A day of contradictions: graduates and suffering children

 The day started with our worries about baby Esther. she is struggling, not gaining, at the moment she has fever and diarrhea. We have been gone to the doctor with her, almost every day. The little girl is HIV+ and is on ARV's, but her immune system seems to be so very low. She got blood transfusion, yesterday, but still today we do not see much improvement. I called her family today, to come and see her....

 Then there is another girl we want to ask your prayers for: Anna Grace. Recently the doctor changed her ARV medicines into stronger ones, but she is losing weight and we need wisdom helping and counselling her. Yesterday she was on IV fluids, today, she seems a little bit stronger. This were the most urgent children at the moment, the other children are fair, so at 11 am I left Amecet to go to the graduation of the Harmony nursery school. That is a big event here, the parents are coming, a tent was hired and put up in the school compound and everybody looked very smart and excited.

 Songs, poems and dances are performed and it was such a nice time. If you see the children marching in, dressed in their gowns and the caps on their heads... The parents are all so proud of them and speeches are done about the opportunities the children have and that they have to dream big...

 This is Benjamin, a graduate from the nursery school, but some years ago, he graduated from Amecet!  It was such an encouragement to me, to see him standing in his gown and his cap, the world is open for him, yes Benjamin...dream big!!!!

There were some other people there I knew ): Simon and Josephine, the twin children from Simon, our Amecet Social Worker! They also graduated today, here is Simon standing with his children, all celebrating the success of the twins..

There was a meal for everybody and after that I went to Amecet, I had heard that two children arrived brought by the Police from the village... I was shocked when I saw them, what a big contradiction with what I just witnessed at the graduation, where parents are proud of their children and want them to succeed in life......

Emmanuel did not experience much of that. His father is not known and his mother wanted to kill him. She had beaten him up and tried to throw him under a car. We are not sure how old he is, the Police letter said three years, but we think he is older. He can tell what has happen to him and he knows that his mother is now in the police cells. He was brought together with his 3 months old sister, a baby with cuts in her neck, they think the mother wanted to kill her as well. For the rest is the baby not wounded, there are old scars.... But Emmanuel is badly off, he is in a lot of pain, one eye is completely closed and there is a big, deep cut above his right eye. Together with Deborah, our nurse, we took them to the doctor, where they cleaned the wounds and he is started on anti biotic. he is so sad and he cries of the pain.

Please stand with us in prayer for those suffering, sick and hurting children..............