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Trying to Help Twins in Need
Barry, John,
and Rivo had a safe trip down to Mananjary and back. It was a very long
and tiring three days over very bad roads. We can't say the trip was exactly
encouraging. Very little here in Madagascar happens easily or quickly.
This is just more of the same.
Let me share
with you what we found in the orphanage in the south. First though, you
must remember that Malagasy standards are not US standards. We have had
to remind ourselves this very same thing in the last two weeks or so. That's
why we found this trip south a bit discouraging. We can offer children
so much more at Betikara than they are getting in this twins orphanage.
However, in the overall picture, the orphanage down there is better than
others we have experienced in this country. There are 75 children in that
orphanage, 70% of which are under twelve years in age. More than 90% of
the children are twins. They have far less building space than we do at
Betikara. They do receive some outside funding from France and Norway.
Some of their children have individual sponsors. The children do go to
a school of sorts, but nothing comparable to what the Betikara children
get, and certainly in no way comparable to schools in the US. Most of the
children there marry by age 18-20 and get jobs. When we asked what kind
of jobs (this being a huge problem country-wide), the answer was non-committal,
fishing was mentioned.
Barry, John,
and Rivo spoke first to the director of the orphanage. What we had heard
is true. The woman runs the orphanage alone now. Her husband died last
year of malaria. She was very agreeable to the idea of moving some of the
children to Betikara to take some of the care from her shoulders. She agreed
to a trip to the local government offices saying that she has had some
recent problems with paperwork concerns and felt it imperative to visit
government offices in order to legalize the process. We were in total agreement
and had high hopes.
The government
has other ideas though and our hopes were dashed pretty quickly. They refused
to do any further paperwork to transfer children saying it was too much
work and really seeing no need since in their eyes the children are all
adequately taken care of and since they don't personally shoulder the burden
of 75 children daily. Any arguments to the effect that the children could
be better served at Betikara and the orphanage in the south could concentrate
more fully on children left with them all fell on deaf ears. The bureaucrats
didn't want to be bothered with any additional paperwork and they were
unbending on this issue. We are somewhat discouraged to say the least.
We have the beautiful and very adequate new home at Betikara and caregivers
just waiting to shower love on new little needy children, but we are halted
by government issues.
What both the
director of the orphanage and the court in that island province promised
was that any new children that come to their attention would be channeled
to Betikara. The initial paperwork could be completed in the court system
in that province (since this is the area where twins are taboo and where
these abandoned twins are always found) and then we could make the trip
south to pick them up. We have no idea if they will actually do as they
have promised. In the meantime, we are working on paperwork through the
court system in our province, establishing us as a recognized orphanage
with the court system in the Antananarivo area, in order to simplify transferred
paperwork from the province in the south to this province. AND, we pray.
God will see that Betikara receives just the children that He intends for
us.
Little lambs at the twins orphanage in Mananjary
Volunteer Housing for Betikara
An excerpt from a letter from a dear friend reads:
I want to address your request for money to build three
houses. I am facilitating a class for TeacherLine this summer. I will pledge
the thousand dollars I earn toward payment of the houses. My husband and
I will try to add another thousand dollars to that. Now, if you can find
31 more people to pledge two thousand dollars then you will have your full
amount. God bless all of you. Thank you for your prayers and for all you
do for the orphans and the Lord.
God has begun to provide for volunteer housing for Betikara using His
willing servants, and we are deeply grateful. To date, we have received
$2500.00 towards that volunteer housing.
They did it! They passed!
The Betikara folks are extremely proud of Robert and Sedera, the first
two lambs to pass the grueling High School qualifying exam. Most
Malagasy kids never get this far in their education. It holds about
the same importance as you qualifying for medical school. The competition
is that tough. These two lambs worked hard and they are now ready
for high school. We are so proud of them. And, not only that,
Robert also passed, 3rd out of 300 students, a qualifying exam for placement
in a very good technical high school here in Antananarivo. Great
work, Robert! We will spend the next few weeks looking for just the
right general education high school for Sedera and with lots of prayers
and more hard work, she may one day qualify for university. Way to
go, Lambs!
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