Bill and Bette Bryant Crisis Nursery - October 2019 Update
Zambia
Dear friends and partners,
Meet Precious and Blessing (names changed to protect the children’s identity). Several years ago, these sisters were abandoned by their mother who was terminally sick with AIDs and could no longer care for them. The girls were HIV positive themselves and struggled with fevers, rashes, and malnutrition. Staff at the House of Moses Crisis Nursery took them in and brought them to a doctor for treatment. Even though the girls’ health improved with medical care, no other family came for them. Precious and Blessing received shelter, food, and care 24/7 while social workers sought a permanent family environment for these two precious sisters.
Around that time, Bishop Frank and his wife heard about adoption through Alliance for Children Everywhere’s (ACE) Zambian staff. As Bishop Frank listened, he felt God stir his heart to remember his own difficult beginnings. As a baby, Bishop Frank was abandoned behind a hospital after birth. By the grace of God he was rescued when nurses heard his cries, and thanks to swift medical care he survived. In time, Bishop Frank was brought to his grandmother who raised him. “God had rescued me,” Bishop Frank told us, “and now God was calling me to do what my grandmother had done for me.”
After Bishop Frank and his wife were matched with Precious and Blessing, the couple visited the little girls over the next several months. These visits created a bond between the girls and their new parents, preparing them for the joyous day when they went home as a family for the first time. If these two girls were raised in an institution, they would have faced a lifetime of stigma as HIV-positive orphans. Because they were adopted, they became the beloved daughters of an esteemed Bishop, flourishing in their family and faith community. "We have bonded and we are bound by the cords of God’s love which cannot be broken,” Bishop Frank told us recently. "We show our love by way of responsibility for them. They occupy a special place in our hearts and they are our top priorities."
Precious and Blessing were rescued, protected, and placed in a loving, safe family thanks to the ministry of the House of Moses and the generosity of The Outreach Foundation. Thank you for helping these sisters in their greatest need, until they were adopted by their forever family.
In the early 1990s, the country of Zambia experienced a crisis during which the nation’s unemployment rate reached 70% and the HIV/AIDS pandemic became widespread. The cycle of poverty, disease and economic instability devastated millions of families, eroding their strong social foundation and leaving many children in crisis without a safety net. Seeing the need and called by God, ACE launched operations in Zambia in 1997.
Over the past five years, in partnership with The Outreach Foundation, Alliance for Children Everywhere in Zambia has received over 1,300 children, including newborn babies. In 2017, 44 children were reintegrated with family or adopted, and 90 assessments were completed. More assessments were done in 2018 and 2019 and more than half of these children were reunited with their families; others were adopted, placed in foster families and/or transferred to other permanent homes.
Gratefully,
Ebralie Mwizerwa
Projects Coordinator
The Outreach Foundation
Read more about the Bill and Bette Bryant Crisis Nursery HERE.
THE NEED
The Outreach Foundation is seeking $60,000 for the Bill and Bette Bryant Crisis Nursery to continue its work in God’s mission. Make a gift HERE or by sending a check to our office.