The Baobab Home

Thanks to a very generous donation from Brian and Marika Martin of North Carolina, The Baobab Home opened it’s doors to orphaned and abandoned babies on December 24th, 2008. The Home was opened in honor of Myles Martin, in the hope that one day, all children will be loved as much as Myles is. The Martin’s funding enabled us to have a great first year. The Martin Family of Tennessee have enabled much of the running of the Children’s Home for 2009, but funding is an ongoing need, and donations are always very gratefully received!

We know that orphanages are not the ideal way to bring up a child. Through our outreach, we aim to keep children with their extended families and out of orphanages, including ours.  Unfortunately, there are times when babies are abandoned, or there is no extended family willing to take an orphaned child in, even if they are given help. The Baobab Home is a place where they are welcomed into a family setting, given love, balanced meals, education,  medical care and no discrimination about their HIV status.

It is our hope that children can return to extended families when they are three years old, or when the family situation stabilizes.

If the child has extended family living, we will work with them so that they maintain a relationship to the child. We will promote reunification if possible. We also encourage the idea of adoption among Tanzanian and expatriate families.

The Baobab Home will strive to set a new standard in orphan care. Too many orphanages in sub Saharan Africa do not have the resources to do much more than give the bare minimum to children. We will keep our size in proportion to our resources so that children receive high quality care. Every child will leave our care with a book containing pictures of them, what we know of their history, and a few stories about their early development. We want them to know that they were loved and cared for.

 

Hadija was the first baby to come to us. Her mother died of cholera and Hadija was brought to live with extended family who did not want her. She lost weight and was a frightened little girl when she came to us. She’s now almost two and doing just fine. She’s feisty for sure, but a sweet beautiful girl.

 

Laura was abandoned in a bus station. When her mother was found it was learned that she had already killed Laura’s older sibling. We named Laura after our Board President, Laura Guyer-Miller who has done so much to enable Baobab to help so many. Baraka means “blessing”. Little Laura is a healthy girl and loves to emulate her brother Mohammed and sister Hadija. We think she’ll be an early walker.

 

Mohammed’s mother died shortly after he was born due to HIV related illness. His family gave him toddler food very early which is dangerous. A concerned neighbor alerted us to his case. Mohammed is now quite healthy, walking like a champ and calling his sister’s name “Laura” all the time!

 

Faidha and Bariki are sister and brother. Believe it or not, Faidha is 5 years old. She has triumphed over a lot of illness in her short life but it has taken a hard toll on her developmentally. Bariki cares so well for her. He is in the 3rd grade and a loving, fun little boy.

 

Mdoe and Steve are half brothers from Dar, orphaned to HIV. Their grandmother lost 4 of her 5 children to HIV and is very challenged to take care of these boys. After three months of trying we succeeded in getting Steve’s ARV medicine changed to the second line, which was a big victory.

 

Although they don’t live inside Baobab Home, Habibu and Shabani were the first kids we took on total care of back in 2006. They were severely malnourished and we thought Shabani would die. Their mentally ill mother is completely unable to care for them and they were shunned by family. Now they are cared for by none other than dear Halima, who has raised so many children in need over the years. The boys will always be developmentally delayed due to their malnutrition, but they are doing well now.

 

Dee was found in a field. We named her Dee after Dee Hahn Rollins, a longtime Baobab supporter who died the day Dee was found. Sweet Dee was adopted by an American family living in Tanzania. She has a new name, but we all remember her fondly as Dee.

 

Georgey was the first child to live at Baobab. He was found wandering around our town. He is mentally disabled and unable to speak much so we didn’t know where he was from. After weeks of searching based on little clues he gave us, Terri went on national TV with him. The next morning his father arrived. We got him on anti seizure medication and are still looking for a sponsor to send him to a school for the disabled.