September 2014 Zimpeto Child Reintegration Program Update

Reintegration is the mainstay of the centre; the visits never finish and neither do the community needs.

We have continued to accept new children into the centre, build houses to enable children to return to their families, and reintegrated children back into their homes once the family crisis has resolved.

Our car that was bought by IMC is now 9 years old.  It continues to be the reason we can do the home visits. Most home visits are off road and are a crucial part of accepting a child into the centre. The government social welfare knows that we have a car, and sometimes asks us to help them with visits, as they do not have access to a car.

Inspiration from Reintegration:

Story 1
Our most recent ‘new’ baby was brought in on 24th September. Her mum died in June 2014, leaving behind 4 children, the youngest being 8 months old. Dad works and was leaving the baby with the next oldest daughter (who is 8 years old) to care for her. He would leave a milk bottle and some baby cereal. The older two children (ages10 and 12) go to school and then when they come home they would look after the baby while the 8 year old went to school.

The baby came to us underweight, but very advanced developmentally (probably from having the attention of her 8 year old sister). She was healthy and clean, so it seemed that while dad was able to work out how much milk and food to give her, he was unable to work out how to keep her safe while he went to work. He was not managing well himself, so we agreed to bring the baby in for a time, until she was old enough to go to school..

Story 2
A week ago one of our reintegrated families came to say hello. This particular reintegration had the potential to fail, but we decided to see if the mum could find enough money to care for her two children that had been with us for 2 years. The mother and two children came forward for prayer at church, and the children looked well cared for and reasonably well nourished. Mum just wanted to say thank you for the help we had given her and show us how they children were doing.

Story 3
If you take a look back to the April 2014 Update, you will remember the story of Lydia (not her real name). We wanted to give you an updated picture of her after 5 months of living with us at the centre.

[Lydia is blossoming under Iris' care.]