40 Days of Prayer
Hands at Work
Meet Mwete

Raising a large family isn’t easy but Mama Safi isn’t alone in caring for Mwete. He has a bigger family of support at the Care Point, with the Care Workers and the other children.

Meet Mwete

Home-Based Care

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Enduring Hardships at a Young Age (MOZ)

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Maseo is ten years old. She lives with four siblings in Nhembia, Mozambique; the eldest is her sixteen-year-old brother. Maseo watched her parents die: her father in 2005 and her mother in 2006, after suffering long illnesses. This was too much for the young girl to handle and, shortly after their deaths, Maseo ran away from school and home to a neighboring town, selling sugar in the market.

Volunteers from Rubatano Home-Based Care, Hands at Work’s partner in Mozambique, had been helping the young children care for their sick parents. When the parents died, no relatives were available to live with the children, so they lived alone, and Rubatano’s home-based care volunteers watched over them. When Maseo ran away, the home-based care volunteers went to Beira to bring her home. The young girl, unable to cope with life without her parents, ran away a second time. Again the volunteers went to find her and this time she stayed in Nhembia.

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A Chain of Giving (ZAM)

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Fifty-two-year-old Lorraine began volunteering in the Shalom community organisation of Kabwe, Zambia in 2003. The divorced woman’s children were grown and moved out of her home when she became a volunteer and she showered all of her motherly love and care onto the patients and vulnerable children she dedicated herself to visiting.

In 2007, Lorraine became ill and tests revealed that she was HIV positive. This former volunteer of the home-based care suddenly became a patient, who with the help of her fellow volunteers began taking medication that would keep her alive. Today, Lorraine continues to battle her illness, but her active devotion as a volunteer has not ceased. Though unable to visit children and patients like she used to, Lorraine has taken two orphaned children into her own home to provide them a place to live safely and be cared for lovingly.

Lorraine’s story is one of a chain of giving: Lorraine receives as a patient of the HBC, but also continues to give, sewing into the lives of two young children.

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When Hope Comes (ZIM)

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In Mutare, Zimbabwe, there is much need for hope. But in a country where the money has become valueless and schools and hospitals are closing daily, it is hard to imagine an avenue by which hope might enter.

A partially blind sixty-five-year old grandmother stays in her one-room house in Sakubva, the poorest area in Mutare, with fourteen orphaned children. Most of these are the children of her five children who have passed away, unable to receive medical treatment in the ever-diminishing healthcare system. Though the children have found refuge and a roof over their heads with the grandmother, finding food is a daily battle

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A New Level of Love and Devotion (DRC)

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An orphaned child isn’t an easy child to care for. Extended family members seldom expect the challenges that accompany the arrival of such a child. When Grace’s parents died before she even began school, she and her twin brother were taken in by their aunt and uncle, who struggled to care for the children and needed support.

Esperance Home-Based Care sent local volunteers to help care for the children, inviting them to attend the free community school and providing them with a meal each day. Then 6-year-old Grace became a patient in the home-based care when she suffered a serious burn on her leg. For three weeks, the volunteers paid special attention to Grace to ensure that her injury was treated and healed properly. Her uncle and aunt, still struggling to know how to care for these new children, were overwhelmed by the commitment of the volunteers and the attention they paid to this one tiny girl.

A Day in the Field (SWZ)

  

Lize-Marie Theron is a Human Resources Officer with Hands at Work in South Africa.

Nomsa Lukhele is the community-based organisation leader for the Asondle Sive Bomake Home-Based Care in Swaziland, which is a partner organisation with Hands at Work. She has a stall of 190 chickens and another with many chicks to sustain her family, the volunteers and the patients. Due to the mountains and large distances between homes, some of Nomsa’s grandchildren are walking one hour each day to get to school.

