Bringing Good News (MOZ)

Anita and Annabelle are two sisters living in Macadeira in Northern Mozambique. Their community literally sits on the highway 30 km north of the Beira corridor that runs straight into Zimbabwe. It’s a busy trucking route, which drives commercial sex work in the communities and intensifies the vulnerability of young women who live there. Anita and Annabelle are thankful to be able to attend a primary school in the community for now. But they know their dream of attending secondary school will bring real dangers. They’ll need to walk out of their community along the highway to another place to attend the school. They will face the pressures that all young vulnerable girls face in their community: to abandon the indulgence of school in favour of earning income to support their poor families. It’s a pressure too great for many young girls to bear, as evidenced by the incredible rates of HIV, pregnancy and school drop out in the area.

Hands at Work began working with local church and community leaders in Macadeira in 2011 by gathering the churches and demonstrating the heart of Christ to see His church united together in caring for the most vulnerable people in their community. To overcome their lack of material possessions, the churches are being trained to see the strength of combining resources and working across denominational lines. They are also being challenged to get deep into the lives of the poorest children, sharing their burdens and providing love, support and mentorship to address the enormous challenges they face daily. Change looks possible for the future.

 Recently, the community’s leaders announced the plan to start making bricks from scratch with the aim of building their own secondary school. That is very good news for hundreds of children like Anita and Annabelle.

No Longer Alone (SWA)

Six-year-old Mdeni Dlamini is a quiet boy who lives in Kaphunga, a remote and isolated community in the mountains of Swaziland. He stays with his 14-year-old cousin, Banele in a mud hut left by their grandmother. Their 25-yearold uncle stays in another hut on the same property. Neither child is in school.

Mdeni and Banele have no one to look after them. Banele’s parents have both died and Mdeni’s mother lives in the city of Manzini with his stepfather. The boys’ uncle, an orphan himself, is illiterate and does ad hoc jobs around the area when he can get them. But such work hardly brings in enough income to support the three. There is often no food in the house and water is scarce. The boys’ only source of water comes from a trickle of a dirty stream, likely to be infested with waterborne disease. The mud wall of the one-roomed hut has an enormous crack, and the unstable structure is threatening to fall apart completely.

The boys don’t have a bed, but sleep on the bare floor in this bitterly cold region. Mdeni tried living for a time with his mom and stepfather, but was treated badly and eventually returned to live in the rural village.

Hands at Work supports the local community- based organisation, Asondle Sive Bomake, working in the hills of Kaphunga. The community’s elderly women have banded together to bring the love of Christ to transform the most vulnerable children in the area. These women cross enormous distances on the mountainsides to identify and serve the area’s most vulnerable children, like Mdeni and Banele. Hands at Work supports them with mentoring, train-ing and finances to provide basic services. Maize seedlings and food supplements have helped to lighten the burden off Mdeni and Banele, giving them enough strength to start attending school in hope that an education will open doors for the future



Community Transformation (ZAM)

Susu is an extraordinarily poor and isolated community in central Lawrence and Sanday at work in a local church.Zambia. When Hands at Work field worker Lawrence Kunda began visiting Susu the community was in despair. Poverty was widespread and alcoholism was a way of life. Nearly everyone existed only by subsistence farming and couldn’t afford access to schools or a trip to see the doctor for sick children.

Local community member, Sanday, was in such a situation when Lawrence discovered him. Lawrence struck up a friendship and began mentoring Sanday, slowly discipling him over many months about the love and compassion of Christ. In 2009 Sanday realised his faith was leading him to start doing something for the vulnerable community around him.

"Welcome to Susu, your second home. We love you, feel free!"

Together, Lawrence and Sanday mobilised a team of other local volunteers and began equipping and mentoring them to care for orphaned and vulnerable children. Seeing the great need for education, Sanday and his volunteer team began a small community school under the shade of the trees. It was a huge success and inspired the community to begin making mud bricks in faith that they could build an entire school.

By 2011 a full care centre had begun to emerge: the school walls were complete; a new bore-hole, providing children with access to clean drinking water for the first time, had been drilled; and a cooking space was constructed to feed the most vulnerable children. Community members have watched the transformation in front of their eyes.

Sharon and her sister recieve a hot meal from a local feeding point.One child participating in the transformation is 14-year-old Sharon. When her parents passed away in 2001, Sharon and her two younger sisters were taken in by their grandparents. Because they were poor and too frail to work, the grandparents struggled to provide food. Sharon’s grandmother often scoured the edge of already harvested fields to search for leftover food. Many days the family went without eating at all. When the family was discovered by Sanday and his team, Sharon and her sisters were enrolled in the school and the feeding programme. A dedicated Susu care worker began looking after the family, encouraging and supporting them in solving their problems. Sharon achieved second place overall in her class of students. This is a transformation the entire community is celebrating.

