BREAKING NEWS!!! MAJENGO CANADA, now an officially recognized Canadian charity, able to provide YOU with Canadian tax receipts!! And more about that later...

Back home a few days, jet lagged, tired but thrilled with our October visit, we have managed to accomplish so much!! Briefly....visited two wonderful established children's homes, as they prefer to call them, not orphanages, in Tanzania....one JBFC near Mwanza...the other Rift Valley Children's Home...near Karatu, a stone's throw from Majengo.

And we're in the beginning stages of building a brand new facility for MAJENGO!!!

We learned and saw so much! Great ideas to move forward ..the govt has approved giving us 6 acres of land, flat, wide open - a huge cry from our current site, where we look after 77 children living in or should i say squeezed into three houses!

It is insane, but totally understandable. One year ago we were flying by the seat of our pants, with the government shutting down corrupt orphanages on the safari route, last December, and bringing to us 67 new children, freaked out, badly abused, starving, not knowing where in earth they were heading...

No warning. All these kids arriving by bus over a two day period!
Our staff, half on holiday, scrambling to keep up, especially with the food, dinners, cooking, cleaning clothing and washing kids. Big challenge...but we did it...with huge credos to our staff who managed to pull it all together, beautifully infusing all these new children into our once calm, together, well organized and quiet facility.

And huge thanks to our friends in Warren, Pennsylvania.
Our budgets skyrocketed overnight, from $55,000 annually to $85,000 now...not bad considering the support of 114 children and 17 staff, but way more than they can handle.

So it's my turn now...
As they say on CNN: BREAKING NEWS!!!!
MAJENGO CANADA just got our official approval from the Canadian Government to become a registered Canadian charity. Thank you thank you thank you!! As a result we can offer tax receipts for the first time, to all our incredible donors out there who have been supporting us over the last 3 years! bravo!!

Off and running....stepping into a brand new phase, our goal to raise $300,000 over the next 6 months toward the new facility..the situation now is desperate. With 77 wonderful beautiful children squeezed into three small houses, with not a lot of land in between. We feed over 100 mouths, three times a day, with 4 cooks spinning their magic out of one, not that big, outdoor kitchen. Lines of laundry swinging from post to post throughout the site... cleaners and children alike, scrubbing madly to keep all those clothes and children clean, every single day.

It is a miracle. We have managed to pull it off.
But we need more space for those children!!
Our goal: to give them every opportunity in a safe loving environment, to grow and blossom into happy, responsible and self sufficient members of their community.

Starting, with our new facility....dreaming, but I know, within only a short period, it will become a reality: here's the picture: lots of wide open playground space for the children to run free, soccer field, great climbing jungle gym with slides and swings, buildings designed with solar, skylights, with wonderful smaller dormitories, each with their own living in mama, sitting areas, study areas, bathroom, a big open library, dining hall and kitchen, rec room, with a nearby fully equipped primary school, goats, vegetable garden...chickens....the ideas go on and on..
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I invite you to become a hands-on helping member of Majengo's TEAM CANADA!!

Revving up an exciting fundraising drive....with presentations, parties, sponsorship programs for every one of our 11 4 children, pictures, bios...raffles, paintings, exhibitions with all proceeds going straight towards this new facility. We need your help!!!

Please email me your ideas and suggestions for how you can help...lynnconnell@sympatico.ca
Lots of love, and huge thanks for everything, so far....xxLynn