TWCF News & Stories

We are excited to announce the formalization of TWCF’s school “Homestead Alternative Academy”! We have been in discussions with the Abia State Ministry of Education for two months have initiated application to formally register.  with the State.  The Ministry sent a delegation to visit to our home and upon seeing the children both in the home and in  three classroom settings that we have, we received rave reviews, and have their full support.  The Education Ministry is excited about our unique approach to schooling. We are now awaiting our official registration process were we will official in a few weeks time. This is a big step for us, not only did we initially received recognition document from The Abia State Ministry of Education.  We  continue to enjoy a fabulous working relationship with Abia State Women’s Affairs and are so grateful to all those who have helped us in this process. We know our children are so beautiful and precious and we have desired to set up a alternative school that takes into account the holistic care and teaching that they need on their journey to rehabilitation and healing. Every day we continue to be amazed at their progress, and give glory to God for it all.

Before Mummie Canada and I arrived in the village we had two chickens, one rooster and 7 chicks. By the time we did arrive, there were 3 chicks, and over the last few weeks there are no longer any chicks! The crows and vultures had discovered the chicken restaurant in our compound and sneakily snatched away all our babies! We tried to save those last three as best as possible however the flying thieves were too much for us to handle. We know have 5 new chicks getting ready to hatch any day, and thanks to our new chicken coop in the works will do our best to help them grow up!!

We are working on growing our chicken numbers so that we might get some good layers on our hands! We are going through 3dozen in less then a week (it covers three meals, boiled eggs or omelettes). We hope to eventually start saving a big of money in the egg department by laying our own. When we are feeling a bit more successful we will begin to explore the idea of adding two goats to our little “farm” in the compound. Our farm, as the children call it, is the area we have planted corn, some few yam and cassava, groundnuts, basil, avocado tree, vegetable leaves, and a few other things. We hope to continue adding to it over time. We are experimenting with what can grow in our very sandy/clay-like soil, that won’t be demolished by bugs, monsoon rain or intense heat.

It has been a very busy last few weeks! The renovations and house maintenance has commenced. There has been mass time spent fixing beds and shelving, organizing storage for everything in the house, building a new clothesline (again), knocking a wall out in the guard house, working on the vehicles and gen, new chicken coop in the works, adjusting the always flooding compound water way issue, and more! Daddy Canada and Amos, will help from some of the older boys have been hard at work to make some much needed changes in the house and compound. We also have some plumbing underway and hope to bring our toilet count back up to three again! Our Terrano has finally been towed to the city to have the much needed repairs. We are excited and hoping these changes will make a difference in the cleanliness and orderliness of the house for daily routines and living!

Steve ‘Daddy Canada’ landed safely in Nigeria 11 days ago and has now been at the children’s home for 5 days. He was welcomed with great excitement and love by all the children and staff. A great many things have changes since his last vist a year ago, when we only had 4 children! So there were lots of new faces and names to learn, hugs to give out, and hands to shake. We have all been busy since arriving, and Daddy Canada’s presences increases the workload of things to be done around the house now that he is here. The chicken coop needs alterations, the rooms rearanged, new shelving/closet spaces, storage arrangements, the gen needs fixing, the Nissan needs assessment before a mechanic is sought, mosquito nets need fixing and moving, the guard house/school class needs fixing, and the house needs great adjustments in regard to lighting, storage, plumbing, space, etc. Slowly but surely we are all chipping away at these things among the daily routines. Daddy Canada will also take on teaching some of our staff training sessions, as we continue to teach the staff in proper parenting, teaching, relationships, behaviour managment/modification, positive role modeling, attachment/bonding, and so on.

***We, The Wanted Children Foundation, are looking for two individuals to come and serve/volunteer with us in Nigeria, in our extremely RURAL village area, and work with our orphaned children for a duration of no less then 1yr, preferably 2yrs with possibility of renewal each year:

Either a married couple or two individuals who are either both teachers, or one is a teacher and the other is in mental/physical health profession (pediatric nurse/physiotherapist/massage therapist…etc)
(If married couple you are NOT planning on having children during your time with us.)
Teacher(s) must be extremely competent in curriculum from kindergarten – grade 12 (whether BC, NS, or United States). Must be flexible to adapt various Nigerian curriculum/lessons/culture (we will help/train you) into teaching. Must have several years experience teaching. Must have experience working with Learning Assistance or Special Education, must know how to write and follow IEP’s and do assessments. Teachers must be able to teach Christian curriculum, understand and value our rules and expectations. Must be relational and social, must be strict yet understanding. You will be working with children who ALL have behavior challenges and vast learning issues due to the traumatic histories they have. You also will be working with staff and with a specific staff member appointed to you as an understudy.
Person who is a health professional must have education, further training and experience in pediatric health and/or mental health. Not only do all children need support, there are specific children with disabilities and need regular concentrated support. You also will be appointed an understudy. Must be compassionate, patience, flexible, joyful, understanding, relational and love children.

