TWCF News & Stories

This month has been filled with meetings both in Abia State and in FCT. I have traveled twice in this month to Abuja to work on our Expat paperwork it is taking a long time to make progress, but we know everything is in God’s timing. So in the meanwhile there have been meetings in Abia State, in Umuahia as well as in the Isuikwuato LG villages.
*We have had ongoing support from our Abia SS Director and Assistant Director, we are so grateful for them as we would have been in a serious dilemma without their willingness to help. We have had several good discussions with the Perm Sec of Women’s Affairs for Abia State, and have her full support for running our home and the program we offer in regards to caring for OVC’s. We also met with the Perm Sec and Director of the Children’s Welfare Department, and have their cooperation and support in running our program as well. We have met with the heads of the main hospitals in Umuahia, specifically in the maternity and pediatric wards, sharing our information and availability to review situations that make come up through them.
We have made a concentrated effort to meet more of the Eze’s, Chiefs and big business men who are all leaders in our surrounding villages and community. It has been a pleasure to make their acquaintances and we pray and hope for their support and willingness to step forward and be a part of what we are doing as they have the resources to do so.
*During my time in Abuja, there have been multiple meetings with the Ministry of Interior, those who are holding our Expatriate Quota applications. Peter and I have held meetings to discuss what steps to take and what options to pursue.
We have touched base with our Director of SS as well as the Director of Internal Security of SS. They both are supporting us with our documentation.
I have met with several individuals who run different NGO’s in Nigeria, from HIV/Aids education, TB awareness, and educational support programs. It has been very informative to learn what other areas in the country are needing support and change, as well as to learn that there are others out there making an effort for change.

At the beginning of the month I visited Umuahia Prison to speak to the Warden and Matron of the women’s section. I was informing them of our work and that we were aware there are cases of women who have children within the prison, and we were interested to know the particulars of their situations, if they had an interest in us. I was introduced to a particular young woman who is the mother of twin two-year-old girls. They were born in the prison and have never left it. I have had several meetings with this mother and the heads of the prison to discuss TWCF and how we approve cases and run our program. This mother is considering giving up parenting rights to her children and handing them over to us, so they might have an opportunity for positive and successful lives and grow up outside the prison. It is a big decision for her, and in Nigeria, does not make it on her own. She must have extended family be aware and agree as well as the lawyer on her case. We are open to take these girls and trust that God will help make the process and decisions clear.

I mentioned in previous blog post as well as on our FB site, that there was a large event coming up this November. The Chief of Army Staff for Nigeria, his father passed away some months ago, so there has been mass amounts of construction and infrastructural improvement made since then in our village area so that his burial and wake keep could be held properly. As the guest list held some of the most important people in the country, the entrance, location and exit to paying respects had to be proper. New roads were laid, new buildings built, light connected, ect. Also, as the man was the father of the current top Military General in the country and that important people were attending, our villages were essentially put in lock down for a week (although we are always surrounded by military as our village is the Chief’s village and he visits often). I spent much of the week at the Chief’s house and guesthouses, outside of attendance for the two-day event, to meet many of these people. Everyone assumed I came from out of country to attend this event, and were shocked to learn that I lived down the road! It was funny and great to surprise them with that information; it certainly helped keep their attention for the rest of my explanation of why I am here. On Tuesday at a dinner with the Chief and several of his top officers and friends, I met our retired General D. He promised that over the rest of the weeks events he and his wife would have me accompany them so I wouldn’t feel lost or out of place. The next day at a luncheon and then inspection of the events site, I was given a dress that was sown in the head military and family’s colours. It is customary at burials/wake-keeps that uniform is worn; there are different colours and patterns for different groups of people. It was certainly an honour to wear the family’s uniform. On Thursday after a morning of visitors at the home with the children, I was picked up and taken to one Senator’s house in our area. There were multiple people there all visiting before moving to the wake-keep. Some of those individuals remembered me from 7 years before during my first move into Isuikwuato. Eventually we proceeded in a train of cars to the event site. There were tents and stages set up everywhere, and thousands of chairs. As I was with some of the top military and political people, we were all seated directly behind the Chief’s family. As far as I could see there were about four thousand people in attendance so far, and more continued to come. Wake-keeps here start at dusk and continue to the break of day, where there are a few hours rest before the burial program commences. There was an un-ending supply of food, drinks, alcohol, celebrities (artists and actors), music, dance shows, and general partying. I saw many people that I have met before at different houses and events. I saw our good Dr. Hans Van Corput and his wife, as well as several of the SS men (on duty) who had been on our details before). I met several new people and had a great night listening and visiting with some of Nigeria’s current artists. The next day I was picked up to come to the Chief’s house and be in the train of family and close friends to attend the burial events, again a huge honour. It was a very long program and was scorching hot, however there was so much to see it was easy to be distracted from the heat. Again, there were over five thousand people in attendance. The president’s wife came and gave a speech on behalf of her husband, three different state governors where in attendance, many of the top defense Generals in Nigeria, as well as many other important politicians and businessmen. The program lasted about 5 hours, before some of the important people were moved to a reception hall. Inside the hall there was courses of food and drinks as well as a program. As I sat at a table with some of the friends and family, there were countless individuals who came over to greet me as say hi. Of course all of them at a high level, so I, and the entire table, had to stand up every time! It was a bit humorous, the table noted, “Wow, you really know people”. After a few hours I moved with some of the family’s close friends and cousins back up the Chiefs house to see the family and visit.
All in all, it was probably the biggest event I could attend in this country and to be in the presence of so many important people and be introduced to them.

