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.

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The Mt. Pleasant Primary School in Ballarat has reached out to the orphans of Zambia by raising much-needed funds to build a water well for the Chibuli Orphan School . As of October 22^nd, the school and its 216 students had raised $911.

Hands at Work CEO George Snyman visited the school in October, where he met the school’s Welfare Officer, Danni Reeves, who has been instrumental in organising the fundraising events. George was pleasantly surprised to be entertained by the wonderful school choir singing an African song, as well as the song-and-dance group, also performing to African music.

Danni says the school hopes to reach the $1,000 mark by the end of the year.

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George Snyman will be spending two weeks in Australia, visiting and speaking at various churches and conferences in Melbourne and Sydney about the plight of HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa.  Below is George's intinerary for the period 11 to 26 October 2007.  If you would like George to speak at your church, please contact him on +27-(0)13-7512341. 

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