Why Kulea Villages Sometimes Has to Say "Not Yet"
- Amy Carrier (Sponsorship Director)
- 1 day ago
- 6 min read
One of the things I love most about my work is getting to spend time with newborn babies.
When I’m not working with donors, writing sponsor letters, or helping support the ministry of Kulea Villages, I’m a newborn hearing screener. All of my shifts are spent with newborn babies, proud parents, and those quiet little moments when a family is just getting to know their baby.
I really do love it. There’s something about being around newborns that makes everything else feel a little farther away for a while.
Most of the families I meet as a screener don’t have much to worry about. Their biggest question is usually whether their baby will pass the hearing screen. If they need help with feeding, there’s a lactation consultant nearby. If a baby needs a little extra nourishment, there’s donor milk or formula close by. It is so normal that it is easy not to think much about it.
From Newborn Hearing Screening to Helping Babies in Tanzania
Then I go home, open my Kulea Villages messages, and step into a completely different world. Sometimes there are photos of smiling children and messages full of gratitude from our social workers. Other times, I read stories like Raiyan’s.
When Raiyan was referred to our Maisha Matters program, he was almost four months old and weighed only 2.09 kilograms (4.6 pounds). He was suffering from severe malnutrition. His mother was there. She loved him. She was doing what she could. But poverty had taken away something love alone could not replace.
That part sits with me more than I know how to say.
The mothers I meet as a screener love their babies. Raiyan’s mother loves hers. A mother’s love does not change because of where she is born. Her resources do.
That may be the greatest contrast between the two worlds I live in each day. One is filled with abundance. The other is filled with impossible choices.
Why Formula Means Hope
For many of the babies Kulea Villages serves, formula is not just nutrition. It is the bridge between crisis and hope.
A single can of formula costs about a month’s wages for many of the families we serve. A newborn baby needs two cans every week, and that number will increase with growth. The math simply does not work for a family already struggling to survive.
When Kulea Villages welcomes a baby into our Maisha Matters program, we are not simply providing formula. We are making a promise.
We are promising to nourish that baby during the most vulnerable year of life while walking beside the family as they learn, grow, and move toward providing for themselves. We invest not only in the child but in the caregiver, helping restore dignity, build income, and replace despair with hope.
Every baby we enroll is a promise we must be ready to keep. Every caregiver who comes to us is trusting Kulea Villages. Every donor who gives is entrusting us with their generosity.
Promises matter.
The Weight of Saying “Not Yet”
Most people think compassion means saying yes whenever there is a need. Working at Kulea Villages has taught me something different. Real compassion sometimes asks a harder question.
Can we faithfully keep the promise we are about to make?
That question carries a weight most people never see. Every year, as funding for Maisha Matters becomes tight, Deborah has to wrestle with one of the hardest decisions a ministry leader can make.
Can we continue enrolling babies, or do we have to wait?
Last year, in the middle of that season, she sent me a message that has stayed with me ever since.
“We have three critical cases coming in—all three, mom has died and babies are newborn. I ‘get’ to decide when we will invite them to the office to see the baby, hear their story, etc. Then decide yes or no. We still need to decrease our enrollment, so this is just hard!!”
That word.
“Get.”
Those quotation marks said everything.
We are entering that time again when hard decisions have to be made, and I keep coming back to God’s faithfulness for the babies who come to us in need.
Over the years, I’ve watched Deborah carry that burden. She never questions God’s faithfulness. She simply feels the weight of every promise Kulea Villages has made — every baby already enrolled, every caregiver hoping we will say yes, and every donor who has entrusted us with a gift to use wisely.
That is a heavy responsibility to carry.
Sometimes stewardship means saying two words that break your heart. “Not yet.”
Not because the need is not real. Not because that baby is not precious. But because every baby we have already welcomed into Maisha Matters deserves for us to faithfully keep the promise we have already made.
I've never been the one sitting across the desk delivering those words. And I can't imagine what it must feel like to leave our office in tears still wondering how you're going to feed your baby.
When God Provides Through Faithful Donors
And while Deborah carries that responsibility, I often find myself remembering all the other times we have stood in this very place, wondering how God would provide…
and then watching Him do exactly that.
Again and again, God has provided through the generosity of people who may never meet these babies. Last year’s formula fundraiser was one of those moments.
Because of that generosity, our empty stockroom became full again. There was enough formula to reopen enrollment, enough to continue serving the babies already in our care, and enough remaining to place another order before supplies would run low.
My son happened to be in Tanzania when that shipment arrived. He helped Kulea Villages staff carry the boxes upstairs into our storeroom. Later he told me how grateful everyone was. There was excitement, joy and so much relief at Kulea Villages.
Not because shelves were full. Because hope was.
That is what those shelves meant: peace for the staff, peace for Deborah, and peace for caregivers walking through our doors wondering if anyone could help. Peace because the answer could once again be…
“Yes.”
Why Every Baby Is a Promise
Since then, we've been able to welcome many more babies into Maisha Matters. Each one is another promise that we are grateful to be able to keep.
I do not know why one baby begins life surrounded by every resource imaginable while another’s future depends on something as ordinary as a can of infant formula.
I do not know why one mother leaves the hospital with every support she needs while another desperately loves her baby but cannot provide what poverty has taken away.
Those are questions I ask God sometimes.
What I do know is this: every time Kulea Villages says “yes” to a baby, we are making a promise. Sometimes that means we have to say “not yet” until we know we can faithfully keep it. I still do not like those words. But I have learned that “not yet” is often where we get to watch God write the next chapter.
My prayer is that one day “not yet” becomes less and less a part of our story. Not because the need disappears, but because faithful people continue becoming part of God’s answer.
Because every time someone chooses to invest in Maisha Matters, they are doing far more than providing formula. They are making it possible for the next caregiver who walks through our doors carrying a tiny baby to hear the answer we long to give:
“Yes.”
Continue the Story
Every "yes" begins with a promise. Learn how Kulea Villages’ Maisha Matters program helps malnourished babies in Tanzania, or join us in providing life-saving formula for the next baby who comes through our doors.
About Amy
Amy Carrier serves as Executive Secretary and Sponsorship Coordinator for Kulea Villages. She lives in Texas, where she also works as a newborn hearing screener. Amy is the mother of two sons and enjoys horses, animals, babies, and sharing stories of God's work through Kulea Villages.
Kulea Villages is a U.S.-registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in partnership with Kulea Villages entities in Tanzania and Kenya. Rather than dramatic rescues, their child protection model focuses on stabilizing families through a process that typically lasts 1-2 years, prioritizing education, nutrition, and family income generation through a business. Join our email list for new blog alerts. We appreciate your support.
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