This month has been busy for the children as there have been many visitors who came to see them.
*Several of the children’s extended relatives showed up this month to visit them and see how their progress was. There was certainly mixed responses from the children in seeing their relatives, mostly they were afraid that they were going to be taken away from us. Once they were assured that was not happening they were much calmer and became excited to show the relatives their crafts, schoolwork, and some belongings. The relatives were also amazed at their state of health, education progress and mostly their behaviour. It was wonderful to hear outside reports in recognition of their positive progress.
*We had retired Military General D come and visit them twice, bring treats for both the children and staff. He is a strong support for us in the work we are doing. His visits encourage the staff and excite the children, as well as he sees first hand how our progress is and passes that information on.
*The Nigerian Youth Corpers (NYC’s), who are posted in Isuikwuato and to the humanitarian efforts in the area, came and visited the home. They brought supplies to the house, mops, buckets, notebooks, pencils, a clock, plates, and some food. They also spent time singing and playing with the kids. They loved it.
*Also, this month we had our first birthday. Chinomso, our oldest boy, turned nine years old. He has never had a birthday ‘party’ before so it was quite an experience. The other children have not had birthday celebrations before either, so there was lots of explaining to do surrounding how a birthday and gifts work. In our home there is struggle surrounding sharing and everything HAVING to be equal.
*We had a visit from another Military General’s son, who came to spend his birthday with the children. This is a common practice over here, that individuals will spend their birthday with the less privileged, such as in orphanages, hospitals, motherless babies homes, ect. So he came with some friends, with bags of rice, yams and other supplies, as well as pre-cooked food, to play with the kids, eat dinner with us and have cake (which I made in a pot on the stove) ☺

There is a rather big event coming up in our little village area. Our friend the General, the Chief of Army Staff for all Nigeria, has his fathers burial in a few weeks. As the family is from Ovim, the village neighboring our Amamba, the whole of Isuikwuato Local Government has been bustling with activity in preparation, as the father will be buried here in his home place. It is an extremely high-profile event, with about 10,000 people in attendance, namely the most important, Mr. President Goodluck Jonathan.
I have been honoured with a personal request to be in attendance at the two day event, which I will have a personal SS detail to escort me.
It will be an opportunity to pay my respects to the General, who has become and advocate and supporter of TWCFN, as well as an opportunity to network with more individuals regarding our work.

We also have new staff to tell you about! We are very excited.
Everyone who is hired as staff here in Nigeria to work with us, goes on 6-month probation time (split into two 3 month sections for review).
We are happy to welcome Tony and Evelyn Obediah on as our first House Parents! Evelyn is already here with us in the village for the past week and her husband Tony will soon be joining us. They live here in the house with us and act as the parents for the children. They are both previously teachers and bankers and have a passion to work with children.
We are happy to welcome HeavyD (Ikechukwu Onwuka) who has come on board to help us in the office and with some administrative duties. HeavyD has been a neighbour of ours for years, he is a very bright man who is eager to learn and be of service. He also enjoys playing with the children. HeavyD speaks Igbo so he has been a big help as one of our children is still learning to speak English.

We are currently working with someone else part time during the days who spends with the children during lesson and play time.

We are still PRAYING strongly for some volunteers to come over here to us for 6-12 months, to help support our staff in the home and more.

We have two children living with us in the house currently. Their stories are very sad and while it has been EXHAUSTING every day with them, the difference in them is AMAZING from when they first came.
Chinyere is an 8yr old girl and Chinomso is an almost 9yr old boy. They have both experienced severe physical abuse in their lives, observed terrible ritual practices, and have lacked the basic necessities in life such as enough food and water, family, education, friends, and love. You can see in their eyes that the majority of them is no longer a child. They have come to us very scared, frustrated and angry. Due to their back grounds we have had to cover the basic training such as using a toilet, having a bath, eating, sleeping in a bed. Both of them at some point had been in a school although rarely attended during that period, so we are also starting at square one as they have not known any numbers, their alphabet or even colours. They have pretty much ZERO attention span, they do not know how to get along, and they do not react well to any sort of boundaries. It is all a work in progresses. It is very strange and hard for them. With that said while we have days filled with tears, we also have laughing and smiling now too. Chinyere is coming along well as she has been here for over three weeks, the improvement is HUGE. Chinomso has not been here up to a week so he is having a hard time still. Teaching to change behaviours is much more difficult then teaching to learn behaviours. We love these kids and they know that already. The changes they both have made from when they first arrived is noticeable everyday.