Village children are resourceful when it comes to toys and games. Old plastic bags, scraps of paper and tape become soccer balls; rocks become jax, long strips of thin plastic tied together become a jumping game, plastic bottles and bent wire become elaborate cars and trucks. Bottle caps, sticks, mud - all useful from recreation. Of course, kids in the west cut up refrigerator boxes and make forts out of dead leaves - but the difference is the little plastic toy aisle at the local Drug Mart or the huge Toys R US around the corner. Few African kids have any other choice.
So when a group of women from Minnesota decide to make dolls for each young child and every girl in the Chifundo’s Basket program, they are giving a gift of joy.

Sue Berglund - an RN who has previously served as a WVI volunteer in Malawi - was the mastermind behind the doll project. One year she arrived in Malawi with dozens of handmade fleece jackets for the school children - and dozens of handcrafted Chichewa coloring books. She also gathered a group of talented women to create a stunning quilt that now hangs in the Hope Village church, stretching from ceiling to floor.

This year, it was dolls. Beautiful, hand-crafted dolls - boy dolls and girl dolls complete with babies on their backs, decked out in brightly colored clothing. Each doll has beads threaded into tufts of hair - beads that have meaning. These black, red, white, gold and green beads represent the colors of the wordless book - a tool that is used around the world to teach the truth of the gospel to children and adults alike. And tucked inside a hidden pocket on each doll’s tummy, is a colorful laminated booklet, written in the local language, that tells the whole story of God’s love for them.

The day comes to distribute the dolls and Naomi - a team member from Minnesota - does the honors. After the raucous clapping, screaming and bouncing subsides - she begins to pass them out, one at a time. The kids’ faces are priceless - a combination of joy and utter disbelief. You can read their thoughts: A doll of my very own? I can take it home? It’s mine?

Of course, the older boys can’t take a doll. ( And “older” here is 13) They tell us that they wouldn’t make it out of the village without getting beaten up if they were seen carrying a doll. Thankfully, we have something for them - a little ninja-looking tool thing that they seem delighted with.

As the kids prepare to leave for home, the younger boys hug their dolls tightly and the girls wrap them onto their backs. The give them names (Edwin names his “Uncle Ken”) and carefully brush the ever-present dust off of the black cloth.
Some of the children who participate in our summer photography project bring back pictures of themselves with their dolls at home - a splash of color in a dreary mud house.

And a gift of love - from Minnesota to Malawi.

Today my daughter is being inducted into the National Junior Honor Society with grand ceremony.

As the announcer introduces her, the packed room hears that Hana has a 4.0 grade average (she has always had a 4.0 average) and her favorite subject is language arts. Civil rights, justice issues, politics and reading top a long list of interests. The person who most inspires her is Condoleeza Rice because, “as a woman and an African-American she had many hurdles to cross to get where she is. She did it through hard work and determination - she just never gave up.” I notice two teachers at the next table exchange a look that says - how old is this kid? Thirteen.

And she has had her own hurdles to cross to get where she is.

I can never watch an event in my daughter’s life - whether a birthday or an award ceremony - without flashing back to her painful beginnings in China. I know little about those first 18 months of her life. I only know that, at 14 months, she ended up in an orphanage - alone, frightened and badly injured. At 18 months she was in my arms - sad and cautious. But within 24 hours, as love disarmed her, a mischievous personality and innate brilliance began to surface.

Today, she is being honored for that brilliance in a beautiful banquet hall in small-town USA.

My mind wanders to the thought that Hana and I will soon travel to Malawi, Africa to spend the summer working with children in our orphan care program. There are half a million orphans in Malawi - a paralyzing number - and we can’t begin to help all of them. But we can help one little boy named Missi, or one little girl named Mpelekanji, or one little boy named Patsala or….

I snap back to reality as Hana walks up to receive her certificate and NJHS pin.
I can’t help but wonder what would have happened if we had not helped this one little girl. And I wonder how many children there are like Hana out there in the world.

We can’t help them all, but all of us can help one.
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If you’d like to help orphans and desperately needy children in Africa, click here for information on how you can help - or contact us at info@worldviewinternational.org

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