If YOU, or someone you know are interested, please contact us here at TWCF. We want to hear from you asap. We will host interviews for possible candidates. Go to our website, use the online submission form or email.
www.thewantedchildrenfoundation.org
Also, you can email thewantedchildren@gmail.com
Thanks!
Looking forward to hearing…

Well last week as Amos and I traveled to Umuahia to get some things for the house and have some meetings, our Nissan Terrano finally gave out. I had driven a few days before and said to mom, while we drove to an Eze’s house, that the SUV was in terrible condition and I couldnt believe it was still running while we were just driving it. It felt as though the whole thing would give way. With great thanks to poor road conditions, the struggle to maintain care for it, and lack of original parts or items to fix small things… it has now had a large issuse. Unfortunately I did not do a great job in picking it out for purchase in the beginning, as I dont know that much about the mechanics of a vehicle (just how to change oil and tires and carefully maintain thanks to dad), that along with the misleading fact that the small test drive on a very smooth Abuja city road, was a great difference from the rough roads and lack of any road in the village. The true condition of the vehicle popped up quickly with in the first few months. We did our best to fix and maintain it however, grateful for it.

Now however it would according to my best knowledge an opinion appear that clutch has completely given way and the gear box is ruined. It has been parked in the yard for just about a week now. The local mechanic, who trained himself, clearly was not able to know or fix the problem after banging around. And it has been decided the truck will have to be towed to one of the main cities, either an hour or several hours away, where it may take several days and a lot of money to fix. We are waiting on dad’s arrival to make the final decision.

We have recognized that speech is a large issue in our house. We have at least half of our children that struggle with various speech challenges, from simple lisps to severe stammers and word formations. It shows very clearly how the ‘shock and trauma’ of their previous lives has so greatly affected them. That, along with the lack of proper support to guide correct teaching of learning languauge. We are working our best to help these children so that communication will not be a challange for them in the future.

All of our little ones are growing and learning every day. It is amazing to tsee the progress especially with some of the serious challenges they face.

Michael is now able to hold his own cup and with help feed himself, he also enjoys to hang himself off the couch or chair so his feet are touching the ground. This is vast improvement for him.

Gabriel Favour is rolling over and pushing himself up. He has also learned some words! It is amazing to hear him. He also knows to respond to his own name as well as to answer when asked how he is.

Toby is almost fully potty trained, with a few incidencs during naptime. He is extremly verbal and you can mostly follow a conversation with him now, although when he his upset our excited his voices his too high and his words all become nonsese (hard not to laugh and focus on figuring out what he is saying). He is very moody and picky however and spends a great amount of time in the ‘time-out’ chair in the office learning to share and obey.

Prince still struggles with sharing, but loves learning and is picking up quickly with hisABC’s and 123’s. He loves to have cuddles. He has a very bad speech problem although we have worked hard to mostly understand him. He also still struggles with sharing, but does love to play with the other little ones.

Olu, our newest addition, is still recovering from some illnesses, it will be sometime. She is often running temp and is either sad or tired. She is very quiet and doesnt speak, or make much noise at all for that matter. But she has now started learning a few words and can speak them with prompts. Olu is very happy to share with others and seems to enjoy pretend cooking, washing, and feeding others.

Life has been very busy the last week. Up early and in bed late, following the daily routines as well as making changes and adjustments for efficiencies sake. There is still limited sleep at night due to various children and diaper changes or bad dreams, to night vigils or wake keeps in the community, or to chi-chi ba mice running up and down the windows and walls (as was the case last night).

Catherine and I are both spending large amounts of times in the various classes and with individual children to help adjust teaching and increase maximum learning and understanding. It is a regular conversation to remind staff that these children are not to be measured by ‘typical’ children’s standards, and that we teach according to their capability to learn. It is taking time to help the staff realize this as well as to go over basic concepts with the children again. Overall the children are doing very well in their individual learning capacities, we are very happy for them. Some of them can read stories to us already, others are learning their alphabets and starting to spell, and the younger ones are learning their colours and shapes!