See more photos from Zambia 

Susu is an extraordinarily poor and isolated community in central Zambia. When Hands at Work field worker Lawrence Kunda began visiting Susu the community was in despair. Poverty was widespread and alcoholism was a way of life. Nearly everyone existed only by subsistence farming and couldn’t afford access to schools or a trip to see the doctor for sick children.

Local community member, Sanday, was in such a situation when Lawrence discovered him. Lawrence struck up a friendship and began mentoring Sanday, slowly discipling him over many months about the love and compassion of Christ. In 2009 Sanday realised his faith was leading him to start doing something for the vulnerable community around him. Together, Lawrence and Sanday mobilised a team of other local volunteers and began equipping and mentoring them to care for orphaned and vulnerable children. Seeing the great need for education, Sanday and his volunteer team began a small community school under the shade of the trees. It was a huge success and inspired the community to begin making mud bricks in faith that they could build an entire school.

By 2011 a full care centre had begun to emerge: the school walls were complete; a new bore-hole, providing children with access to clean drinking water for the first time, had been drilled; and a cooking space was constructed to feed the most vulnerable children. Community members have watched the transformation in front of their eyes.

One child participating in the transformation is 14-year-old Sharon. When her parents passed away in 2001, Sharon and her two younger sisters were taken in by their grandparents. Because they were poor and too frail to work, the grandparents struggled to provide food. Sharon’s grandmother often scoured the edge of already harvested fields to search for leftover food. Many days the family went without eating at all. When the family was discovered by Sanday and his team, Sharon and her sisters were enrolled in the school and the feeding programme. A dedicated Susu care worker began looking after the family, encouraging and supporting them in solving their problems. Sharon achieved second place overall in her class of students. This is a transformation the entire community is celebrating.

George Snyman in Canada (CAN)

Don't miss your opportunity to hear some thoughts, news from Africa and updates from George Snyman, the founder of Hands at Work!

He will be speaking at the Bragg Creek Community Church, Sunday, January 22 at 10am.

If you are in Vancouver he will be speaking at Mission Fest, Saturday, January 28, 2012, at 3:30 in Room 10 of the Vancouver Convention Centre.

See you there!

(SA) World AIDS Day 2011

On December 1^st and 7^th, conventions were held in Clau-Clau and Bushbuckridge for World AIDS Day 2011. Children gathered to perform plays, songs, dances and poems in order to increase awareness and to take a stand together against the negative stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS. Two-hundred children, aged 10 – 14, attended each event. Both days began with breakfast prepared by local careworkers and ending with lunch and fellowship. Maggie (18), a local youth leader, prepared the following speech to commemorate the occasion:

A day that is an opportunity for people world-wide to unite in the fight against HIV, showing support for people living with HIV and to commemorate people who have died.

It started on the 1^st December 1988, World AIDS Day is about increasing awareness, fighting prejudice and improving education. World AIDS Day is important for reminding people that HIV has not gone away and that there are many things still to be done. HIV today is a threat to men, women, and children around the world. The theme for World AIDS Day 2011 is “Getting to Zero”. After 30 years of the global fight against HIV/AIDS this year the global community has committed to focus on achieving 3 targets: zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. Remember if you are not infected, you’re affected. Let’s beat it! Make your move...

Click to view pictures from the event.

Reflection on 2011

A look back at what made 2011 a special year for Hands at Work and our children across Africa. Mouse over "NOTES" to read about these special moments.

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

In the Words of Adam - God Loves Africa! (DRC) (UK)

What a way to arrive. Leaving the blue skies of Zambia behind us, our volunteer coordinator Dan and I stepped across the Congo border to the clapping of thunder and the sky black with rainclouds, like the weather itself was subject to border control. Having met the Hands DRC coordinator, Erick, we began the 4-hour journey through the rain and fog to the bustling city of Likasi. It was pretty precarious; at one point, we almost turned back after the car had a minor tantrum for being forced through an unexpectedly deep ‘puddle’. But we made it, largely in one piece, to Erick’s home. Our first week in DRC, we sought simply to immerse ourselves in the communities – to visit the homes of patients and orphans, to meet and encourage care workers, to join in anything and everything that God was up to around us.

