Radical Advent: story of Angela from Kisunka, DRC

As a part of our Radical Advent Christmas campaign we want to share a story of a very determined young girl from Kisunka.  Angela lost her parents when she was just two years old.  Her aunt took her in, but like most other villagers, she works on a farm and earns barely enough money to survive.  As a young girl, Angela struggled with her job of taking the family goats to graze for most of the day, leaving little time for play. 

When Kisunka Community Based Organization (CBO) began caring for her, she had never been in school.  Now, at nine years old, she is in second grade and working hard.  After facing many challenges, Angela says she has big dreams for her future and is grateful to Kisunka CBO for enabling her to attend school.  She has made friends with the other children and feels loved by the Kisunka CBO care workers who visit her at home.Make this a Radical Advent by supporting Hands at Work in improving access to education to poor children in Africa! Please consider making a donation to our Christmas campaign here.

Radical Advent: a snapshot of Kisunka, DRC

As a part of our Radical Advent Christmas campaign, we want to highlight Kisunka, a cluster of villages in the Democratic Republic of the Congo so remote that few non-profit organizations can reach it to provide support. Kisunka lacks access to clean drinking water, education, health care, and sustainable work. These circumstances contribute to an overall sense of hopelessness among the approximately 5,000 villagers, many of whom are struggling to survive. 

Diseases like tuberculosis and leprosy are common in Kisunka.  There is no clinic, so the sick must travel 9 miles to the nearest health center.  To supplement meager crops from farming, some impoverished villagers try to earn extra income by fishing in Changalele, a lakenearby Kisunka. However, the good fishing at Changalelemeans that large numbers of seasonal workers travel to the area for fishing and other trade.  As is common in other areas of sub-Saharan Africa, this has led to the sexual exploitation of those who are most desperate for survival, such as orphaned young girls, contributing to the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Hands at Work is supporting local Christian leaders in Kisunkato develop a locally-owned organization in their community to meet the needs of orphaned and vulnerable children. Before they started, Kisunkahad not had a school for the past twenty years, so very few of the children had any education. The cost of education and the 9 mile walk to get to the nearest school were huge hurdles, especially for orphaned children. In partnership with Hands at Work since 2011,KisunkaCommunity Based Organization has provided food security, basic health care, and access to education to 75 orphaned and vulnerable children—children who deserve love and care and hope.  Make this a Radical Advent by supporting Hands at Work in serving remote and impoverished communities like Kisunka.  Please consider making a donation to our Christmas campaign here.

Radical Advent: Esther’s Story from Mwaiseni, Zambia

As a part of our Radical Advent Christmas campaign, we want to share a story of a teacher from Zambia today.  Esther used to teach at a public school, but when she realized that many of the orphans in her village weren’t able to afford the fees to attend the public school, she decided to make a radical change.  First, she used her modest income to build a small two-bedroom house.  As a single woman with two children and two grandchildren, her neighbors complained the new house was beyond her means.  But this was part of Esther’s plan.  She now shares one bedroom with her two grandchildren, who live with her.  In the spare bedroom, she raises dozens of chickens, and the income from selling chickens enabled Esther to take the risky step of leaving the security of her government job.  Now Esther’s living room doubles as her classroom, because every weekday she teaches 106 of the poorest children in her community out of her living room! 

Hands at Work empowers people like Esther in the poorest villages in Africa who are radically serving the poor and helps build a team of local Christians around them to multiply their efforts.  Make this a Radical Advent by supporting Hands at Work in improving access to education for poor children in Africa!  Please consider making a donation to our Christmas campaign here.

Radical Advent: Meredith's Story from Susu, Zambia

As a part of our Radical Advent Christmas campaign, we want to share Meredith's story.  She is an 8-year-old girl living in the community of Susu. Meredith attends the Susu Community School and is currently in first grade. Meredith lives with her two siblings, mother and grandmother - many people for their small house. Meredith’s father died when she was only four months old and sadly, her mother struggled to cope with caring for her 3 children. The family moved in with Meredith's grandmother so that there was another adult in the house to help with daily chores and taking care of the children. Unfortunately, Meredith's grandmother is aging and it’s a struggle to look after the whole family. They found it difficult to find good food and they often went to sleep on empty stomachs.

The Care Workers in Susu found this family and wanted to help them. They started by registering Meredith and her siblings at the feeding point where the children can eat a nutritious meal each day. Meredith says the biggest difference it has made to her is that she now gets food every day without needing to worry. She feels like she now has energy to work well at school, and she was very pleased to pass her recent school exams.

