Family History:
Neema’s mother died in 20008 soon after an operation on the birth of Neema. In 2007 her father became very ill and he was observed to be HIV positive. Before the illness got worse he took his daughter to his mother called Ushoka Nyarumga in a very remote area. This old lady lives in a village where there is no school around, no hospital or even a dispensary. Sadly Neema’s father died that same year 2007.
Neema’s grandmother found a school in a nearby village and so she had to find a place for Neema to stay once attending school because it was a long from where they lived to where the school was. So she found a family who said they would look after Neema but sadly she became a house girl. She missed school most of the time looking after a baby of that family while the other children are going to school. She went hungry many times so she began wandering around homes to find food, and she looked like a street child with no future. It happened that some one went to tell her grandmother about what is happening with her grand daughter. Surprisingly this old lady visited the family where Neema was staying and it was a school day expecting that Neema would be at school but she found the opposite: she was carrying this woman’s baby and had gone to the neighbours to find something to eat.
When this old lady spoke to the woman who was looking after Neema she did not tell the truth, instead she complained that Neema does not like school, she enjoys carrying the baby and she is not interested in school. Neema’s grandmother took her granddaughter with her back and she stayed almost two months without knowing really what to do. One of church leaders knew about Bethany so he suggested to this lady if she was willing to come to Bethany and ask if they could help her with Neema, provided she is getting older, she has no body else prepared to help her in any way in the long term. Otherwise Neema would only stay with her grandmother, no education, no future and no body knows how long this grandmothers has got to live.
This lady appeared at Bethany on the 29/12/2008 with Neema and with a copy of the minutes from the villagers meeting  who proved Neema to be an orphan and vulnerable and that she desperately needed help from the best place like Bethany! On the 30^th December 2008, Neema officially joined the Bethany family. She is pleasant girl, smiles most of the time, and she has coped ok within the Bethany family.

Report By Eliada Bujiku ( Tanzanian team member)