Make Your Mark: Mandy Sydo

She inherited an orphanage in Africa from her friend and is now providing care for children in her friend's memory.

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The Person: Mandy Sydo
The Cause: Welcome Home Ministries Africa

Uganda, Africa -- A former nurse and a Pastor's wife, Mandy Sydo was always willing to help others in need. But in 2003, when she was asked to take over an orphanage as a friend's dying wish, Mandy's willingness to help others quickly turned into a full-time commitment.

Mandy knew Jackie Hodgkins from church in the U.S. and knew that Jackie ran an orphanage, Welcome Home Ministries Africa, in Uganda. Mandy had always helped Jackie gather supplies for the children in the orphanage. So when Jackie returned to the U.S. for cancer treatment and knew she didn't have long to live , she asked Mandy to travel to the orphanage in Africa and check on things. After seeing the children in the orphanage, Mandy knew she had to continue Jackie's legacy.

In Uganda, many children are orphaned because their parents can't afford to feed and clothe them, women die during childbirth because of improper medical care, and children are born with potentially fatal diseases such as AIDS or Malaria. Welcome Home Ministries Africa accepts children from birth to 6 years old and houses between 60 and 65 children at a time.

Since Mandy has taken over, she works most of the year in Orange County, California raising money for the orphanage, organizing volunteers, and collecting supplies. She travels to Africa twice a year at her own expense. She has worked hard to make improvements to benefit the lives of the children, such as training staff properly in nursing and care giving, providing more activities for the children such as pre-school to stimulate their minds, and obtaining better medical care. But her main goal for the children is to try to get them back into their village by either going back to their family, or being adopted by another local Ugandan family.

The orphanage even helps Ugandan families with small business loans by giving them the means to take back abandoned children. If a child cannot be adopted locally, then the orphanage looks for a family in the U.S. to adopt the child. American Meadow Merrill was fortunate enough to adopt a child from Welcome Home Ministries Africa. In 2005, Meadow adopted Ruth, a deaf and disabled 1-year-old. Meadow has given Ruth hope and a chance at a future, just the way Mandy does for all the children at the orphanage.

To learn more or make a donation, please visit the Welcome Home Ministries Africa site.

-- Submitted by Meadow Merrill

 

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