Jon, an Australian volunteer, and I got lost a couple of times on our way to Kaphunga in Swaziland. We were driving from South Africa to pick up one of our volunteers, Lacey, after she had assisted the project there for three weeks. Getting lost was a hidden blessing as we drove around for more than an hour trying to find our way through the mountains and over the hills of this very rural community. During the drive I noticed the small amount of people that we came across along the road and I remember thinking to myself, there aren’t many people here. The project must be small. But on our way to visit a 22 year old patient in her Gogo’s (Grandma’s) homestead, I asked Nomsa how many people we are serving in Kaphunga. I expected her to say 30 orphans and a few patients. Nomsa turned to me and, pointing at Lacey, said, “Ask her to tell you. She knows…” And then Lacey explained, “Nomsa and her 30 volunteers serve 1,300 orphans.” I was stunned as I scanned the mountains, bushes and small dirt roads everywhere. Deep down and all around in these green mountains and behind bushes, God’s eyes can see the wear-and-tear from the rain of every small mud hut. And He is leading us to those that no one sees or knows about.

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A Chance at Life (MOZ)

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Laura Eliason, from Canada, and Dara Hillstrom, from the US, are nurses who have been volunteering with Rubatano Home-Based Care in Mozambique since May 2008.

While doing Home-Based Care a couple weeks ago we walked upon a visit where there was a small child who was VERY malnourished. I had never seen a child in this state before. I was with a volunteer who speaks no English so I struggled to communicate in this situation. Despite that, I knew in my heart that I could not leave this child in the state she was in. The mother’s eyes were desperate and shamed. Not knowing what to do exactly I called one of the nurses from the baby clinic at Maforga Mission. With her advisement I did all I could to talk to the volunteers and family about bringing the baby immediately to the hospital. After some planning and discussion, we were able to take the Vovo (grandmother in Shona, the local language) and baby Lucia to the hospital. Thankfully, because of the great relationship between Rubatano and the government hospital, we were able to see the nurse immediately and they admitted the baby.

A week later we returned to visit Lucia. She was a different baby. The previously listless, lethargic child now sat by herself, without crying, with a twinkle in her eye. She was to be discharged later that day. From the hospital, we advised the Vovo to bring Lucia to the baby clinic at Maforga. The wonderful nurses at Maforga have now admitted her to stay at the mission and continue to monitor her nutritional intake and status.

In meeting this child it was clear to me that God has hopes and dreams for this young heart. He was allowing her to live far longer than I would have thought her little body could hang on. I believe she has a role and a part to play in enlarging His kingdom and through Rubatano’s HBC visits they’ve given Lucia a chance at life. A chance she may not have otherwise had.

Hope & Heartbreak (SWZ)

Lacey Shurmer is a volunteer from Calgary, Canada. She has been with Hands at Work since February this year.

I was recently in Kaphunga, Swaziland for three weeks to build capacity into the office administrator of Asondle Sive Bomake Home Based Care. It has been five days since my return and part of me is still unable to comprehend all that has happened. Looking back over my journal entries, I see that each experience falls into one of two categories: hope or heartbreak. It is impossible to rank the significance of either of these feelings. Which should I tell about first? Hope or heartbreak, hope or heartbreak....

Hope: November 5th: This morning Nomsa Lukhele, the woman in her late sixties with whom I am staying and who started the Swaziland project and coordinates the Home Based Care, came and got me for breakfast. She said that some of the volunteers had already arrived for the HBC meeting. The volunteers were so cute, all bundled up in their blankets and jackets because it was plus 8 and they were freezing!

As the meeting started, one of the ladies began singing and as I watched them I choked back tears.These ladies are so beautiful and I can’t imagine the pride God has in them. Three of the ladies are easily as old as my grandmother and use canes, yet they walk extreme and mountainous distances, carrying food parcels and loving the orphans like Jesus would have—using the little that they have to take care of children that aren’t theirs. I was humbled to be with them.