Meredith's Care Worker, Patricia, frequently visits this needy family, taking soap for them, helping to wash their clothes and sometimes bringing gifts of corn meal. Patricia encourages the children to attend school each day, too. Meredith loves it when Patricia visits her - particularly when she brings sweet potatoes as a gift for the family!  Hands' partners in the U.S. have provided critical prayer, short-term teams, and financial support enabling local Christian volunteers to care for children like Meredith and her brother and sister in Susu.  Many other communities have no support.  If you are able, please consider making a donation to our Christmas campaign here.

Radical Advent: Susu, Zambia

As a part of our Radical Advent christmas campaign, we want to highlight Susu, a rural community in Zambia.  Hands at Work identified Susu as a village with particularly high rates of HIV/AIDS and low access to support; government clinics, hospitals and schools are too far away for the local people to access. Though the situation in Susu is desperate, the local Care Worker team, with the support of partners outside the community, is making a great impact. Many of the children visited by Susu Home-based Care attend the Community School, which was started by a local church in 2004. The school has six volunteer teachers, dedicating their time to giving 250 children in Susu a basic education.

The school used to meet outside under trees, but in faith the community made bricks for a school. In 2011, in partnership with Hands at Work, they were able to complete a large building with two classrooms and an office for the teachers. This has made a huge difference to the community; having shelter means the school can continue during rainy season, and now the children have desks to work at!

Surrounding streams supply Susu with water but during the hot months the streams dry up. In the past, the community had no option but to walk long distances to fetch water. However, in 2010 a Hands at Work support partner blessed the community of Susu with the drilling of a borehole well on the school property, a tank to hold water, and a pump run by a solar panel. In a community where there is no electricity and no access to a clean drinking water source, this is a huge blessing. The community is overjoyed—now the children have a safe and dependable drinking water source and it will help to decrease illness in Susu.  Make this a Radical Advent by supporting Hands at Work in serving destitute communities like Susu!  Please consider making a donation to our Christmas campaign here. 

Radical Advent: Sandy’s Story from Balaka, Zambia

Seven-year-old Sandy lost both of her parents to serious illnesses back in 2006. Sandy now lives with her aunt in Balaka, and her other siblings are all scattered in different homes with relatives. Though she has a guardian, Sandy faces many difficulties. Her household relies on her aunt getting casual work to buy food, but her aunt struggles with alcohol abuse and the family often goes without eating. There are currently nine people living in her small home.  Sandy’s clothing consists of only two dresses and she attends school bare-footed. 

Though Sandy continues to have a difficult home situation, Balaka Community Based Organization (CBO) strives to provide her with the love of a family.  The Care Workers have adopted Sandy as one of their own, and she is now attending the Care Point every day where she receives one nutritious meal a day.  Those who know her say she also now wears a smile!  For a girl who has faced many challenges at a young age, this love and care provides the hope she needs to have faith in her future.  Hands at Work supports CBOs like this one to reach the most vulnerable children like Sandy.  Make this a Radical Advent by supporting Hands at Work in serving orphaned children in Africa!  Please consider making a donation to our Christmas campaign here.

Radical Advent: Samuel & Elijah's Story from Ilaje, Nigeria

As a part of our Radical Advent Campaign, we want to share a story of two precious boys from Ilaje.  Samuel is 7 years old, and his brother Elijah is 4 years old. When Elijah was still a baby, their mother was chased away from their home after being accused of adultery, leaving Samuel and Elijah in the care of their father. However, the boys’ father died in a motor accident three years later.  Since then, the boys live with a relative who tries to provide for them with the little money he earns from fishing. Unable to pay for their school fees, the brothers had been out of school for two years before being discovered by the local, volunteer Care Workers of Ilaje Community Based Organization.  

Today, they are enrolled at Masory School; Samuel is in first grade and Elijah is in nursery school. Both boys receive a nutritious meal each day and are able to play with other children in the program. The regular home visits they receive from the Ilaje Care Workers shows Samuel and Elijah that they are loved, and that they still have parental figures in their lives that care deeply about them.  Make this a Radical Advent by supporting Hands at Work in improving access to secure sources of food and education for poor children in Africa!  Please consider making a donation to our Christmas campaign here.

Radical Advent: The Story of Eight Siblings from Ago-Okota, Nigeria

As a part of our Radical Advent Campaign, we want to share a story from Ago Okota, another community located within Lagos, Nigeria.  Ally, Precious and Caleb are the youngest of eight children in their family.  They lost both parents to a tragic car accident a few years ago.  Since the accident, the children have not been able to afford their rent.  One by one, they dropped out of school, unable to pay for their school fees, uniforms or books.  A few of the older siblings had to move to stay with a relative while other siblings tried their best to find menial work to earn enough to feed their younger siblings.  They were eventually forced out of their home for not paying their rent and ended up living in a slum in Ago-Okota community.  Ally, Precious and Caleb would stay home while the older siblings would go out looking for ways to make enough money to afford even one meal a day. 