Dan and I both had the honour of staying in the homes of two separate families; one in the urban community of Toyota on the outskirts of the city, and the other a rural village set deep in the Congo bush. They call it the ‘Lost Community’, because you can’t get there without getting lost somewhere along the way. It was there that I stayed with Vivian and her family. Vivian has suffered from leprosy for a long time, making her too weak to care adequately for her three children. Her two youngest children stand head and shoulders apart - one tall and healthy where the other appears stunted and thin. At a guess, I would say they were 12 and 7; it was only as I left that I discovered they were identical twins. They were so deeply embedded in poverty that they had not been able to be fed equally from the very day they were born, and for reasons I couldn’t imagine one had always received more than the other. I slept on the floor alongside the children, a chicken nestling at my feet, in a room so small that were I not there it would still have been cramped with just the 3 of them. For too long these children have lived robbed of the freedom to dream, to aspire, to look toward their future – they were far too busy simply dreaming of their next meal. Nothing so steals away dignity as when the rumblings of a hungry stomach drown out every other dream and desire. Yet hope is stirring.

Squeezed into their one-room hut, I lay squashed against a huge bag of mealy meal – their staple diet – donated from the hands of local care-workers who are, themselves, crippled by the poverty that stalks the village. With that gift, the children will not go hungry again for a long time. As the weeks went on in the DRC, I saw more and more glimmers of life breaking through the cracks. Groups of widows pooling together everything they had so that none of their children would go hungry; volunteers walking 12km to teach a class in the morning then 12km back to teach another class in the afternoon; men whom orphaned children ran to because they saw in them a father who cares.

Life is breaking through. As for me, I think I’m beginning to see what beats at the heart of Hands at Work in a way I haven’t seen before. Working in the office, walking in the community, supporting and serving in any way that I can or know how, all of it submerses you deeper into the DNA of what this family, and our purpose, is all about. It’s all about life. It’s about beautiful feet, about reclaiming the life and love for which every one of God’s kids was designed. Not one is forgotten, not one abandoned. There is not one whose fingerprint God didn’t labour over, whose hairs God didn’t count, whose future God doesn’t imagine, envision or dream about. Six weeks of orientation prepares you, teaches you, and challenges you. But it is when you step into what you were called to Africa for, whatever it might be, that you hear the heartbeat of the Father. All you have to do is throw yourself into it – strive every day to serve with fresh passion, learn from all those who have gone before you, run after what God has prepared. Don’t look to what you’ll do but to who you’ll become. Africa changes anyone who comes willing – it is for that that God called us here. And if we make a difference, if we leave a fingerprint on this amazing place, well then the privilege is ours! Of one thing I’m sure: God loves Africa.

Adam Bedford is originally from the UK and has been serving as a volunteer with Hands at Work in Africa for three months. While this concludes his journals about volunteer orientation for our newsroom, you can still follow Adam, his thoughts, and his heart for Africa on his personal blog.

(SA) Pray, Fast, Give for the children - Reflections

                On the 1 and 2^nd of December, our Hands village participated in two days dedicated to Prayer, Fasting and Giving for our vulnerable children. Continuous prayers over the 48 hours were lifted to the One who sees each tear that falls from their cheeks, and our village was blanketed with a feeling that only comes when an entire community comes together to keep their eyes on one common purpose. Nearly a week later, we are still astounded by the work that God did in those two days as we hear stories from all over Africa. We gathered in the village before breaking our fast with communion as we shared our revelations and reflections.

“The thought that came to me was simply have a heart of compassion. I needed to pour out my heart day and night for the children, and follow God’s cry for the heart of the children”

“...I was encouraged to stand and walk with those people, and I found that it’s so important to be there to celebrate with the children when there’s reason to, but to also encourage them when they have little hope. That’s what sincere love is – loving them through both good and bad moments.”

“The New Year is a time of restoration – God will restore his precious children to himself. Each child was fearfully and wonderfully made. He has an identity, a future and a plan for each child. Each child was God-begotten... it was not a human decision. It has been stolen from so many of our children – the freedom to choose the life He had mapped out for them. But He says Live. (Ezekiel 16) He says ‘I’ll wash the blood off of you and I will pick you up where you’ve been discarded. I will adorn you. I will make a covenant with you.”

“To be closer to the Heart of God almighty. Is that not why we’re here? Is there anything more important than this? It is by knowing His heart that we can finally come to know His love for us. It is by knowing His love that we can come to know His cross. And it is by knowing His Cross that we can come before Him emptied of ourselves, willing to give up our lives, and willing to know Him and be filled by Him. It is then that we are able to receive His Heart and his love.

