Our little baby is out of the hospital!

Our little baby is out of the hospital and doing much better. She has been diagnosed with Hypothyroidism, which causes many medical problems. This little girl is going to need lots of prayer because life is not going to be easy for her.


We had prepared a special outing for the children for Friday afternoon but, on the morning found out that four of our children from the MacAlpine home have mumps!

In order to protect the “public” we have to put all the children under quarantine. This was really disappointing for the children because they have been talking about this outing all week. If no more children develop mumps we should be able to go out next week. However if another case develops, the quarantine starts all over again!

Two new children

We have 2 new babies from Kwa Mhlanga, a very poor rural area about 80 kilometers to the northeast of Johannesburg. This is village were Lambano’s founder is now working on a large project.

The new boy is 2 years old and he is HIV+, has TB and is badly malnourished. We had to give him a blood transfusion last week to speed up the recovery from the malnutrition. This has certainly helped, but as soon as he started improving he got chickenpox. His mother died last year and his grandmother has been taking care of him.

The other child who is also HIV+, is 7 months old but looks like a new born baby. She is also from Kwa Mhlanga - her mom died 2 weeks ago and her Aunt is looking after her. When she arrived at Lambano she was so ill we had to have her admitted to hospital. While in hospital she will also be tested for dwarfism as her limbs seem to be too short for her length.


Randy, one of the workers from Kwa Mhlanga, told us there are more than a hundred children like these two in that area. We will try to help as many of these children as we can, but we are severely limited in terms of space. This is why we are trying to source funds to build an eight to ten bed hospice in the near future.


Please pray for all these children

New addition to our family!!!

When we get new children they are usually shy, but the new little boy that we got is not shy at all. He is 2 years old, his mother died and his father is in jail. He is cute and just loves playing with the older boys.

Here is our oldest boy, he turned 8 last week!

Another success story!

When this little girl came to us she could not speak a word of English. With the amazing ability children have to adapt, during the 6 months she has been with us, she has learned enough English to interact with the other children and make her needs known to the caregivers.

The little girl with her mom going back home!

She was nearly 8 years old when she came to us and had been unable to start her schooling because of her illness. When she came to us she had pneumonia and we had to put her on full time oxygen. The sad part is that the hospital had discharged her, sending her home without any medication - a regular occurence in South Africa. Once she was over the pneumonia we started her on TB treatment and then anti- retroviral drugs.


We are thrilled that she is doing so well that she went home to her family last week. We are pushing for her into school soon!

We apologise for not updating our blog last week Friday, the internet was down! Hope this week it will work.......

Our adventurous boys...

We have 4 houses and in each house we have 6 or 7 children but, in each house we have an adventurous child it's generally one of the boys :)

On Friday the 15th we celebrated another "big birthday'' and the children were taken to a restaurant, which had a great play area. Most of the children went to play on the trampoline but two of these adventurous boys ran off to do the rock climbing. It did not suprise us when these 2 made it to the top, while the other children struggled.

Here is Mr party, he turned 7!

Saying goodbye!

This is our little boy with Auntie Barbara

One of our little boys left on Thursday to go to another home. Although this little boy is not HIV positive, we took him in when he was 3 months old because they thought he was dying. He was born with hydrocephalus and, in South Africa's public hospital system, nothing is done until the baby is 4 months old. If the child survives that long, a shunt is inserted into the brain to drain the fluids.

Against all odds, this little boy survived and had his shunt put in, even though it had to be done twice. He is now 19 months old and has developed into such a lovely little boy. With occupational therapy and lots of loving attention from us all, he has strengthened his neck enough to be able to hold his head up on his own. He mimics words and waves his arms around while he is communicating. From a baby who didn't like to be touched and cried when you tried to play with him, he is now a happy little boy with a chance at an almost normal future.

Sadly for us, we couldn't keep him, firstly because he is not HIV positive and our mandate is to work with HIV positive children and secondly, because we have no more space for permanent children. We need to clear the ''place of safety" positions in the home so that we can have a space for very sick and dying HIV positive children who desperately need the medical attention our home provides.

It was especially hard for Auntie Barbara and some of the caregivers to say goodbye because they had worked especially closely with him and developed a strong bond. He has gone to a home for special needs children and we pray that he will receive the therapy and stimulation he requires there. Please pray for him.