Things started looking up when a couple of the older siblings, Martha and Florence, were told by one of their neighbors in the community about the 'We Care' community school, which supports and cares for orphaned and vulnerable children.  The sisters visited the school to see if their three younger siblings could be enrolled. Several assessments were made by the Care Workers who realized these children were indeed incredibly vulnerable, and they were enrolled at the community school.  Both Ally and Precious are now in primary school while Caleb is in nursery. The children receive one hot meal per day--their only meal--at the community school. They are so happy to be back in school, learning again and making new friends.  Make this a Radical Advent by supporting Hands at Work in improving access to education for poor children like Ally, Precious, and Caleb!  Please consider making a donation to our Christmas campaign here.    

Radical Advent Campaign: Ilaje, Nigeria

As a part of our Radical Advent campaign, we want to highlight Ilaje, located within Lagos, Africa’s largest city, on Nigeria’s southern coast.  A city of 16.5 million people, it is home to some of the worst slums in the world. In a 2006 report, the World Bank identified nine slum communities requiring urgent response. Hands at Work is active in three Lagos slums, including Ilaje, which is notorious for its location on the edge of an ocean bay and even extending out over the water with homes built on stilts.

The scale of overcrowding in Ilaje is mind boggling: Up to 30 people live in some single room shacks where people are required to sleep in shifts. Aside from a few private schools just outside Ilaje, no school is accessible to the poorest children. Half-dressed children roam the streets during the day, working as peddlers to create at least a small income. The ocean bay floods the community at high tide, leaving residual water lying around homes and feeding a malaria epidemic. HIV is prevalent in the area. There is no access to clean water.

In early 2007, a pastor named Rex was transferred to take over a tiny church building in the slum. Rex and his wife, Patricia, were shocked at what they saw in the community. They challenged their congregation members, as well as others in Ilaje, that something had to be done about the situation, and so began walking the streets as a team to seek out the most vulnerable among the children, widowed and sick in the community. Eventually they formed a formal community-based organization (CBO) reaching out to many vulnerable children in this community. Hands has been supporting this CBO by mentoring and training volunteers, and through monthly donations from a group of advocates in southern California and a non-profit group from the U.S. called Poverty Stops Here, Hands has enabled local volunteers to to care for 150 children in Ilaje!  Make this a Radical Advent by supporting Hands at Work in reaching more vulnerable children in Africa!  Please consider making a donation to our Christmas campaign here.    

A Garden of Hope (ZAM)

A little tomato plant produces so much more than just juicy red fruit.  In the bush community of Baraka in central Zambia, it has provided hope.  The Community Based Organization (CBO) in Baraka had little in terms of finances to start a garden, but the Care Workers had a desire and a vision to see the children they were feeding enjoy balanced meals with valuable nutrients from fruits and vegetables.  

With the partnership of Hands at Work and the funds raised by the Gilchrist family from the U.S., the community of Baraka was able to plant two gardens in July of this year.  The Gilchrist family, including their four children, was so moved by the story of the orphans in Baraka, that they spent a whole summer doing odd jobs and pet sitting to raise money to support this community (you can read more about their story here).  Presently, the gardens are filled with tomato and colza plants.  The Care Workers all take ownership of the gardens and come together multiple mornings a week to weed, water, and cultivate. 

Not only is Baraka CBO able to sell some of the vegetables to the local community and invest this money back into their garden to purchase seeds and fertilizer, but they are also able to feed the harvest to the children.  The daily meal that they serve to 50 of the most vulnerable children in the community now looks a little more colorful and is filled with more nutrients with the vegetables they are now able to serve.   The CBO is planning to expand the garden and to plant more vegetables in the future.  After the rainy season, they hope to plant cabbage and spinach.  

It Takes a Family (ZAM)

By Jed Heubner

Jed (L) and his family with the care workers in Chisamba, Zambia

Fall is officially here.  We say goodbye to the long days of summer with kids staying out playing with their friends until late in the evening, and we say hello to children getting up early and heading off to school.  For many children school might seem like a burden, homework, bag lunches, and schedules, but to children in Africa, school means possibilities.  As you walk past nearly any school in Africa you will most likely see a sign that reads, “Education is the key to success,” in some form or another.  For many children in Africa, however, school is just out of reach. 

Most schools in Africa charge school fees.  Now these school fees for primary school are usually fairly low, around $25 a year, but for high school these fees can get up to $100 a year.  Now that may not seem like much, but for a family earning less than a dollar a day and having multiple children, this amount is extremely difficult to raise. 

