There is a book shelf in our living room with books past volunteers have left behind for others to read. One of the books is entitled 'an arrested heart' by Ray Haakonsen. (www.amazon.com/Arrested-Heart-Ray-Haakonsen/dp/1450079180/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1486919497&sr=8-3&keywords=an+arrested+heart) For those of you who don't know, Ray and his wife Sue Haakonsen are the people who set up Beautiful Gate Lesotho. They are also the people who my parents knew when they were living in Lesotho and therefore are the reason I am at BG volunteering today!
The book is about Rays life, it's an amazing story and one that is truly inspiring as well as heart breaking! In the book he also writes about BG and how it all started, I thought it would be good to write about BG's history so people know a little bit more about it.
It all started back when Ray and Sue were living in Lesotho. They were challenged by the number of little children hanging outside asking for money. Sue felt they should reach out to children in need as a result of the state the country was in at the time. They researched this further and came across a very sad situation in Maseru's main hospital. They found babies who had been abandoned at the hospital and left to live in a closet. The number of abandoned babies grew so they decided to set up a center for these children. After a lot of struggle, they finally were able to take the abandoned babies out of the hospital and into their care. What started off as one building then grew into the campus we have today. The campus is made up of 5 houses that the children live in, it also has an office and chapel. There are two houses for volunteers to live in, the long term volunteer house where I am living and the short term volunteer house. There is also a clinic on campus where both staff and children can go to, this is funded by a very wealthy business man who Ray met whilst playing golf. Apparently he wasn't the type that gave money to charities but after hearing about BG and how children have died in the past because they couldn't get medical treatment fast enough, he decided to fund BG's very own clinic on campus. BG also has a building that they rent out to a local school, they did originally have their own school but then couldn't find enough staff to run it. Fortunately a school near by had enough staff but no building, coincidence? So during the day 40 local school children, as well as BG's children go to school on campus.
That is a very short version of the story but it gives you an idea. BG is an amazing place and I'm learning to love it more and more each day, I'm so lucky to be living here with beautiful mountain views on my doorstep.
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