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Granny's House: The home away from home

After-school program for inner-city children

David Kennedy

Consolee Mbabazi, 11, Deborah Muberargo, 8, Terry Mwizerwa, 6, and Angie Azzanni, program coordinator at Granny's House Ministries pose for a portrait on Sunday, November 1, 2009 in Columbia, Mo. Granny's House provides after-school programs for inner city children.

By Stephanie Smith

November 12, 2009 | 12:00 a.m. CST

*CORRECTION: In the Granny's House profile, one stepping-stone was mislabeled. It should have read Princess Academy.

Eight years in Columbia

Pastel steppingstones pave the way to Granny’s House on Trinity Place. The words “Purity,” “Jesus” and “Honor” appear in sidewalk chalk below maple leaves. One all-pink stepping-stone reads “Princess Academy,”* one of nine after-school programs aimed at providing a safe, Christian place for between 40 and 60 inner-city youth each day, supervised by staff and four to eight volunteers. Granny’s House, as founder and director Pam Ingram puts it, “is a place to smear the love on ’em.”
Granny’s House is like a family, but not a primary home. A door-to-door prayer team eight years ago inspired a collective group to better the lives of inner-city youth. The three staff members raise their own salaries, if they take anything at all from the $100,000 budget. Everything is for the children, whose pictures adorn the white walls.
On the first-floor walls, each child’s name and its Christian translation appear: Deltarris: “son of the strong man — courageous,” Rae’Quan: “wise.” In the middle is “Isaiah 43:1: I have called you by name, you are mine.”
Around 12 churches provide volunteers or fundraisers. “All different denominations help,” says program coordinator Angie Azzanni. Christian Fellowship gives gift cards for new back-to-school shoes, First Baptist provides for many of our church moms. The Crossing hosts golf tournaments and donates backpacks. "We want to teach the kids values and manners."
Granny’s House also banishes stereotypes that influence public perception.
“When people hear inner city, they’re put off — they think crime, juveniles, ADHD, anger management. They expect these hardened kids,” Azzanni says. “Then they come here and are surprised. I’m always like, are you kidding me? You can get a hug every five seconds here if you want it,” she chuckles.
Between 4 and 5:30 p.m. on weekdays, kitchen coordinator Granny Vance Weddle heats and serves food. Following that, kids learn how to use scripture in everyday life. But a lot of the ministry happens outside the classroom.
One of these programs is the Spirit Riders. After practicing three nights a week at a farm 25 minutes away, the children successfully broke in horses and got them adopted. “Three of our girls just came back from a mustang competition,” Azzanni says. “We were the only kids from the inner city — the only black kids,” she says.
For kids who come from public housing, the exposure to horses, and farmland and travel were new experiences. “When we got to the hotel, our 10-year-old got worried when she realized she forgot to bring a towel,” Azzanni says. “She’d never been to a hotel before.”
It’s a place where everything is tailored to the kids, even if, that leads to some inexplicable situations at times. Last year, a back-to-school fad brought requests from all the older kids for children’s backpacks. “People would ask, and I’d have to tell them, ‘Yes, I know it says he’s 16 and wants a Sponge Bob backpack,’” Azzanni says and laughs. Anything for the kids.

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