In August my family had the opportunity to visit the community we are supporting in Chisamba, Zambia.  They have started a preschool and have a feeding point where over 50 children are getting a meal once a day.  While in Chisamba we also got to go on several home visits, meet the children we are supporting, and see where they are living.  On one home visit we met David.  David is a 16-year-old boy who lives at home with his mother and his two younger siblings.  David's father left their family several years ago because it was too difficult to support the family.  They do not know where their father went.  David is a very intelligent young man, who was doing well in school, but his family couldn’t come up with the money for school fees.  The headmaster at his school told him he was not allowed to come back until he paid all of his back fees and paid for the current school year, about $200 altogether.  As David's mother was telling us the story, I watched David closely.  I could see the embarrassment as his mother told us how he was pulled out of class and chased from the school, but I could also see the hope as he looked at these strangers who had come to visit him. 

After leaving we sat with the coordinator of Isubilo Home-based Care, Peter.  Peter is a local pastor who was challenged by what he saw going on in the community and decided he could make a difference in these children’s lives.  He doesn’t have much, but he and his wife Cecilia have done so much for the children of Chisamba.  However, helping David was beyond what they could afford as well.  Peter knows David well, and told us how much he loved school.  With Peter’s help, we made a plan to fund the fees so David can go back to school.

In the local language "Isubilo" means hope.  We were able to bring something to David to help his situation, but we know there are many more children out there like David, children who aren’t heading back to school this time of year.  My hope is that through our relationship with Isubilo Home-based Care in Chisamba we can make sure that all of the children we are supporting will have the opportunity to go to school and have a much brighter future.

To find out how you can support a child or even a whole village with your friends or your church visit www.handsatwork.org/advocate or email our partnerships coordinator at brooke@us.handsatwork.org.

Hope for the Forgotten Villages of Kisunka (DRC)

Walking 15 km to the nearest school in a neighboring city is considered a blessing for those who can afford to attend a school in the first place.  For many families living in Kisunka, where there has not been a school for the past twenty years, the cost of education is simply beyond their means.    

Kisunka, a cluster of remote villages in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is trapped in a cycle of hopelessness. It is so remote and difficult for non-profit organizations to enter that it has been all but completely forgotten. The five villages that make up Kisunka lack access to clean drinking water, education, health care, and sustainable work. These circumstances all contribute to an overall hopelessness shared among the approximately 5,000 villagers. Everyone is focused on oneself, not because the people are selfish but because each one is struggling to survive.  One old man summed up this sentiment this way, “No one notices when someone is busy dying; they only pay attention when someone dies.”

The cycle begins with the basic but unmet need for a reliable source of clean drinking water. Though the Kisunka community shares two wells, both are reduced to mud during the dry season. Because the wells are open, if anything such as a sick animal falls in, it poisons the well and spreads disease throughout the entire community. When people in the community do get sick there is no local clinic in which to receive care, and villagers must travel 15 km to the nearest health center.  This long distance means that villagers who need urgent health care often die on their way to the clinic, creating orphans of their children.

Kisunka survives on farming maize and cassava, but with the rising costs of farming materials combined with poor farming techniques, the harvests yield barely enough for villagers to survive.  Members of the community may take on other menial tasks or try to fish in Changalele, a large lake nearby that is well-known for its good fishing. At the same time, the good fishing also means that large numbers of seasonal workers travel to the area for fishing and other trade.  As is common in other areas of sub-Saharan Africa, this has led to the sexual exploitation of those who are most desperate for survival, such as orphaned young girls, contributing to the spread of HIV/AIDS.

The story of John is typical in Kisunka, where young children bear the burden of providing for their families, thus sacrificing their own education and future for day-to-day survival. John is a 13-year-old orphaned boy from a family of five in Kimboyi, a village in Kisunka. He lost his father to tuberculosis when he was 9 years old.  After this loss, John and his other siblings, together with their mother, were forced to go and stay with their granny, as the father’s relatives took all their possessions after his death. The boy’s mother was sickly but still remarried after 4 years.  Unfortunately this didn’t improve the situation for the family as her new husband wouldn’t allow her to bring her children to live with them. 

John only went to school up to grade 3, and has not attended since the death of his father due to the inability to pay school fees.  Instead, he is wandering in the field trying to help his granny with farming.  Sometimes when farming is not doing well, he will go to Lake Changalele at the edge of the village to try fishing in order to support his family.

Hands at Work is supporting local Christian leaders within the vulnerable community of Kisunka who are already demonstrating a passion to serve the poor and broken among their neighbors.  Hands at Work is helping these leaders to develop a locally-owned organization in their community and beginning a long-term relationship of service and partnership, where we continually work to increase the organization’s capacity to provide care in an effective and holistic manner.  Are you interested in partnering with Hands at Work by advocating for Kisunka within your church, family, or group of friends?  Visit www.handsatwork.org/advocate or email our partnerships coordinator in the U.S. at brooke@us.handsatwork.org.