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1. APOHA launches more user friendly website NOV 6th… Please come back and see the NEW LOOK… Lots more...

NAVIGATE THE SITE…..

WE WILL BE ADDING AND CREATING THROUGH-OUT THE COMING DAYS!

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Lots more Photos and Videos plus more of the information our supporters have been asking for.

Come back soon!

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1. Joey is recovering…. Click on NEWS for the latest! Click on any of the TABS above or the ICONS...

Emmanuel, Victoria and the Children of A Place of Hope

Having TEN children to care for is very different than having THREE! Their ages range from two months to one teenager.  Keeping them clean, fed, medicated, in school and out of the usual trouble kids can get into keeps us extremely busy.  We have received Baby Joy’s HIV results.  Her initial test, which tests for antibodies to the virus, was positive.  This definitely means her mother was HIV positive.  However, infants can carry the mother’s antibodies and not be truly HIV positive.  We now know she is positive to the  and will care for her accordingly and pray the cure is found real soon.

Two of the girls graduated from one level to the next in their schooling.   They are a couple of years behind where a child would be in the USA, but nevertheless they are now steady in school.  Mezoma is turning out to be a very intelligent little girl.  She was the top child in her class!

Bev continues to treat the villagers for their varying sicknesses as she can.  Her bout with Malaria put her down for a week and slowed her pace considerably, but thankfully she is now back to normal.  Brittni, a volunteer from Kansas who has spent 4 months here, was able to help carry the load along with Ebuka and myself.  We took turns caring for the baby in the night.  A week or so later, Brittni also came down with Malaria and was also out of commission for a week.  Everyone is doing great now!

We recently had an 11 year old girl, claiming to be from South Africa show up at our house asking to stay for a few days.  Her auntie had been in an accident and her uncle had taken the auntie to another city.  She said she didn’t want to stay alone at her house in Nsukka.  We weren’t comfortable with the whole story, so we pried and she then told us that she had been living on the street and had been trafficked to Nigeria from South Africa.  That very evening we got the police involved.  They questioned her and we spent several days dealing with various Nigerian police agencies.After a week in the custody of a Nigerian Agency for Trafficked Persons, she disclosed to a social worker there that her mother lived in Nsukka and she had run away!  We had been duped by an 11 year old run away.  The only consolation was that the police agencies had also been duped!  She was reunited with her mother, a widow with 7 children.  We will continue to try and work with this child to find out what led her to choose to run away from her home and fabricate a very intricate story.

The University of Nigeria Nsukka has offered their assistance with the medical care of our orphans at their medical center on campus.  This will be very beneficial and will reduce the cost of their care.  We are grateful for this assistance.  Also, the Department of Student Affairs has appointed me to the post of Volunteer Student Advisor and Counselor to help with their load of students facing various problems.  This will give us the opportunity to help students in need of advice as many of them face difficult decisions about their future.

We have been joined by some new staff.  Originally last August we had asked Emanuel and Victoria about coming to work with A Place of Hope.  However, at that time they declined.  This year, due to Pastor Williams resignation from our staff, they made the decision to come on board and have marked an incredible difference.  They both have just jumped in and are doing marvelous.   We are encouraged by their presence and sincere love for the children.

The house plans were finally approved yesterday and we will begin the foundations for the first house on the property next week. We have been waiting for so long and it will be slow this time of year because of the rain, as it is the full fledged rainy season.  Hopefully before our return to the USA next month for fund-raising the foundations will be completed and the walls will start to go up.  Remember this is third world and there are no spinning cement trucks out in the jungle.  Mixing and pouring is all done by hand!

We are busy helping in two church plants with students from the Biblical Training School we have started on Saturdays.  Men from this school have asked us to help them to do this and it has been a blessing as we share the good news that Jesus is the way, truth and the life and that God truly cares for the people of Opi!

Our 501(c)(3) status with the US Gov. has been approved and we are now a full-fledged public charity.  Our church, Temple Baptist of Fort Worth, TX, helped cover A Place of Hope-Africa with their status and we are grateful to them.  Today we can emit our own receipts.  This has not been easy nor inexpensive, so we are grateful that it has finally been completed.THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT & PRAYER!

www.aplaceofhopeafrica.org Click here to DONATE TODAY

Related posts:

1. Joey is recovering…. Click on NEWS for the latest! Click on any of the TABS above or the ICONS...

Naemeka, the child we took to the hospital over a month ago, was joined here by his older sister. We tried to save their mother, but after a week in the hospital she was released. Then a few days later at home in the village, she suddenly died. Because of his condition, we felt it would be best if we could bring one of his two siblings to be around him. Juliet is 15 and will continue to go to secondary school here in the village. But she will help us with the special care that is needed for him. He has seizures from time to time and though he is about 12 yrs. old, his mind and body function at around 7. He has to be bathed, and has to have help with taking medicine and trips to the bathroom require supervision as he might “make a mess”!

