When Mary first walked into Ithemba the light in her eyes and the joy in her smile set her apart.  At five years old, she was outgoing, confident and trying to find her way in a brand new community and a brand new country.  Her little mind was like a sponge, soaking in new languages, new cultures and customs, new food, and new opportunity.

Mary and her family moved to Jeffrey’s Bay to find refuge and a new life after their previous home of Zimbabwe began to crumble.  According to Wikipedia, Zimbabwe’s current economic and food crisis described by some observers as the country’s worst humanitarian crisis since independence, has been attributed in varying degrees to the government’s price controls and land confiscations, the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and a drought affecting the entire region.  Life expectancy at birth for males in Zimbabwe is dramatically declined since 1990 from 60 to 42 years, among the lowest in the world.  The amount of time a Zimbabwean citizen is expected to live healthily from birth is 39 years.  Concurrently, the infant morality rate has climbed from 53 to 81 deaths per 1,000 live births in the same period.  As of 2009, 1.2 million Zimbabweans are living with HIV.

After taking refuge in South Africa, and settling in Jeffrey’s Bay, Mary’s father immediately enrolled her into our kindergarden programs at Ithemba and we immediately began to see that Mary was a very special child.  After being in South Africa for less than a year, Mary spoke her mother tongue, Shone, English, and two South African languages, Xhosa and Afrikaans…Mary was not only learning new languages, she was acting as a translator for us during our visits to Ithemba.  It was very quickly very easy to see that Mary had potential to do big things, and be a role model for many girls in the community.  Last year we were able to offer her a scholarship to a private school in Jeffrey’s Bay where she has the chance to be challenged, to grow, and to become a leader.  Mary is at the top of her class and she is determined to stay there.  Very day after school, she comes to Ithemba for tutoring and extra curricular activities.  She is loved by both her biological family and her family at Ithemba.  She is getting the best posible education and the best possible resources to succeed because people like you decided to be a part of her story…to be the hands and feet of Jesus in her life.  Mary now has the opportunity to grow and be loved – to become everything that God created her to be.  In the township in Jeffrey’s Bay, South Africa, thee are hundreds of children just like Mary.  Children desperate for love and care.  Children desperate to be set free from the bondage of poverty and as an organization, LUO is determined to give every one of those children a chance to thrive.

LUO is radically changing a generation of children in Jeffrey’s Bay, South Africa by intimately entwining in each child’s story.  Through nutritious food, Biblical programming, education tutoring, medical care and a whole lot of LOVE, we are providing these children HOPE for a future.

But we can DO MORE…Our current facility is over capacity- we need more space.  A new facility would allow us to drastically and holisticall impact the lives of 200 more children.

This is where you com in, we need YOUR HELP… Here are two different ways you can act right now:

1.  Make a gift toward LUO’s new facility and literally open the doors of love to 200 more children in Jeffrey’s Bay, South Africa.

2.  Give to LUO’s programming and immediately provide educational, spiritual and physical care to hundreds of amazing kids.