We got wind of 3 women that are pregnant with “mingi” children.  This means that the 3 women are either pregnant out of wedlock or they got pregnant (as married women) without announcing their intention of becoming pregnant to the village Elders.  The village Elders will allow these women to carry these children full-term and then once the babes are born, they will take the children away and force the parents to leave the babe in a bush to be taken away in the night by wild animals or the babe will be left in a empty hut to die of starvation.  This is their normal practice.

Once we heard of these women, Lale went out to the tribe to ask the Elders and Mothers if we could take the Mothers off of the land so they can give birth away from the reach of the Elders.  Once the babes are born, our plan is to take the babes to safety.

Sadly, the Elders have denied our request to take the Mothers; this puts those children are great risk once they are born. We will be going back to Jinka and regroup to figure out how we can save these children.  This is a huge discouragement to us.