Three of the new ones came by way of the hospital we usually deal with when we need medical assistance with the children. The USAID program that provides free HIV testing and HIV drugs is operating there and Hope gets her treatment there. The coordinator of the program called us a few weeks ago to ask if we could take three children he had heard lost their parents. After a delayed process of communication with the family that was overseeing the children, we finally were able to rescue them on Sunday. Their mother died 3 yrs. ago and the father’s second wife was caring for them, but when he was put in prison, the stepmother no longer wanted to care for them and they were sent back to their home village, which is about 25 miles from our place. They don’t speak IGBO as they were raised in the Northern part of Nigeria and their family doesn’t speak much English, so you can imagine their emotional condition. The children became ill after arrival and the family took them to see the doctor at our local hospital. They were tested for HIV and two of them are positive.

Chioma (Blessing) is 7 yrs. old and a beautiful girl. She is still very shy, but Hope is helping her to get used to the new accommodations and routine. Chukwuneso (Martin) is 5 and a very energetic boy – he is free from the virus. Then there is sweet Ugochukwu (who has no English name yet). He is a very sweet boy who loves to help and he is only 3. The two with HIV will have further tests this Friday to determine treatment.

Sunday afternoon, while away picking up those three, a visitor came by the house to tell us about another orphan child. When Bev and I returned, we called the phone number that was left with us and found out that a mother had died in child-birth leaving behind 5 children. She had not lived with the husband for many years and he was not a part of the picture. The extended family just could not cope with the newborn’s need for formula. It is expensive and they could not care for all five and tackle the baby’s needs. They heard about what we are doing and asked if we would care for the child! So we now also have in our care a 12 day old infant girl. Her name is Chidubem (Joy) and she is a doll! It has been a long time since Bev and I bottle fed a baby and changed diapers in the middle of the night!

Obviously, we have a full house now. Kyrsten and Brittni (volunteers from the USA) have been so helpful! Both Kyrsten & our son Jordan go back to Texas next month. We will miss the extra hands! Brittni doesn’t go until June. We will be looking to hire an additional supervisor to help with all the duties.

Our very tight budget is now getting stretched and there is much still needed in terms of our project. We hope to lay some foundations next week, but rain has started and the bulldozer hasn’t come. We are having to remove stumps by hand and try to level the land also by hand. This is slow and we have to pay day labor. Since we are “white people” we must pay the highest wage, which has to be negotiated and finally an amount is agreed upon.
We encountered some additional costs that we had not budgeted for as we learned even in the villages there are Local Government Development and Planning commissions who require nationally approved building plans to be registered and approved by them. Not required for wooden-thatched roof structures, but for “public” type buildings it is required! This meant our Architect now had to secure the seal of the National Architecture Group (this has a price) and then we had to submit five copies to the Planning Commission also at a cost. We also are paying two guards to watch over the supplies and block we have accumulated.
We decided to lease our compound for another year, as we cannot move into the property until a house is built and that means additional funds for that. However disappointing this may be, we are still very happy that we have been able to bring change to the 9 orphans we now have as well as help improve the lives of many of the villagers we have given or secured medical treatment for.

Please know that we appreciate your support. If you are or want to become a financial contributor and have not sent your support in, we do need it! Also don’t forget to tell others about what we are doing and how they can get involved in making a difference in the lives of children who might not have any hope without our help.

A Place Of Hope
P.O. Box 242
Nsukka, Enugu State
Nigeria, West Africa
From USA: 011.234.803.678.3696

A Place Of Hope – Africa
US Address:
P.O. Box 833
Hurst, TX 76053
817.319.9096

Related posts:

1. Joey is recovering…. Click on NEWS for the latest! Click on any of the TABS above or the ICONS...

Our Orphans

Naemeka, the child we took to the hospital over a month ago, was joined here by his older sister. We tried to save their mother, but after a week in the hospital she was released. Then a few days later at home in the village, she suddenly died. Because of his condition, we felt it would be best if we could bring one of his two siblings to be around him. Juliet is 15 and will continue to go to secondary school here in the village. But she will help us with the special care that is needed for him. He has seizures from time to time and though he is about 12 yrs. old, his mind and body function at around 7. He has to be bathed, and has to have help with taking medicine and trips to the bathroom require supervision as he might “make a mess”!

