Turning Rocks Into An Education





House of Loveness founder Betsy Blankenbaker meeting Primrose (November 2008)

When I first met Primrose, she stared me down. She was only three years old but her gaze pierced my soul. She didn’t smile.

Primrose was ‘living’ in the children’s ward of a hospital in Zimbabwe but she wasn’t sick. She was abandoned, or a dumped baby, as they call them in Zim.  There was no room in the nearby orphanages so Prim lived with six other dumbed babies in two cribs at the hospital.  The week before there had been ten babies sharing the cribs but four of them died.  I had arrived in Zimbabwe to adopt one of those babies, a five week old infant named Loveness. I buried her instead.

In a country where a child under the age of five has about the same chance of living as dying, I didn’t want to see Primrose and the other dumped babies left at the hospital.  What kind of childhood is this?



With the help of friends and family, I founded House of Loveness, an NGO to provide emergency and longterm care for at-risk children in Zimbabwe.  The children now live in a private home and are looked after by a wonderful GoGo (grandmother).

In 2010 we gave the seed money to open a local school that educates thirty-six children.  

This Thanksgiving, House of Loveness is hosting a Service and Safari Retreat.  The trip is sold-out but there are more opportunities to join us in Zimbabwe in 2014 with a tax-deductible donation to our current fundraiser on IndieGoGo.
Primrose 2013

It’s been five years since my first trip to Zimbabwe. I am so grateful to all the wonderful helpers along the way who support House of Loveness.  Please come visit us!

The future of Zimbabwe looks brighter through the eyes of these children.

Tariro and Primrose (Jan. 2013)

                               Turning Stones Into Hearts 

Sculptor Leofold Ndemera

Local Zimbabwean sculptor Leofold Ndemera crafts beautiful hearts out of local stones.  Your purchase of a stone heart made with love in Zimbabwe will fund the education and dreams of these remarkable children.  


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