World Aid

 

Mother figure: Heidi Baker seems at home with youngsters she rescues from the streets of some of the world’s toughest environments. Photo irisglobal

 

 

Gathering: Making a difference in the life of one child, let alone hundreds, is the aim of American pastor Heidi Baker. Photo irisglobal.

Willing to go where there is need

American couple Heidi and Rolland Baker started a mission to help young orphans, prostitutes and displaced children in Mozambique.

The DVD Mama Heidi – The heroic story of Heidi and Rolland Baker is well worth watching.

It highlights the inspiring story of how the Bakers arrived in Mozambique in 1994, following the civil war there and how they successfully saved thousands of youngsters from the streets and from a rubbish dump – a stark setting of hopelessness. The Red Cross was not even safe and was often bombed in the African state.

In this account, Heidi Baker speaks openly about a young African man who promised to kill her when she arrived at the huge, city rubbish dump where he lived and worked.

“He said, ‘who is this white woman coming into my rubbish dump’,” Heidi Baker laughs.

Now the young man is part of her group of ‘saved’ youngsters who follow her around hugging and kissing her like a long-lost mother.

Heidi highlights the challenges she has faced while trying to help the children, like having enough clothing for them.

“We take as many children as we can each night to our home and my son tells me to slow down a bit in handing out his clothing because he has one t-shirt he is wearing and only one other left,” she says.

Heidi’s daughter calls her mother ‘crazy’ for God and for the work they do but when interviewed, the young woman is quite resigned to her mother’s commitment to help the children and prostitutes of Mozambique.

The Bakers had already completed aid stints in countries like Indonesia and China. But after hearing about the desolation of Mozambique, they decided to go there and work with the poorest of the poor.

By adopting a dilapidated orphanage that no one else wanted, they started to make a difference.

Now, there are several residential orphanages and schools, catering to around 700 children, with hundreds more cared for by numerous pastors.

The children had all kinds of diseases and even ate rats to survive.

Many suffer from aids with babies born with the virus. Life expectation for the infants was often no more than 23 months.

However, with love and care, the Bakers and their staff of doctors and nurses, have elongated the lives of many of these children.

The work of Heidi and Rolland Baker can be found at: www.irisglobal.org/