Our Children

When Amara arrived at Wings of Love in the rainy season of 2018, she was five years old. She had lost her grandmother — the only family she had known — and in the weeks that followed she had stopped speaking almost entirely. She would sit in the corner of the room, watching the other children, her eyes carrying a sadness no small child should know.

Our caregivers gave her the one thing she needed most: patience. No one pressured her to talk. They read to her each night, sat beside her at meals, and let her know with every small gesture that she was not going to be left again.

After three months, Amara whispered her first word at the home. It was the name of one of our older girls, who had been braiding her hair each morning. From that word came others, and from those words came a hunger for stories. She learned to read at six, and by seven she was reading to the younger children at bedtime.

Today Amara is nine. She is the top reader in her class and has started writing her own short stories — usually about birds. She wants to be a teacher when she grows up. "I want to read to children who are quiet," she told us, "so they know someone is listening."

Blessing was eight when he came to Wings of Love in 2016. Both of his parents had passed within a year of each other, and he had spent time living with different relatives who could not afford to keep him. By the time he reached us, he was angry — at the world, at adults, at a life that had taken everything from him before he was old enough to understand it.

The first months were hard. Blessing fought with other children, broke rules, and pushed away anyone who tried to get close. But our house father, Joseph, saw something in him. Joseph spent extra time with Blessing, never raising his voice, never giving up on him. He also handed Blessing a football.

It turned out Blessing was a natural. On the field, the anger channeled into something powerful. He was fast, he was strategic, and he learned to lead. For the first time, other children looked up to him for something other than trouble.

Today Blessing is twelve and captains the school football team. He still has hard days, but he has learned that strength is not about pushing people away — it is about pulling a team together. He dreams of playing professionally and one day coaching younger children at Wings of Love.

Esther was four when she arrived at Wings of Love in 2022. She was severely malnourished, small for her age, and frightened of loud sounds. A neighbor had brought her after finding her alone in a home with no adults for several days. She weighed less than a three-year-old should.

Our first priority was her health. We worked with a local clinic to build a nutrition plan, and our cooks prepared small, frequent meals to help her body recover gently. Within two months, Esther had gained weight, and within four months she was running.

The fear took longer to fade. For the first year, Esther would flinch at sudden noises and clung to her caregiver at night. But slowly, through the rhythm of daily life at the home — meals together, school, play, bedtime songs — she began to trust that she was safe.

Today Esther is seven. She is one of the loudest singers in our children's choir, has an infectious laugh, and runs everywhere she goes. Her caregiver says the girl who arrived silent and still is now the one who wakes the whole house every morning with her singing.

David was seven when he arrived in 2015, after his mother could no longer care for him following a long illness. He was a quiet, observant boy who rarely caused trouble and spent long stretches watching how things worked — the water tap, the kitchen stove, the old radio in the common room.

One of our volunteers, an electrician visiting from abroad, noticed David following him one afternoon as he repaired a light fixture. The volunteer handed him a screwdriver and showed him which wire went where. David was hooked. From that day, he became the unofficial handyman of the home.

As David grew, so did his skill. At ten, he helped install our first solar panel. At twelve, he wired the new dormitory block. Our staff found a mentor at a local technical college who agreed to guide David on weekends, and he began devouring every book on electricity and circuits he could find.

Today David is fourteen. He maintains the home's solar system and helps troubleshoot electrical issues across the property. He is top of his science class and has his sights set on university to study electrical engineering. "I want to bring power to places that have none," he says. He already has.