Life at Shine Village gets pretty hectic at times and this term volunteers from New Zealand, UK and Malawi joined us at Shine Village, helping with the children’s home, early years teaching and two conferences. Hundreds of leaders from right across the district visited Shine Village to be part of the first Leadership Conference and young people from churches and villages joined our youth conference also held at Shine Village during the summer holidays. With new children arriving later in September, students completing their final exams, and our preschoolers moving up to primary school, its been all change for our staff team, an amazing group of people who go far beyond what is expected of them in order to support children and families.
Whether it is cooking, teaching, attending to the farm, decorating or shopping the team works together, whilst helping to solve problems and give advice to those in need – items of clothing or food are often given to help relieve the pressures some are living with.
Click to download our latest newsletter Oct 2018 here for more details.
Just recently a volunteer was able to step in to help a baby orphaned at birth, who arrived at Shine Village in the arms of a distressed Grandmother. Her story was so tragic, the grandson she held was the only surviving triplet to her late her daughter who had died in childbirth just weeks before. The father had been tragically killed in a minibus accident. We helped to buy the formula milk. The cost was too high for the grandma at £10 a month, the baby could not be fed and simply would not have survived.
Without a social welfare to help and no insurance payouts to support families left behind, such situations are beyond our comprehension. How will a child survive depending on a relative who has no one to support her? The elderly face old age without pensions, often too weak to work themselves they look to their children for care in their old age. The community can sadly often make matters worse and shun families hit by such trials, ascribing the work to be that of evil spirits.
We offer comfort and work with neighbors and chiefs to bring better outcomes for orphaned children, stepping in when all hope is lost. We thank God that we could respond to support this grandma and other families hit by tragedy and we continue to pray for those left behind.