'And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and by careful to obey my just decrees.'"

“My love will always run dry, my strength and my energy will always fade out, my heart will always grow cold. Lord, please give me a new heart and a new spirit; please give me your heart and your spirit. Please give me your love. For your love never runs dry, your strength never fades, and your heart never grows cold. In Jesus’ Name.”

"Father! You saw injustice in Egypt and you got involved by raising Moses to bring hope. You saw me and my hopelessness and you sent your son. Now I see injustice because You gave me Your heart. Give me courage to be like You and Jesus. I want to bring hope!"

"Ezekiel 16 speaks of God’s love and compassion toward Jerusalem. On the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water... no one looked on you with pity or had compassion enough to do any of these things for you... I said to you live, I made you grow... I covered your nakedness. I have you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares the sovereign Lord, and you became mine. I clothed you. I fed you. I adorned you."

“Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your heart do not think evil of each other” Zachariah 7:9 – 10

“God is at home. God is your home. He is a father who will protect you. A friend who will watch your back. A brother who will keep you from ever being lonely. He loves you so much and he is holding out his hand. Reach out for it and walk together. He won’t let you go or lag behind. He won’t run ahead, unless it is to protect you. He is your biggest champion.”

“Anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these... I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father”
John 14: 12 – 14

“My vision is that Jesus sees all the broken and vulnerable children. He sees our heartache and He encourages us to persevere in care and love to them. As we weep, he weeps over all the injustice”

Nigeria's children (NIG)

Nigeria is Africa’s most populous nation. Its 150+ million people makes up almost a fifth of the continent. Though it is one of the world’s top oil producing countries, over 90 million Nigerians live in extreme poverty. Institutions at every level of the country are renowned for corruption, rendering the benefit of the oil wealth nearly nil for the country’s most vulnerable people.

The poverty of slums within Lagos, the country’s largest city, is beyond comprehension: hundreds of thousands of the city’s poorest people are jammed into tiny rooms without water or sewage systems. Water from intense seasonal rains and the tides of the nearby ocean bay flood the slums leaving dirty water filled with sewage and rubbish to surround even homes and schools, exposing children to bacterial disease and malaria.

At 3.6%, the adult HIV-prevalence rate is low compared to countries in southern Africa. But due to Nigeria’s large  population, it ranks as the country with the third largest number of people living with HIV in the world.

Hands at Work began operating in Nigeria in 2006 and works in 5 communities in the country’s south, including the hyper-urban slums of Lagos and the rural villages outside the city of Ibadan.

Long-term volunteer, Tommy Malster from the UK, recently visited some of these communities. We have uploaded a few of his photos to give you a glimpse of what daily life amongst Nigeria's poorest looks like:

"This is the pond where three orphaned siblings, Mary, Celina and Abigail from Elekuru, have to get their drinking water. It doesn't really look clean, but it's all they have--they live in such a rural community."

"Here Mary, Celina and Abigail are pictured with Hands at Work field coordinator, Bayo, outside their home. Mary's arm was badly burnt by the people she was staying with before.""This is a shot of Badia. It shows the level of rubbish and poverty the community's people have to live in. We had to walk on the planks of wood because the rubbish was filled with water and so many diseases. We were constantly walking past brothels, shops and also children with no clothes on because they simply cannot afford any.""This is a school in Badia. We [Hands at Work] have enrolled 50 vulnerable children at the school, mixed in with the government school kids. Here we are meeting some of the volunteer teachers who are with the community-based organisation (CBO) [supported by Hands at Work]. I am greeting Matilda, a teacher."

"When we visited the school, the playground had been flooded and so the kids had the option of either playing in the water or having to stay in the classroom."

In the words of Adam: Don't be afraid (SA) (UK)

Perhaps I should keep a diary, as a couple of weeks of jam-packed schedule, new adventures and amazing encounters have somewhat jumbled into a bit of a mushy blur. I have definitely indulged, perhaps overindulged, my touristy side: A 110m swing off a cliff over a beautiful waterfall gorge, trekking a mountain to the indescribable view-spot of ‘God’s Window’, a 4am start chasing the Big Five in Kruger National Park – Africa demands of you that you try anything once. As for me, I’m striving to get the most out of it by risking the slightly altered rule: try everything once, even if “everything” means bat wings for dinner.

