Orphan's Promise Updates

A wonderful story of discipleship at Okalawo School, Mozambique | By Leonie Nortje

We, in partnership with Life Child, are so excited to share this lifechanging story about our student - Mansur. He is 11 years old and he lives with his grandparents and 5 brothers.. Currently, Mansur is in Grade 3. Like many in Africa, Mansur doesn’t have a father Like many other children, he lost his father at an early age and his mother moved away from the neighbourhood, leaving Mansur and his brothers with their grandfather to take care of them. As a consequence, Mansur developed serious issues of low self-esteem, personality problems, aggressiveness and had difficulties socializing with his classmates, and he developed a bad relationship with his teacher. Unfortunately, his vulnerability and behavioural instability had contributed to his failure at school, and he needed to repeat a year. Through pastoral visits, the teacher was able to discover the reality his home situation. It became possible for her to understand and help Mansur. Through the effectiveness of discipleship and school followups that Life Child encouraged, the situation has radically changed. Today Mansur is a happy, motivated child, who is overcoming the many difficult challenges he faced. He sees the future with hope and gratitude, and has become a very dedicated, intelligent and cooperative student. Like other children, Mansur has a dream - he wants to be a policeman to help his grandfather, his brothers and his community. Join us in prayer and gratitude as we reach more children like Mansur and help their dreams become a future reality! | 13

She never knew her father; her mother ran away before she can remember. Neglect is a terrible reality for many of the women and girls in the Beautiful Dream Society Shelter for Victims of Human Trafficking, especially Tholoana. Tholoana was raised by her grandmother - the only member of her family she ever knew. After the horror of sexual abuse, she became part of the BDS family. Our staff have done their best to help instill a sense of belonging in her and to teach her about her part in the Body of Christ. However, this month, BDS was a participant in making one of Tholoana’s biggest dreams become a reality. Some of our staff members set out on a journey with her to find the rest of her family. After a long search, they found the village her father called ‘home’. That moment was bitter sweet for Tholoana. She discovered that her father had recently passed away. But she met his caretaker, her aunt. Her aunt welcomed Tholoana warmly as a long, lost child! They spent the afternoon looking through Tholoana’s old baby photos and photos of her father. On that same day, Tholoana met another aunt and her grandparents from her father’s side. Tears filled the eyes of our Beautiful Dream Society staff members as they watched Tholoana discover the love of her lost family. She discovered she is even distantly related to the chief of the village, and he’s already helping her find other members of her family that have relocated to South Africa. God is restoring what has been lost and mending the brokenness within the women and girls cared for by Beautiful Dream Society. Stories like this would not be possible without the endless support of individuals and organizations like Orphan’s Promise and CBN. We are abundantly thankful for you and all you do for vulnerable women and children.

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