Three of the new ones came by way of the hospital we usually deal with when we need medical assistance with the children. The USAID program that provides free HIV testing and HIV drugs is operating there and Hope gets her treatment there. The coordinator of the program called us a few weeks ago to ask if we could take three children he had heard lost their parents. After a delayed process of communication with the family that was overseeing the children, we finally were able to rescue them on Sunday. Their mother died 3 yrs. ago and the father’s second wife was caring for them, but when he was put in prison, the stepmother no longer wanted to care for them and they were sent back to their home village, which is about 25 miles from our place. They don’t speak IGBO as they were raised in the Northern part of Nigeria and their family doesn’t speak much English, so you can imagine their emotional condition. The children became ill after arrival and the family took them to see the doctor at our local hospital. They were tested for HIV and two of them are positive.

Our Orphans

Chioma (Blessing) is 7 yrs. old and a beautiful girl. She is still very shy, but Hope is helping her to get used to the new accommodations and routine. Chukwuneso (Martin) is 5 and a very energetic boy – he is free from the virus. Then there is sweet Ugochukwu (who has no English name yet). He is a very sweet boy who loves to help and he is only 3. The two with HIV will have further tests this Friday to determine treatment.

Sunday afternoon, while away picking up those three, a visitor came by the house to tell us about another orphan child. When Bev and I returned, we called the phone number that was left with us and found out that a mother had died in child-birth leaving behind 5 children. She had not lived with the husband for many years and he was not a part of the picture. The extended family just could not cope with the newborn’s need for formula. It is expensive and they could not care for all five and tackle the baby’s needs. They heard about what we are doing and asked if we would care for the child! So we now also have in our care a 12 day old infant girl. Her name is Chidubem (Joy) and she is a doll! It has been a long time since Bev and I bottle fed a baby and changed diapers in the middle of the night!

Life at APOHA
Obviously, we have a full house now. Kyrsten and Brittni (volunteers from the USA) have been so helpful! Both Kyrsten & our son Jordan go back to Texas next month. We will miss the extra hands! Brittni doesn’t go until June. We will be looking to hire an additional supervisor to help with all the duties.
Our very tight budget is now getting stretched and there is much still needed in terms of our project. We hope to lay some foundations next week, but rain has started and the bulldozer hasn’t come. We are having to remove stumps by hand and try to level the land also by hand. This is slow and we have to pay day labor. Since we are “white people” we must pay the highest wage, which has to be negotiated and finally an amount is agreed upon.

Life in Opi
We encountered some additional costs that we had not budgeted for as we learned even in the villages there are Local Government Development and Planning commissions who require nationally approved building plans to be registered and approved by them. Not required for wooden-thatched roof structures, but for “public” type buildings it is required! This meant our Architect now had to secure the seal of the National Architecture Group (this has a price) and then we had to submit five copies to the Planning Commission also at a cost. We also are paying two guards to watch over the supplies and block we have accumulated.
We decided to lease our compound for another year, as we cannot move into the property until a house is built and that means additional funds for that. However disappointing this may be, we are still very happy that we have been able to bring change to the 9 orphans we now have as well as help improve the lives of many of the villagers we have given or secured medical treatment for.

Please know that we appreciate your support. If you are or want to become a financial contributor and have not sent your support in, we do need it! Also don’t forget to tell others about what we are doing and how they can get involved in making a difference in the lives of children who might not have any hope with it.
APOHA LIFE
www.aplaceofhopeafrica.org Click here to DONATE TODAY

A Place Of Hope
P.O. Box 242
Nsukka, Enugu State
Nigeria, West Africa
From USA: 011.234.803.678.3696

A Place Of Hope – Africa
US Address:
P.O. Box 833
Hurst, TX 76053
817.319.9096

Related posts:

1. Joey is recovering…. Click on NEWS for the latest! Click on any of the TABS above or the ICONS...

Naemeka, the child we took to the hospital over a month ago, was joined here by his older sister. We tried to save their mother, but after a week in the hospital she was released. Then a few days later at home in the village, she suddenly died. Because of his condition, we felt it would be best if we could bring one of his two siblings to be around him. Juliet is 15 and will continue to go to secondary school here in the village. But she will help us with the special care that is needed for him. He has seizures from time to time and though he is about 12 yrs. old, his mind and body function at around 7. He has to be bathed, and has to have help with taking medicine and trips to the bathroom require supervision as he might “make a mess”!

