A new life for Anastasia

When she first met her, Anneke remembers a tiny, listless child, staring at the ceiling. Her name was “Nisha” meaning "night" or “darkness”.

Nisha’s age was recorded as being eight or nine years old, though her tiny, malnourished body was comfortably fitting the clothes from a one to two-year-old.

Nisha’s Cerebral Palsy means that she has trouble eating normally. A lack of specialist knowledge and support to address this in Samoa has meant she’s suffered malnutrition. Anneke (a qualified speech and language therapist) trialed feeding her pureed, liquid meals lying down, and saw a huge improvement in her health and vitality.

During the course of her 5-month sabbatical volunteering with orphaned babies and children at Victim Support in Apia, Samoa, Anneke helped care for Nisha and witnessed her transition from being lifeless and non-responsive, into a smiling, alert young girl.

However, Nisha’s severe disabilities (both cognitive and physical) meant that while other babies and children would leave the center every week with their new adoptive families, Nisha was left behind in the ‘too hard’ basket.

By the end of her 5 months’ stay in Samoa, Anneke’s heart had been captured, and she knew that somehow she was going to make a way for Nisha to be cared for and loved everyday.

12 months (and many conversations later), Anneke has formally adopted Nisha, who now has New Zealand citizenship. She has renamed her “Anastasia Olanatia” which loosely translates to “hidden life, resurrected.”

From 8 November 2016, Anneke and Anastasia will begin their life together in New Zealand. As a solo mother of a Samoan child with multiple disabilities, there will be many challenges for Anneke amongst the joy!

Anastasia will celebrate her tenth birthday on Saturday 26 November, 2016. The prognosis for Anastasia’s development is unclear, but at this stage she is unlikely to ever walk or communicate in spoken language.

I know there are many of us – friends and family – that would love to help but for various reasons and being in different cities mean it’s difficult to know how to! Here is a way we can all pitch in - and any amount will make a big difference.

Your donation will help make Anastasia’s transition to life in New Zealand as caring and stress-free as possible, and help Anneke in this first year of being her Mum! Donations will help meet the cost of everyday living items, furniture such as change-tables, high-chair etc, and most importantly the ability to create memories and opportunities that allow Anastasia to experience life as normally as possible.

It would be great if we can raise enough funds to cover additional days of respite care and home help for Anneke over the next 12 months, because even Superwoman needs to recharge every now and then!

It's true that it "take a community to raise a child!" Thank you for your love and support for Anneke and Anastasia and for being part of this community.