More Pictures!

Finally, the rest of the pictures! These shots really show the kids living conditions, a little of their personality - they certainly weren't camera shy! In fact, I think they look down right sassy! ;)

The baby I'm holding in the picture was one of the more recent arrivals, and was HIV positive. I don't know if you can really tell from the picture, but the baby was so tiny! It made me glad I brought all the formula - he needs as much nutrition as possible - though they explained he is most likely underweight from the HIV more than malnutrition.

In the background you can see the woman who takes care of all these children, Claudia Namises. I can't imagine it is easy to be strong for so many children, and as she spoke of her hopes for expanding the orphanage, I was overwhelmed by the fact that she does this with help from only a few volunteers - the orphanage has no government assistance.

I really want to go back, or at the very least send more to them (It's a mighty expensive trip over). It's very easy to go there and play with the children, bring them some clothing and food, and then come back to a cozy heated apartment with a stocked fridge. That said, I'm going to continue collecting baby clothes to send over, and stay in touch with Claudia to find out what else they will need. As I said before, if anyone else is interested in donating, please email me or post a comment and I will send you the orphanage's address.

I hope everyone enjoys the pictures!

Photos!

Here are the first of the pictures that I have from the trip. I took these at the orphanage right after I arrived and after unpacking. They are a little blurry, but these shots give a pretty good idea of how many kids are living in such a tiny amount of space, and the conditions of the township. You can also get a sense of the size of the donation, when you see how much is spread out on the table - and that isn't even all of it!

As I look at these pictures now, I am reminded how underfed and deprived these children are. At the same time, I remember how playful and beautiful these children are as well. For children who have endured so much they are still joyful and full of life. In addition to living in poverty and being malnourished, most of these children were orphaned by AIDS, and many have HIV themselves. Worse yet, some of the older children are victims of sexual assault, and are in the orphanage because they have been ostracized by their communities as a result of that assault.

As soon as possible I'm going to upload the pictures that were taken of the children playing, and the distribution of the donations. I want everyone to see what they helped make possible! Thank you again!

I'm back!

The trip was nothing short of amazing, and despite all that I saw - lions and elephants, the Cape of Good Hope - the orphanage was definitely the highlight. Although going into this I was well aware that these children lived in poverty, there was no way I could have comprehended what that meant for their day to day life untill I saw it for myself.
Before I began this project, I thought of a township as some sort of variation of a suburb, never imagining that they are actually communties of shacks; vestiges of aparteid where most of the population lives in conditions we would consider below the poverty line. The Orlindi Orphanage is in the Katatura township, and is a small green building with four rooms: a small common room, 3 bedrooms and a patio. Of the 30 or so kids who live there, most are divided between two of the bedrooms with the babies in the third.
Whe we first arrived the children were unusually quiet, but as soon as we passed out some oranges and began playing with them, they perked right up!
After we met all the children, I put out all the clothing, baby food, toys and books I brought for the kids for the house mother. Seeing how excited she, and even the kids, were over these simple items made the difficutly of carrying everything over - and being repeatedly searched by the TSA - completely worthwhile. My hope is to send more books and toddler clothing in the future. With so many children, I can't imagine everything lasting very long.
Later on we got a chance to really play with kids, which was incredibly fun! And though it is a contradiction, it was In a way a little bit sad at the same time: All they wanted was to be picked up and held, which broke my heart, because I realized how little one-on-one attention they get. Once they were in your arms, they did anything they could not to be put down. Eventually I just sat on the ground to play with them, and let the kids climb all over me
Hopefully I'll be able to post pictures soon, since so many of them are not on my camera.
A huge thatnk you to all who donated their time, clothing and money to help me make this donation possible. In the coming weeks I'll post more about the orphange so that any one who wants to make a private donation can. Thank you again!!!!