These last couple of weeks have entailed a lot of adventure, risk-taking, new experiences and culture shock. Yet beneath the surface of all of this there is an altogether different adventure. The orientation process, in which we as fresh, new volunteers are incorporated and saturated into Hands at Work life, is finally at an end. Five weeks of early mornings, late nights and exhausting days have rushed by too quickly, and I feel a great sadness to be leaving behind this time and passing into the next stage. But first introductions can’t last forever. We have simply scratched the surface of what God is up to here in Africa and here in Hands. We have just dipped a toe into his plans and promises, but to God that seems enough to ready us to brave deep water. So we are definitely being thrown in.

As the orientation process draws to a close you find that you’re suddenly caught up in a whole lot of conversation about where you may be sent and what you may be putting your hand to. After so much worrying that what you will do during your time here with Hands will be assigned to you without question or query, it is relieving to discover that actually – a lot of that comes down to you. It’s a conversation. What are you passionate about? What makes your heart pump a little faster? Where would you flourish and what would be a disaster? All of this to dip deep for the only question that truly matters – what did God bring you here for? It’s all about that. We have to remember that long before Africa ever crossed our minds, God had it written on our hearts. We’re here because for now, for such a time as this, Africa is where God wants us to be.

As for me, ever since I discovered that I was coming to Africa a nation has been etched on my heart in a way that I couldn’t explain or ignore. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a country of 65 million, the second largest in Africa, and claims some of the world’s poorest communities. I have prayed for so long, “Lord, give me the DRC. Get me to the DRC.” God proves himself faithful. At the end of orientation I’ll be heading off to the Congo to work with some of the some incredible people in some amazing communities. It’ll be a challenge for sure. The DRC’s two major languages are French and Swahili, neither of which I speak. I tried to learn a little French just before I left England in the hope that I might end up in the Congo. I’m not sure how effective a learner I was, but I guess that will be tested soon. Loneliness, in the midst of a language and a culture to which I am completely alien, has been known to be an issue for volunteers working there. Stocking up on English movies, books, podcasts, and a few home comforts (that would be chocolate biscuits for me) is good medicine. Yet the utter joy of living in the plans and promises of God is completely worthy of the cost. As I step into something new the words of Christ echo in my ears: “Don’t be afraid, O man highly esteemed. Peace! Be strong now; be strong.” (Daniel 8) Don’t be afraid – the safest kind of danger is to give up your life to the desires of God. I can’t wait to discover God’s desire for the Congo and for me. Bon voyage!

Global prayer and fasting: 2 & 3 December

As we near the end of the year, we invite you to join us for a time of being still, reflecting and interceding for Africa's most vulnerable: its orphaned and marginalized children. Globally, throughout eight African countries and five of the developed nations, the Hands at Work family will set aside 2 & 3 December (this week) to pray and fast.

 

“Love must be sincere... Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honour one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God’s people who are in need.” Romans 12:9-13

 

FASTING

Beginning on 2 December we begin our global fast focussing on the vulnerable children we serve across Africa. James Tembo, based in Zambia, shared the following earlier this year at the annual Hands at Work Celebration: “True compassion is burdensome and results in action. When [last] did we fast for the orphans?”

 

The timing is strategic: The 'silly season' goes hand-in-hand with busyness and end-of-year fatigue. Setting this time aside gives us an opportunity to maintain a healthy perspective and to deepen our dependence & trust in God.

 

PRAYER

You're welcome to join us as we enter into a continuous chain of prayer from 9AM on 2 December until 4PM on 3 December. ("South Africa-time" is GMT +02:00). On these two days will be focus our prayer on the care & nurture of Africa's children. We'll pray for their futures, the realizing of their dreams and their salvation.

 

Note: The Prayer and Fasting will happen in Africa on 1 & 2 December and in our global families on 2 & 3 December. The idea is to accommodate community involvement.

 

We look forward to your feedback on what has come out of your dedicated time of prayer!

 

Keep checking back: we will post notes on fasting and updates on the various countries we work in to help guide your prayers.

Cycling enthusiasts take community by storm! (SA)

On a hot day in September, a group of Church Unlimited cyclists took the community of Mpakeni in northeastern South Africa by storm. Church Unlimited has been partnering with a group of Mpakeni care workers called Siphamandla Home-Based Care over the last year. The Nelspruit-based church is one of Hands at Work's key partners in South Africa. Watch the video below to find out what the event was all about!

My-News.tv Mpakeni from Mario Kolbé on Vimeo.

Volunteers in Action

Earlier this year on our facebook fan page we asked you to share with us photos and reflections of your time with us in Africa. There was an outpouring of responses and here are some of them. To learn more about volunteering, click here. To read about Adam Bedford's (UK) experience of the six-week orientation programme, click here.