A good day for fun is Sunday! We took all 80 children from Hope Village to a Hodygos, a big campground an hour drive from Windhoek. We all had time to play, relax, enjoy ourselves and one another, which was exactly what we did. Together of course with a lot of hugging and cuddling. For these children this is a rare experience, to go out in a big bus, play games all morning, hava a braai for lunch and a swim in the afternoon. It costs about a thousand euros to take 80 kids out for a fun day, which is only € 12,50 per child. So if you have any money left to spend, you can always send out some kids for A Fun Day, like Orange Babies did for these kids today.
Today we visited Hope Village, a fantastic accommodation for orphans and vulnarable children, run by the even more fantastic Mariki, Tania and their staff. After the tough and heavy emotions of the day before, we were happy to fall into this pool of love, cheerfulness and structure. The children behaved so good, they came up to us, embraced us, ask questions, they were so loving and polite, they are full of life, willing and trying to make the best of it. Altough all of them have a bad history, they are in a good place now. We are so proud of Mariki and Orange Babies to have reached this at Hope Village. Today our fashion show was planned. So we laid out all the clothes in the boys house, dressed the ± 50 childeren one by one and styled their new outfits. Our top makeup artist John Kattenberg provided the girls with makeup tips and spray painted the boys faces beautifully. Every fashion show has a challenge. Our Hope Village show's challenge turned out to be the sound system. At every fashion show the challenge gets mastered, also this one. We had our fashion show with 50 models, 5 dancers and loud music turned into a great party! It was a beautiful day, a lovely day, we felt so much at home at Hope Village. We thank all the gorgeous models and the staff for having fun with us today.
This morning we headed for Okahandja in order to visit the Hope for Mothers project overthere, do two home visits and see Ileni Tulikwafeni, where orphans and vulnerable children get fed, measured and weighed. This day turned out to become quite an emotional experience.
A warm welcome, what the Namibian people stand out in, waited us at the Mothers for Hope project, which involved beautifully dressed ladies, singing and even presents. We met Daisy who manages the projects and who showed us around Okahandja afterwards.
Daisy introduced us to the little baby Ndayilikana and her mother at the first home visit. The 15 year old mother was raped by her stepfather, fall pregnant and got infected with HIV. Thanks to the programme Ndayilikana, tiny and sick when she joined in May 2010, got admitted to the hospital, grew and het condition is satisfactory. She lives with her mother and grandmother and 4 other kids in a shack in squatter camp. The grandmother is taking care of them, altough she in unemployed, selling liquor and meat. Stepfather is in jail and luckily Ndayilikana's mother went back to school.
Our second home visit was broken off immediately after getting in the shack. The family (baby Nstene, her mother and grandmother) had been attacked overnight. We found a very old an sick woman on the floor who was not able to tell us what had happened. The rest of the family seemed to have gone to the police station. Daisy sent for help for the sick lady. Unfortunately we don't have any information about the recent conditions. Next (still shocked about what we just saw) we went to see the ± 500 children at Ileni Tulikwafeni. It is far beyond imagination to see so much poorness in quanitity as well as quality together. Of course our visit started with singing and dancing. Immediately some of the kids curled up to us, hungry for physical contact. We witnessed how they all get their daily lunch: washing hands first, small kids first, older ones at last. After lunch we painted their faces, a few seconds of attention per child, which is nothing, but seems everything at the same time. We handed out fruits and candy, an enormous treat for them. We left them fed with happily painted faces, but poor, dirty and unhealthy. A lot of help is needed at Ileni Tulikwafeni.
This morning we drove off to the first project: Witkop, a children's home outside Rehoboth, Orange Babies is supporting now for two years. After a warm welcome from about 80 kids, we were shown around their 'houses'. A lot of help -financially- is still needed in Witkop! What a contrast is was to be in their bedrooms with almost nothing in it, feeling sad and shocked about the conditions these kids have to live in, and hear them sing happily and beautifully in their community room at the same time. These children showed us so much joy for life, while they would have had any reason to be sad and complain. What a big lesson of life! The children sang for us, there was some warm and loving speeches, John handed over the chairs and tables Orange Babies bought for their hostel and at last we divided the clothes we brought amongst the children. We all hope Orange Babies will have the chance to do more in Witkop; create more space, more warmth, better hygiene. But Witkop is a loving and safe house for these kids, which was so good to see.
This morning we arrived in Namibia. We (Stephanie, John, Sabine and Joanne) are here to visit the Orange Babies projects and to deliver the clothes we collected at our Orange Babies Fashion Show. Today was preparation day! First we met our hosts, the lovely ladies of PharmAccess, who will show us around these coming days. In their office we divided all clothes send here supported by Seabourne -about 40 big boxes- in groups for four different projects: Witkop Good Hope Hostel , Ileni Tulikwafeni, Ehalelo Koo Meme and Hope Village. At Hope Village we will have a 'fashion show' together with the kids and the most fancy pieces we collected. After a few hours of dividing clothes in different age groups (from new borns to pregnant ladies), we headed off for serious shopping. All children of Witkop will receive a 'goodiebag' tomorrow with: toothbrush, toothpaste, balloons, lollipop and some sweets. We can't wait to go there!
De redactie van Linda is zo attent geweest om een filmpje te maken en online te zetten: Hans van Brakel en Sabine Geurten fotograferen een modeproductie met Daphne Bunskoek. Klik hier voor het filmpje. Het resultaat van de shoot staat in de Linda Mode die nu in de winkels ligt.
