|
Child Rescue > Crisis Nurseries• An orphaned or abandoned infant may have only hours to live. For the orphaned or abandoned infant, we give 24/7 nursing care at House of Moses. For an older, medically stable child, we give "intensive love" in two safe homes, the House of Martha Crisis Nursery and the Bill and Bette Bryant Crisis Nursery. Children are cared for in these temporary homes until they can be placed within the extended family, adopted or fostered. Alliance for Children Everywhere is dedicated to serving the most vulnerable children and helping families in crisis. Our programs meet the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of children from birth through ten years of age who are orphans, abandoned or victims of family violence. In addition to love and prayer, a warm bed, three nutritious meals each day, and clothing the children in our Crisis Nurseries receive medical and developmental services and their parents and extended families are given the Gospel, Christian counseling, parenting education, family support and assistance with micro-loans to enable them to care for their children.
Most of the babies at House of Moses have lost their mothers, many in childbirth. Some are abandoned in the maternity ward, and others are found in places too gruesome to mention. They are brought by the police, the Department of Social Welfare or "Good Samaritans." Some babies who are admitted to House of Moses weigh less than 3 pounds, and although there is no specialized medical equipment, almost all of the babies do survive and thrive! Although many of the mothers are HIV+, the infant has better than 50% chance of not acquiring the virus. House of Moses was selected by UNICEF and the United Nations in 2003 as a "Best Practice Model in sub-Saharan Africa". Graca Machel Mandela, who visited at that time said, "I have never before seen anything like House of Moses in Africa."
This temporary home is not an orphanage, but rather exists to re-unite children with a family. Because the Zambian extended family ethic continues to be strong, we are experiencing success in reincorporating our children into the community. Children who do not have extended family are placed into adoptive, foster or community group homes. The Bill and Bette Bryant Crisis Nursery, located deep within one of the poorest shanty communities of Lusaka, is an oasis of hope. The roads to the home are narrow, filled with potholes and, in the rainy season, almost impassable, but the wall around the house is painted with laughing cartoon animals and circled with plants and flowers.
Opened in November of 2003 to minister to toddlers, ages 2 – 4, this home is named in honor of Dr. Bill Bryant, the founding director of The Outreach Foundation. In 2000, during a visit to Zambia's first crisis nursery Dr. Bryant expressed his heart by saying, "This nursery is just our first one. I pray that we will open many more homes just like this one across Zambia, and throughout sub-Saharan Africa." The crisis nursery is not an orphanage, but a critical step in the process of bringing an outcast child into a family. Dedicated professionals work to find extended family members and help them to be able to receive the needy child. This help includes counseling, small interest-free loans, milk and basic food supplements, and connecting the families to local church congregations. When it is not possible to find such family members, children are placed into Christian foster or adoptive homes. Child Rescue > Infant Survival—Milk & MedicineA Zambian public health nurse told us, "When we bury the mother of an infant, we know a few days later we will be burying her baby."
A child may lose his life because of a simple infection that could have been cured with $2 worth of antibiotics. Our Milk and Medicine fund makes gives life-saving food and medicine for infants whose mothers have died, or who, because of being infected with AIDS, cannot safely breastfeed. It costs a very little to buy so much. Without this help, the cost is a life. Child Rescue > Feeding Hungry ChildrenMalnutrition retards physical and mental development. More than 50% of Zambia's children are so malnourished their growth is stunted. We provide daily vitamin and protein enriched porridge for students in our schools and give food supplements to the most vulnerable families.
Anne Warfield visited with ACE in Zambia in the summer of 2007. She has recorded her impressions of Zambia and ACE's work there at the website: zambiakids.org. It's worth the time to explore. |
House of Moses has sparked much interest both domestically and internationally
because it is a unique model providing 24/7 nursing care for pre-mature
and high risk infants. Before House of Moses came on the scene, infants
died for lack of milk and basic care. 
The House of Martha is located in Kanyama Compound, a high-density,
poverty stricken area of Lusaka, Zambia. The Crisis Nursery is a "safe
home" for children aged 4 – 8 who are orphaned, abandoned,
lost or whose families are in severe crisis. It is structured as a
typical home and family in the community. In this home orphans, abandoned
children and other children in crisis, find refuge and a safe place
for the healing process to begin. 
As many as fifteen toddlers fill the house with activity. A first
time visitor would never guess that the animated children playing in
the bright living room had been outcasts, most of them orphans or abandoned,
before they found life-saving help at the Bill and Bette Bryant Crisis
Nursery. The Nursery is a safe home, saturated with love, prayer and
tender care, where young children can begin the process of healing.
A nursing infant cannot survive without milk. A household trying to survive
on one dollar each day cannot afford even one small can of infant formula.