A very exciting opportunity

Today we went back to Pamoja to meet with Terry again. We spent a good deal of time discussing our hopes and goals to see if there is some way for her to guide us or help us. 

Let me give a brief background on who Terry is. She is the manager / director of Pamoja. Pamoja is a relief project that provides food and education to extremely poor children as well as micro-financed loans and business training to women in need. Terry's vision and values are so closely aligned with ours, it is incredible.  Talking with her is much like conversing with an applied anthropology professor who cares very deeply about the people being reached. Her knowledge and insight into the management of community based relief efforts is astounding. Her years of experience, her drive to make a sustainable difference for those in need, and her compassion for those around her all contribute to her being an incredible leader of this kind of thing.

As I  was saying, we were discussing potential relief projects. We were asking her for insight into the felt needs of the community and we were testing the waters to see if it might be possible to partner with her in some new efforts.

Before we knew it, we were discussing preliminary plans for a joint effort that will serve one of the most un-reached demographics of people in need here.

She told us that a huge problem in this culture is early teen pregnancy. It is very common for girls who are 12-14 to get pregnant and have to drop out of school once they give birth to their child. Terry told us that the MAJORITY of babies born in this situation die because their young mothers have no knowledge of how to care for a child and no resources to raise a baby. She said that many of these babies are abandoned to die because the mothers feel that they simply have no choice in the matter. These mothers are still children themselves when they find themselves in this situation. They only will realize the severity and tragedy of their loss once they have matured.

Adoption is uncommon here. Terry told us that in this culture EVERY mother wants their child back at some point. Even if they are unable to raise a baby at first, they want their children back by the time they are able to support them. Family is everything to Digo people. She said that mothers who do give their children up for long term adoption or place their kids in an orphanage wind up suffering terrible guilt ridden depressions when they cannot be reunited with their children.

Terry has a vision to start a home where young teenage mothers can take their children to be cared for until their situation is improved enough to responsibly raise a child. During this initial period while the mothers are finding their feet, the babies would be nurtured and cared for by a staff of Digo women. While the babies are in the home, their mothers will be able to have as much or as little interaction with them as desired. Once these teenage mothers are able to finish school and get a job or get married in order to support their children, they would be free to take the children back to raise them in a secure environment. 

Terry has dreamt of something like this for a long time but she said that she didn't know how it would be achieved or what funds would support the project.

This is something that we could very realistically support. We were talking about the specifics of the costs involved, and there is a good likelihood that we will be able to fund this. Terry said that she will do the research over the next few days to come up with some final figures by Wednesday.