Protect Girls from FGM in Tanzania

Dear GlobalGivers

Happy New Year and Thank You to all friends of the Safe House and 2016 is certainly a Happy New Year for baby Salama, as you’ll read below!

Wow! Think of caring for 190 hungry girls! In the last report I told you we were receiving over Christmas more girls from clans to the North and East who were holding a ‘Cutting Season’ in late 2015 to early 2016. Those girls just kept flooding in, including many Maasai girls from Arusha Region. They fought huge difficulties and heavy rains to get to the Safe House, determined that like other girls they could say a defiant NO! to FGM. Indeed, many of the them took part in a march through Mugumu proclaiming their belief in women’s rights and their dreams of secondary education instead of being married off young in exchange for a bride-price of cows.

You can watch a video of life at the Safe House here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Qlno1G14q00

The biggest problem of housing 190 girls is that we have nowhere dry for the girls to eat. They crowd under the porch of the Vocational Training Centre, but this is open to the elements at the front and sides, so if the wind blows they get soaked. And there’s still no proper kitchen either. So all your generous gifts now will go to the 2016 Stage 2 Building Fund. We MUST- and We are going to get a Dining Room and Kitchen built by the end of October of this year, so that the buildings are ready and commissioned before the 2016 ‘Cutting Season’ starts in late November of this year. We must also build a perimeter fence and plant next to it some ‘aggressive’ thorn bushes. The fence will make it absolutely clear to any intruders that this is Safe House land- and it will also protect the girls from the nearby road, and hopefully their chickens from being run over. Visiting parents and relatives will be directed to the staff at the main building.

100 new mothers!

2 year old baby girl Salama was found abandoned by the side of the road and surrounded by wild dogs.  The police brought her to the Safe House- our youngest child, needing kindness, clothing and food. What she got was 100 mothers! You can watch Dan Ashby’s moving video about Salama here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgM6oSC9kUQ&feature=youtu.be

And why ‘Salama’?  ‘Salama’ means ‘Peace’ and ‘Safety’ in Swahili. The Safe House is ‘Nyumba ya Salama’- the House of Safety- so it was an obvious name to call her. Tanzanians when they meet ,often greet each other with ‘Salama’! So let’s hope that this little girl will grow up strong and happy and as a sign of all that the Safe House means.

Thank you again for all your support.