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A letter from Frank and Nancy Dimmock
in Malawi |
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November 2004
News from the nursery
Dear Friends,
What a joy it is to report on all that God has accomplished in
this second year of the Crisis Nursery.
Most amazing was the completion of the beautiful, three-bedroom
house, which now serves as the new home for the babies. The construction
was started last September and completed in May! This is nothing
short of a miracle in our world of delays and shortages. When
I did the math, though, I realized that God has a wonderful sense
of humor. We are all about babies, and this house took exactly
nine months “gestation” before delivery!
With help from many people, we got curtains up, furniture and
equipment in, and on Monday, June 29, 2004, we moved nine babies
from our house to their new home in Area 47/2/134. It was a very
happy occasion. Visitors from Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church,
New York, were here at the time and helped with the move. (Five
of our babies were at ABC Clinic at the time, for a total of thirteen
children in our care.) The cost of building the main house and
a two-family staff house, landscaping the grounds, and equipping
the house for the babies came to a total of $58,000. Our home
church of Montreat Presbyterian Church in Montreat, North Carolina,
gave the initial $10,000 which allowed us to break ground. And
Westminster Presbyterian Church, Greenville, South Carolina, gave
the final $5,000 that completed the staff house and helped with
the landscaping. First Presbyterian Church, Pulaski, Tennessee,
provided the cribs and local Presbyterian Women and the Rotary
Club helped provide some needed kitchen equipment. Other churches
and individuals too numerous to mention helped to complete and
equip the home, and we are so very grateful.
The Dimmock family left July 1 for two months of leave. In my
absence, three of the nannies were promoted to administrator,
housekeeper, and personnel supervisor respectively. Each shift
also named a team leader, and they were linked to the administration
of Ministry of Hope headquarters in case they had any problems.
But, all of the ladies did (and continue to do) an excellent job
of the day-to-day managing of the nursery and caring for the babies.
What a joy it is to see them taking their responsibilities seriously
and understanding that what they do is ministry. |
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Visitors from Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York,
New York, helped briefly to care for nine babies.
Of the 34 babies cared for by the Crisis Nursery so far this year,
Stephano, 7 months old, is the only one to return to his mother,
a 17-year old who recovered
from a long illness related to his delivery.
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Davidson, Paul, Precious, Adam, Abigail, Moses,
Dorothy, and Mphatso joined our little family in recent months—each
with his/her own story. Adam and Abigail are newborn twins whose
mother died on the way to the hospital immediately after delivery.
Moses was found as a newborn in a maize basket by the river on the
edge of the city. Dorothy and Mphatso are very malnourished, having
lost their mothers after months of illness. Meanwhile, Clara and
Melenia were placed with local families who will raise and love
them, and Stephano returned to his 17-year old mom after she recovered
from a long illness related to his delivery. She has the support
of her grandmother and other extended family, and was so thrilled
to see him again. |
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So far this year we have cared
for 34 babies. Eight have been placed into foster/adoptive families,
two went to their heavenly home, three were placed at SOS Children’s
Village, one (Stephano, see above) went home to his mother, and
twenty are in our care at the moment. We averaged 16 babies per
month and spent an average of $2,400 per month on their care.
This works out to $150 per baby per month or $5.00 per baby per
day and includes nannies’ salaries, utilities, transport,
baby consumables, food, formula, and medical bills. We are so
very grateful to all of those generous churches and individuals
who made this care possible. Boxes and boxes of baby clothes,
cloth diapers (“nappies”), and handmade quilts and
knitted baby blankets from friends around the world, have been
wonderful gifts that have helped to keep costs down.
Another wonderful development is the hiring of our own social
worker, Mrs. Elsie Kumwenda, who has twenty years experience with
the government and a heart for children. She started work November
1, and already we can see that the babies’ cases will be
handled in a more timely manner. They will receive the crisis
care they need, then move on to make room for others. Also, on
December 1, the direction and supervision of the nursery will
be handed over to a wonderfully qualified Malawian woman, Mrs.
Doreen Maloya, who besides having eight years of experience working
with community-based orphan-care programs, is also a trained nurse.
We are convinced that she is the one who will take this ministry
into the hearts of Malawian families and into the future.
So many gifts, large and small, monetary and in-kind, went into
providing quality care to the babies and into making the new nursery
a beautiful, playful, colorful, stimulating environment for them.
We are so grateful to God for His wonderful provision and so thankful
to you for the part you have played in the care of the babies
this year.
Yours in Christ,
Nancy M. Dimmock
Crisis Nursery Supervisor
The 2004 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.
58 |
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