Three of the new ones came by way of the hospital we usually deal with when we need medical assistance with the children. The USAID program that provides free HIV testing and HIV drugs is operating there and Hope gets her treatment there. The coordinator of the program called us a few weeks ago to ask if we could take three children he had heard lost their parents. After a delayed process of communication with the family that was overseeing the children, we finally were able to rescue them on Sunday. Their mother died 3 yrs. ago and the father’s second wife was caring for them, but when he was put in prison, the stepmother no longer wanted to care for them and they were sent back to their home village, which is about 25 miles from our place. They don’t speak IGBO as they were raised in the Northern part of Nigeria and their family doesn’t speak much English, so you can imagine their emotional condition. The children became ill after arrival and the family took them to see the doctor at our local hospital. They were tested for HIV and two of them are positive.

Our Orphans

Chioma (Blessing) is 7 yrs. old and a beautiful girl. She is still very shy, but Hope is helping her to get used to the new accommodations and routine. Chukwuneso (Martin) is 5 and a very energetic boy – he is free from the virus. Then there is sweet Ugochukwu (who has no English name yet). He is a very sweet boy who loves to help and he is only 3. The two with HIV will have further tests this Friday to determine treatment.

Sunday afternoon, while away picking up those three, a visitor came by the house to tell us about another orphan child. When Bev and I returned, we called the phone number that was left with us and found out that a mother had died in child-birth leaving behind 5 children. She had not lived with the husband for many years and he was not a part of the picture. The extended family just could not cope with the newborn’s need for formula. It is expensive and they could not care for all five and tackle the baby’s needs. They heard about what we are doing and asked if we would care for the child! So we now also have in our care a 12 day old infant girl. Her name is Chidubem (Joy) and she is a doll! It has been a long time since Bev and I bottle fed a baby and changed diapers in the middle of the night!

Life at APOHA
Obviously, we have a full house now. Kyrsten and Brittni (volunteers from the USA) have been so helpful! Both Kyrsten & our son Jordan go back to Texas next month. We will miss the extra hands! Brittni doesn’t go until June. We will be looking to hire an additional supervisor to help with all the duties.
Our very tight budget is now getting stretched and there is much still needed in terms of our project. We hope to lay some foundations next week, but rain has started and the bulldozer hasn’t come. We are having to remove stumps by hand and try to level the land also by hand. This is slow and we have to pay day labor. Since we are “white people” we must pay the highest wage, which has to be negotiated and finally an amount is agreed upon.

Life in Opi
We encountered some additional costs that we had not budgeted for as we learned even in the villages there are Local Government Development and Planning commissions who require nationally approved building plans to be registered and approved by them. Not required for wooden-thatched roof structures, but for “public” type buildings it is required! This meant our Architect now had to secure the seal of the National Architecture Group (this has a price) and then we had to submit five copies to the Planning Commission also at a cost. We also are paying two guards to watch over the supplies and block we have accumulated.
We decided to lease our compound for another year, as we cannot move into the property until a house is built and that means additional funds for that. However disappointing this may be, we are still very happy that we have been able to bring change to the 9 orphans we now have as well as help improve the lives of many of the villagers we have given or secured medical treatment for.

Please know that we appreciate your support. If you are or want to become a financial contributor and have not sent your support in, we do need it! Also don’t forget to tell others about what we are doing and how they can get involved in making a difference in the lives of children who might not have any hope with it.
APOHA LIFE
www.aplaceofhopeafrica.org Click here to DONATE TODAY
A Place Of Hope
P.O. Box 242
Nsukka, Enugu State
Nigeria, West Africa
From USA: 011.234.803.678.3696

A Place Of Hope – Africa
US Address:
P.O. Box 833
Hurst, TX 76053
817.319.9096

Related posts:

1. Joey is recovering…. Click on NEWS for the latest! Click on any of the TABS above or the ICONS...

[singlepic=1,400,,,right] We made the decision to take the child to the Hospital in the Nsukka and try to save his life. The Doctor indicated that he was very near death. Thanks to a Great Physician we know, and the help of the local Doctor, we were able to bring him back from the brink of death. The mother remains hospitalized and we have taken Naemeka home with us for the time being. She asked us to care for him, as she cannot any longer. Her other children are older than him but not at a working age. Her desperate cry for help was answered because of your help.

