalmba staff will meet you along the dusty road on the last day, and accompany you with song and dance your last few blistered steps. Sound intriguing? You have 365 days to get fit, gather your gear and your nerve, tell your friends about what you are doing and lace up your walking boots! It will not disappoint.
To sign up, just click the button below to go to the application page. And then start by getting your calendar to whet your appetite for the sights and emotions of Lalmba’s Africa that await you!
ABERASH WOKU
Our hearts were broken last month to hear that dear Aberash Woku, a young lady, our daughter and friend from our Chiri Children’s Home in Ethiopia, recently passed away. She, like several other children in the home, was abandoned by her family at a young age because of her epilepsy. Since seizure disorders can sometimes be hereditary, families often believe it is contagious or a curse, and banish their children as a result. Under Lalmba’s medical care and living in our children’s home, Aberash took medications that kept her seizure disorder under control, but she was unsuccessful in school due to her severe learning disabilities. Unfortunately, schools in rural Africa are ill equipped to assist children with special needs.
Aberash, in her mid-teens, continued living in the children’s home and helping out with household responsibilities until recently, when she became more independent and got involved with a group that claimed to be able to banish evil spirits. They convinced her to stop taking her meds and to use the “healing waters” instead to treat her epilepsy.
As a result, she died from her seizures. Our hearts are broken. We will always remember Aberash’s quiet demeanor and the way she held her hand over her mouth when she smiled. We remember how she laughed when she played Twister for the first time last fall, and how she enjoyed playing Slapjack. May God welcome you at the head of the parade into Paradise, Aberash! We will always honor and remember you in our prayers!
IN HIS OWN WORDS
Steven Onyango, a young man who grew up in Matoso village in Kenya, writes colorfully about what it was like growing up with Lalmba’s clinic nearby.
“Many times, our family suffered repeated episodes of malarial infections. At such moments Lalmba`s services always came in handy. The staff ensured that the poor children always had the best of care. At one time I remember, when I was below ten, I accidentally swallowed a half inch nail while playing outdoors together with my younger brother Onyango. This news to my mother was a bombshell. She could not understand when I shouted out loudly, “I swallowed it, I swallowed it, Onyango. I swallowed it!” Knowing quite well how cruel my father was, she quickly picked me up and rushed me towards the direction of the Lalmba hospital and before I knew it, I was surrounded by a group of attendants clad in white aprons ready to offer me their best of treatment. Days later, my parents` fear of possible complications was dispelled by the medical attention of Lalmba Clinic. Although my parents were still wary of my antics, the presence of Lalmba acted like a sort of assurance just in case of any emergency.
Another incident where Lalmba rescued me was after a fierce attack by a breastfeeding dog who, upon seeing me dash by, thought I was after her weak pups for a pet. This time I was with my father and needed a nurse fast! Besides Lalmba, the next nearest medical facility, which was operated by a Catholic Mission, was almost 30 kilometers away. Even with Lalmba clinic close by, it was still after dark by the time my father and I walked home that night.
There was yet another incident when our own pet dog got upset and had a bite of my right buttock. As usual, Lalmba Clinic`s attendants (who were then well versed with me because of the frequent visits) attended so well to me. Lalmba has continued to change many lives by planting the seeds of HOPE where it was desperately needed.”
Thank you, Steven, for your spirited stories of how Lalmba impacted the life an adventurous little nail-swallowing boy who seemed to annoy the neighborhood dogs!
SUPPORTER SPOTLIGHT
We recently received a note from Georgia, a long-time Lalmba supporter from Washington who appreciated our last newsletter. She writes,
“I read about your volunteer’s visits to families to talk about cleanliness, clean drinking water. The description of their living conditions was so very sad to me. I know you can’t solve all the problems over there but I sure do appreciate your work for so many years to help as many as you can, from the little children to the elderly. I often think about the living conditions you have told us about and how I would love to shower them with the daily comforts we take for granted here. I am so grateful to have access to daily showers, a comfortable bed and access to an abundance of food. As a result of what you share with us I have a different attitude about what is a need vs. a want. May God bless you and your team for doing the hard work to bring a better life and hope to so many.”
Thank you, Georgia, for your compassionate heart. And to all our supporters, thank you for giving so generously to the poor, asking nothing in return.
