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

Thuthukani (SA)

Louise Carroll, a 25-year-old teacher from Saskatoon in Saskatchewan, Canada, arrived in South Africa in mid-January 2009 to assist in education programs for six months. She attends Lakeview Free Methodist Church in Saskatoon.

After just two days in South Africa, still jet legged and groggy, I made my first venture into the communities surrounding the picturesque Mount Legogote. Meighan, another recently arrived Canadian volunteer, snapped pictures furiously as our heavily laden vehicle made its way through the winding dirt roads of rural Mpumalanga. Huts and people sprang up unexpectedly between lush mango trees sagging under the burden of their ripening fruit; every person and plant asserting her place in the majestic scene.

Upon entering the community of Daantjie, we encountered a sea of uniform clad children returning home from school. Somehow Kristal, a long-term volunteer, avoided hitting any of them while simultaneously weaving her way up hills, each one more treacherous and impassible than the last. Finally we rounded a corner and discovered the Home-Based Care center Mandlesive – which Vusi, the logistics coordinator for Hands at Work, translated for me to mean The Power of the Nation. Here we found a large group of community volunteers who cheerfully greeted us and helped unload the food parcels that would be distributed to the children coming later that afternoon.I had the privilege of trying out my 3 words of SiSwati which inspired uproarious laughter. At least if they did not serve their intended purpose: to greet, I still got good mileage out of them.

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.

Worship in the Slums of Nigeria

To be compassionate in the slums of Lagos, Nigeria, a city of 17 million people, a rare combination of characteristics is required. The harsh bargaining environment spills over with vulnerable lives, for which there is little caring. The tension between the Muslim and Christian faiths creates an atmosphere in which only the strongest and the fittest survive. What results is an apprehension, even by the church, to associate with the weak.

RexAjenifuja was born into a Muslim family. On the night of his birth, Rex’s mother went into labor and could not make it to her hospital; through a series of events, she gave birth in a Christian hospital. She foresaw the implications of this coincidence and released Rex to be a Christian, saying, “This will be a Christian boy.”

In 2006, Hands at Work began to move into Nigeria, connecting with the largest Christian denomination. When the head of the denomination discovered Hands at Work’s desire to enter Nigeria to aid the poorest of the poor and relieve the orphaned, widowed, and the dying, he knew just who to direct them to.

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.

Starting with What We Have (ZAM)

This is the story of James from Mulenga, Zambia told by him - a partner and servant to the poor and vulnerable in his community.

After hearing George Snyman's speech at Kaniki Bible School in Ndola in December 2003, I was moved with a strong conviction to do something about the weak in society. My wife, Sukai and I started praying and planning about this. Our prayer was that the lord give us excess money so that we start a feeding programme for little ones – orphans. Even after praying from December 2003 to July 2004, we could not even afford to buy plates and pots for cooking.

Then one day in July, my wife just said to me, ‘let’s just start this even without the new plates and pots’. I asked ‘how?’ she said, ‘we start with the pots and plates that we use in our home.’

This marked the beginning and indeed confirmed that God uses what we have in our hands as demonstrated in the following scriptures Matt 15:32-39, 1 Kings 17:7-16 and Exodus 4:2

Gods hand was upon us that even the fears of failure that we had melted away because his provisions increased through our business. Twenty kids were privileged to have at least a meal everyday and this brought great joy in our hearts.

Benefit Concert (US)

Hands At Work partner, World In View, is holding a benefit concert in on Saturday, November 15th in Dallas, TX to raise money for our Mozambique projects. This will be an amazing night of worship led by emerging gospel artist, Douglas Feil. Douglas Feil has performed in concert, at the Grammies and on numerous late night shows with artist such as U2 and Kirk Franklin. Admission and parking are free, and an offering will be received at the event. If you are in the DFW area, please go and show your support! For more details visit: Benefit Concert. 

UK College Impacting Community Schools (ZAM)

Halesowen College Child Care Students’ Project for Community Schools in Zambia

Hands UK Chairman, Nick Lawrence, and his wife, Heather, who has been training community school teachers in Zambia for the last 4 years, recently attended a presentation evening at Halesowen College. During the academic year 2007-08, students in the Child Care & Education department created a wide range of educational resources to be sent to the community schools we support in Zambia and also put on several fundraising events. The picture shows Nick & Heather receiving a cheque for GBP 1,305.78 from Diane McCathie, Student Support Director at the College.

We are sincerely grateful to all the students for their hard work and, in particular, to Gill Pendry for co-ordinating the project. The College will be undertaking another project during the 2008-09 academic year as we continue to build on this excellent partnership.

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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.

Reaching the Poorest of the Poor (MOZ)

On a bare patch of dirt in the bush outskirts of the community I met Jaos (9) and Luisa (7):  a brother and sister that lived under a tarp tied to a tree. Their mother died last year and their father was in an accident and can't use his arm or earn income. In April the family’s few clothes, blankets and cooking pots were stolen from beneath the open tarp, and church volunteers found the kids shivering in the cold winter evening.

Jaos and Luisa pass entire days without a meal. The only food they get is by begging from other already poor neighbors or by offering to pound (by hand) a neighbor’s corn kernels into flour for a fee of a handful of the flour. Neither of them is in school. They can’t afford exercise books or pens. But without food, they couldn’t concentrate enough to learn anyway.

The volunteers who discovered the family returned the next day to build a small single room with grass walls to at least shelter the wind. When I met them, the kids hadn’t eaten in a day. They had a single set of clothes: Luisa’s dress and Jaos’ jean jacket, so crusty they would stand on their own.

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.

Expansion into Zimbabwe

As part of the drive to reach three new countries by 2010, a Hands at Work team visited eastern Zimbabwe in July. Two rural villages were targeted as immediate expansion sites.

This grandmother is 75% blind, she doesn't work but earns a little  income by renting out her second room. Five of her seven children have passed away leaving her with 16 grandchildren that she now stays with in this one room. She has also taken in one other orphan from the neighborhood. These are the lives we want to touch by beginning work in Zimbabwe.

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

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2009 Int'l Conference

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March 26th to 29th, 2009

Our International Conference is a time when we gather together in one place with our Church and Organisation Partners, African Service Centers, and International Country Offices to fellowship, build relationships, hear about the work being done and set the tone and work plans for the upcoming year. Mark this time down in your calendars to be with us.

Details to follow.

Church Leaders in SA Complete Training

56 South African church leaders completed a six-week Hands at Work training program on July 9 on the church’s role in fighting HIV/AIDS and caring for widows, orphans and the dying.

Situated in the province of Mpumalanga and bounded by Kruger Park to the east, the local municipality of Bushbuckridge is a neglected area that is suffering under the crippling weight of poverty, social disintegration, and HIV and AIDS. 

With the mandate to capacitate locals to care for the poorest of the poor in their communities, Hands at Work has committed itself to helping start up four new home-based cares and multi-care centres in the Bushbuckridge area.  These new efforts are concentrated in the north-east corner of Bushbuckridge; encompassing approximately twenty villages in a 280 square kilometre area.  The residents have very little access to government health and social services.  The first step towards starting up these home-based cares is to mobilize the pastors and Christian leaders in the community to begin actively caring for the poor, sick, dying, and orphaned within their community.