Welcome!

Welcome to the Lambano blog. Our desire is to be able to update you on what is happening here at Lambano on a more frequent basis. Please note that we are restricted from using the children's name on this site. If you would like more information on a specific picture or entry, please feel free to contact us at info@lambano.org.za

Praise the Lord!!!

The children were excited to be back home!

We were finally able to move the children back into the house at 36. It took 3 days to first clean the house and then unpack everything but children were really excited to be back home

For the other news:

We have 2 ladies visiting from Holland; Jannie and Astrid. These ladies have been really helpful; they work in the Hospice most of the time stimulating the children (reading to them, singing with them, teaching them new things). They have also visited the children that are in hospital at the moment – this is wonderful for the children since the hospital staff will not allow us to leave toys or books for them since they will be stolen. We are really grateful to have these ladies with us!!

Update:

Hospice:
We have had 2 admissions this week: a 12 year boy who is semi conscious and a 6 month old girl with Downs Syndrome – she also has a heart defect and is oxygen dependent.

Hospital:
It seems like Friday is a day to admit the children to hospital. Last week we had to admit another child to hospital. At one stage we had 5 children in hospital but thankfully 2 of them have been discharged.

Katlehong:
The 2 girls from Katlehong who lost their grandmother in an accident are starting their counseling on Monday. We were worried about who was going to look after the girls but their aunt from Lesotho is willing to move to South Africa and will be looking after them. Praise God for her!

What a week!!!

The house at 36 was being renovated thanks to a sponsor in Holland – we added a bathroom for the new live-in House Mother and changed a storeroom into a bedroom so we’d have room for the eight children that will be living there. While the building is taking place the children from 36 have been distributed between the other 3 houses and the Hospice. Each house has 9 or more children so we have some children sleeping on mattresses the floor!

The children were supposed to move back to their house on the 16th of November but, the day before the final painting was about to begin, a pipe attached to the geyser burst and on Monday morning we arrived to face a flood! What a mess! Due to the bungling of the assessor, we are in week 4 since the flood and we’re still trying to dry the walls enough so that we can paint. Oh well, at least the children are enjoying the “camping” at the other homes, it’s going to be a struggle to get them back into their home and into a routine though.

Some of the damages !!!

Hospice:

We have had so many requests for beds in the Hospice lately - in the last week we had 4 new admissions, and 2 children were able to go home to their families. At one stage we had 4 children in hospital but one came home on Thursday. One of the children that is in hospital had to have 6 abscesses in his brain drained – he’s not doing very well. Please pray for healing for all these children.

Please pray for Lyn and the staff too!

Bakery Project!!!

Naledi Projects and the Luxembourg government are sponsoring the Feeding Projects at the 2 schools in Katlehong but they will only do this for the next 3 years and we had to think of a sustainable project for the schools to bring in money to supplement the sponsored money and provide for the future. We were presented with an opportunity of opening a bakery to work out of the kitchens we built at the school. Naledi projects and Luxembourg government also donated money for the bakery.

We had 10 ladies attend training for two weeks and they did a very good job and were really excited to learn about baking. The school will sell their products (bread, donuts and cakes) to the local shops and the community. When the ladies were training, people could smell the delicious smell of the cakes and asked if they could make their orders right away! The ladies completed their training and received their certificates.

10 ladies on their first day!

The ladies working hard

Sports day

These are the children who were selected to run on the school’s sports day!

What fun!!! Sammy came first in his race. The children enjoyed themselves.

Sad News

This gogo (grandmother) was in her 80’s and she took care of her 2 grandchildren. Lambano helped this family with food parcels. On Tuesday she went to fetch her granddaughter from school and, on the way back, she was hit by a train. Her granddaughter saw the whole accident.

Please pray for the family through this tough period and especially for the granddaughter who is having nightmares and asking a lot of questions. The 2 grandchildren will be going for counseling. Also pray that a loving home is found for these 2 children since their parents are dead.

Grand official opening !!!

Two Official openings! Last week we had two Official openings! Last week we had our official opening for the hospice even though the hospice has been operating since early July. Since opening the hospice we have had over 20 children come through. Some of the children were reunited with their families.

Dany and Cosita from Naledi Projects in conjunction with the Luxembourg Government – raised funds to buy and renovate the hospice and for the Feeding Projects the 2 schools in Katlehong!

Some of the doctors and staff from Big Shoes!

And on the 3rd we had another official opening of the dining hall at Katlehong were we will feed over 1000 children a day.

School choir – these children blessed us with their singing!

Dany (Luxembourg), Ms Morokoane (Principal), Lyn (Lambano) and Claudine (Luxembourg)

Dany from Luxembourg and Mr Thinane the District director


We would like to thank the Luxembourg Development Co – operation and Naledi Projects for raising funds for these projects. These children will be fed a nutritious lunch everyday and have a place to sit and eat their lunch!

Happy moment!!!

The Lord is good! For the last few years we’ve been praying for a house mother and now we have really been blessed with a young lady from Scotland.

Jenna is 28 years old and was a palliative nurse for cancer patients. She will be the house mother for the children at 36 and help Lyn with the hospice too. We are really grateful to God for answering our prayers!

On Monday we received a 2 month old oxygen dependent baby weighing 2.5kg. On Tuesday afternoon she had to be rushed back to hospital. Please pray for her!

Wow, What a week! Last week our children performed in their school concert. It was really neat to see how these children took their concert seriously and loved every moment. Thanks to the teachers for all the hard work they put in over the past few months, the show was excellent.

We were also encouraged by the AWANA leaders (the youth group at the church) coming to support the children. Unfortunately we don’t have pictures of the children performing because we were not allowed to take pictures during the concert.