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Watch us online this week! (SA) (MOZ)

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The TV broadcast Living Truth recorded stories of the work that we are doing in South Africa and aired it across Canada and the States this past Sunday. If you were unable to watch it you can view it online for this week only. Click here to watch stories from South Africa, Mozambique and Malawi of hope and need and learn more about Hands at Work along the way.

Masoyi Home-Based Care Survey (SA)

A Grannie works in the community garden at a Care Center in Masoyi, South Africa.With an estimated 5.5 million people living with HIV in South Africa, the AIDS epidemic is creating large numbers of children growing up without adult protection, nurturing, or financial support. Of South Africa’s 18 million children, nearly 21% (about 3.8 million children) have lost one or both parents.

Despite the magnitude and dire consequences of the growing number of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) in South Africa and elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa, there is insufficient documentation of the strategies deployed to improve the well-being of these children.

To fill these knowledge gaps, the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief commissioned Khulisa Management Services of Johannesburg, South Africa, to research and write case studies of 32 OVC programmes in South Africa that receive emergency plan funding.

Hands at Work’s Masoyi Home-Based Care project serves Masoyi, consisting of six villages in Mpumalanga Province. Here is the case study of what we do and how we do it.

Premier Home Based Care Award (MOZ)

Hands at Work’s Rubatano Home Based Care in Mozambique received government accolades for 2008 as the premier Home Based Care in Manica province, which was recognized for national best practice for community outreach.

An immobile patient in Mozambique being taken from the deep bush  up a small path to the main road on bicycle by volunteers who will send him to the nearest clinic.

De-Worming

In a single health campaign this June and July, 2900 orphaned and vulnerable children were successfully treated for worms in South Africa. 

Hands at Work is expanding to reach 100,000 orphaned and vulnerable children by 2010 with at least 3 services: Food Security, Education, and Basic Health.

Basic Health is an enormous category encompassing activities from wound care to rebuilding roofs on houses. But de-worming is a backbone Basic Health activity. It's not a sexy topic, and few of us understand the suffering of millions of African children with bellies full of worms. The following article should shed some light on the issue.

WHO De-worming at a glance

Read a personal account of one of the day's events
Jean Aimee Gifford, a volunteer with Hands at Work and nurse from the US: At the End of the Day

Lindy loved to go to school

Lindy and her brother outside their home in Likasi, Congo.In a village called Chitulu, in Democratic Republic of Congo, on a home-based care visit one day, my wife and I met a little girl named Lindy. She is five years old. She has dark, mourning eyes, and wispy little legs that poke out beneath her skirt. She is HIV-positive. No one seems to know where their father is, and their very sick mother died shortly after Lindy’s birth. She has a seven-year old brother who is healthy. The kids live now with their grandparents.


The grandfather is very old and works each day farming in their field outside town. He loves his grandchildren very much, and when Lindy began getting sick, he carried her on his back to the local clinic. The grandmother is completely blind. She sits on a soft chair in the middle of their house smiling with her eyes wide open: creamy white moons leaking slow drips onto her cheeks.
This is a broken family, but together somehow they are strong. The grandmother calls out to Lindy: “Lindy, is the door open?” or “Lindy, is it raining outside?” The little girl is her grandmother’s eyes. The grandfather relies heavily on his disabled wife for the emotional encouragement to keep working in his old age. Recently the grandmother became very ill, and it seemed for a while that she might not live. His old wife’s illness almost killed the grandfather.

The grandmother told us Lindy loved to go to school, that even though she was too young and was sick, she constantly whined and begged her grandparents to go to school.

A Church Partner Working in Luanshya, Zambia

Dauna%20Chanca%20Girl%20-%20thumb.jpgIn March, long-time Hands at Work in Africa partner Westside King’s Church sent a team of congregation members to work with the Hands at Work Luanshya Service Centre supporting the launch of a new home-based care (HBC) organization in the community of Mulenga.

Below is the team’s report of their activities training HBC volunteers, mentoring youth, and generally participating in Zambian life.