[singlepic=2,400,,,left] Naemeka has a long battle ahead. The mother and sister indicated that he does not speak but a few words. Apparently there had been some seizures a few years back that had left him without the ability to speak. His arms and legs are very small and very weak, so he cannot walk very much. We are blessed at A Place of Hope to care for such a one. Since coming to our place, he has regained bladder control and is beginning to feed himself, using a spoon. He is saying more words than the three or four we were told he could say. He also has mastered the skill of holding a color crayon. His health is improving greatly. There is a sense of hope in his eyes and we can see that his comprehension may even be even with his age, but his oral communication skills are weak. Naemeka has been showing real improvement.

[singlepic=3,400,,,center]

Related posts:

1. Joey is recovering…. Click on NEWS for the latest! Click on any of the TABS above or the ICONS...

Life on the Edge
Sometimes, as we ride down the highway or through the usual traffic in Nsukka on our “machine” (motorcycle), we are reminded of how good most of us have it back in the USA. A vehicle that has 4 wheels and a traffic system and laws help to keep us safe, for the most part. Here, it is amazing how risky it all is. But we are thankful we don’t have to walk everywhere! We really are in need of a small pick-up truck. We have just do not have the funds at this time for this luxury. The most of our funds are being used in the construction and development of the land. Please pray that somehow we can manage to find the funds to purchase a vehicle. ($12,000 USD).
We have gotten our house back into shape and purchased some shelving (Carpenter made them) to be able to put some things up. The place is beginning to feel like a home again. Screens had to be cleaned and new ones installed and general cleaning, cob web removal, and finding a place for everything. We are happy that we are finally having a kind of schedule. The boys are home-schooling and we are forging ahead with plans.
Helping the Community
We have met with the Nsukka Local Government Area Mayor as we had brought Safety Vests donated by our friends at Allied Waste (now Republic) in Fort Worth to the city clean-up workers. The meeting was very productive and a Bull Dozer which will be in the area soon was promised help us clear and level the land. Also we were able to share some disposable bedding/gowns for the pediatric ward in the hospital. These were donated by a manufacturer in the USA. We hope to do more of these types of donations to the communities we will be reaching and involved in.
Bev has been so busy with the locals in Amukpa village. There are so many sick ones. Many of them are basic things she can diagnose and treat. However, some of the problems are quite complex and she has enlisted the help of a Doctor who comes to a nearby hospital several times a week. One of the patients, a young mother, had what looked like intense mastitis and infection. Her child was dying from lack of nutrition and she was in incredible pain. Beverly carried the woman and child to meet this Doctor and he performed a minor surgery (I won’t go into the gory details; suffice it to say that it was a terrible untreated infection). The Dr. indicated that had they not come in, the baby probably would have died and the mother may have lost her breast. Beverly has been teaching the mother (and grandmother) about the care the child needs to survive (including expressing milk – giving vitamins), and making sure the woman continues her treatment.
Due to a particular vitamin deficiency and other particulars, a three-year-old boy who is extremely bowlegged was brought to Beverly. He is need of the proper care, which may be found at Enugu City 1.5 hours from here. We would like to take him to an orthopedic hospital there. The treatment will not be even ¼ of the cost of such treatment in the USA. We are seeking a sponsor for his treatment. We know this is not life-threatening, but in Africa he will be reduced to tremendous discrimination in the future if he does not find a way out. If you are interested in sponsoring his treatment, let us know and as soon as we have the details, we’ll let you know.
Through the experiences of dealing with so much sickness and the lack of education and resources of the people of the village, Beverly has decided that she can enlist some local physicians to donate a day every month or two and will open a weekly clinic. This will be a one-day a week “free” clinic. We are still trying to plan a medical team visit from the USA to help us for a week or two. We will rent a small room for now to see and treat patients. Pray for these plans there is still much to do and think through.
We are not a bank and we know you aren’t either! But please spread the word and if you haven’t joined our financial support team, please join as soon as you can!!! Let your friends and family know that this is a very worthy cause and that the donations are truly benefiting the children! There is so much need and we can’t solve it all, but together we can do something.
We are in the process of retrieving some new additions in our orphan care. Please pray that we are able to negotiate with town leaders and villagers! Sometimes they hide the children, fearing what the white man might do with them!
Thank you for your prayers and financial support. We couldn’t be here and do what we are doing without you!

Related posts:

1. Joey is recovering…. Click on NEWS for the latest! Click on any of the TABS above or the ICONS...

Related posts:

1. Joey is recovering…. Click on NEWS for the latest! Click on any of the TABS above or the ICONS...