March 2012 Zimpeto Child Reintegration Program Update

The reintegration team worked hard in 2011, reuniting 67 children/youth with their families and building 17 houses, either to provide for community parents so that their children could stay with them in their homes, or to enable children to reunite with their families.

The team averages between 15 and 20 visits a week, mostly assessing new children for admission, but also making home visits of our current children to assess the home situation.

The car continues to be an integral part of enabling the team to do the home visits and has been well cared for over the years.

The building program has enabled many children to be reunited with their parents. We attempted to increase the number of builders to 3 this year, however the work of the new builder was sub-standard and his account keeping was poor. We continue to use the builders we have known in the past. We hope to continue the same pace of building in 2012, but this will depend on both the builders and the availability of finances.

All the stories of reintegration this year have been special and successful, but for the purpose of this report I have chosen to report on two of our very special children.
 

Arsenia:

Arsenia was brought to the centre by Ros. I had met her at another institution where she and 20 other little children were suffering from institutional neglect, malnutrition and poor health. She was very timid, fearful and non-communicative. By the grace of God I was able to bring her to our centre for treatment, and then 'forgot' to return her!

After 4 years of no-one coming to visit her here, one day her father appeared. He had tracked her down through the previous centre. The 4 years in our centre had improved Arsenia’s health; she was no longer timid or fearful and she responded well to her father and to his new partner. More importantly, the step mother gladly accepted her into the family. Arsenia made many visits to  her father’s house during 2011. Each visit she returned happy and obviously loving her new found relationship with her dad.

Arsenia does have learning difficulties and is always going to be behind in her schooling, but her father readily accepts her limitations. In December 2011 Arsenia went home to stay. The accompanying photos reflect her happiness and joy at once again being part of a family.

["Having a place to go is a home, having someone to love is a family."]

Nunduane family (Stelio, Ozais, & Edson)

These three boys were brought to us by their mother when their bamboo house was blown down in a storm. The woman’s husband had abandoned the family many years before. This mother was able to provide just enough food for her and the boys, but was not able to buy the materials to rebuild her house.

The family had been living in a house as a favour from the person she worked for, however the owner of the house had asked her to leave with her children. The mother had asked the owner if she could stay until she found a place for her children to live and was able to care for the children.

We accepted the children into the centre for one year and placed their names on our construction list. The boys settled satisfactorily into the centre however it was clear that the eldest boy Stelio wanted to return to be with his mother. In November of 2011 we were able to commence building a house for this family, which was completed prior to Christmas. The boys went home with extra items into their new brick home.

Their mother was so appreciative for what we had done.  She expressed her thanks to our builder in saying “I never thought I would be able to rebuild my home and have my boys live with me again. Now I not only have a new home, but it is a block house with a cement floor, windows a door and lock. How can I express my gratitude.”

["Family is one of God's masterpieces".]