Archange’s Story: Kitabataba, DR Congo

My name is Archange and I live in Kitabataba in the Democratic Republic of Congo.  By the time I was five years old both of my parents had died.  I was sent to live in many homes but no one wanted to take care of me.  Everyone where I live is very poor and they do not have the money to feed another mouth.  Eventually my grandparents said I could live with them.  I was grateful they took me in but I was also really angry because for so many years no one wanted me.  I was always just a burden, not someone’s son.  Maybe my grandparents really loved me, but by this point I was so angry with everyone that I misbehaved a lot.  They said I was very rebellious.

One day some adults came to my grandparents’ house.  They were going through our community looking for children who needed help and they found me.  When they heard that I was a naughty boy who had no parents they said they would take care of me.  I would still live with my grandparents but they would come and visit me.  And they do.  They are Care Workers from Nyota Care Point, but to me they are my new mothers and fathers.  When they visit we talk – we have talked about my behaviour and how I can grow up to be a nicer boy.  They talk to me about God and how he loves me.  I have been going to church and am on my church choir team.

Now I also get to eat with other children at the Care Point.  We play together and I like getting to meet and know new friends.  You would probably say I am a happy boy now, I smile a lot more.  In this picture I am wearing my new school uniform!  I am in grade 6 at Kitabataba Community School and I love school.  I wish my parents were still alive but I thank God I have my grandparents and my new mothers and fathers.  They really love me. 

There is Hope

In the community of Share, South Africa, Ruth has been visiting Mike, Tholiwe and Risuna since 2010 when their mother became very sick.  Ruth is a Care Worker at Nhluvuko Community Based Organization (CBO) and has been caring for these extremely vulnerable children for over 2 years now.  In 2011, their mother passed away.  Mike, 15, Tholiwe, 10, and Risuna, 4, did not know their father.  Without Ruth, they would have been left with only their grandmother, who does not live with them and does not care for them. 

But there is hope.  Although they live alone now, the home visits provided by Ruth have given these children a mother who knows each of their names and their situations.  Ruth ensures all three children are going to school each day.  As the head of his household, she has taught Mike to care for and clean the home. 

Through the 3 Essential Services program, Ruth and Nhluvuko CBO have provided this family with a hot meal afterschool each day, school uniforms, a door and window frame for their home, and a mattress.  Ruth has built a very strong relationship with these children and they love and trust her as their mother.

40 Days of Prayer 2013

Prayer for Africa’s Orphaned
Play your part to bring hope

February 20th to Sunday March 31st

Join our worldwide community as we pray together for 40 days and 40 prayer points.  As the international Hands at Work family, we will pray for the vulnerable children of Africa and ask God to reveal His heart for the poorest of the poor. Through each prayer point, we will ask God to remind us of not only the external challenges our children face, but the inner wounds that they live with every day.  As we ask Him to heal their wounds, we pray He will break our hearts. We know that as we seek God in serving the most vulnerable, we will be blessed with a fresh understanding of His heart. 

Download the 40 Days 2013 Prayer Guide and join our 40 Days 2013 online event
 
Join us and unite in global prayer to be a voice for the voiceless.
 

I Was a Stranger (SA)

Assa and her brother Gabito at the Care Centre in Welverdiend, Bushbuck RidgeAssa and her cousin Gabito were born twelve years ago in Mozam­bique. They travelled together with their mothers (who were sisters) from Mozambique in 2010. When they first arrived in Welverdiend, Assa, Gabito and their mothers stayed with their eldest aunt. After only a short time, this aunt chased them away because her husband was complaining that he did not have the resources to feed them and look after them. At this same difficult time, Gabito’s mother passed away leaving Assa’s mother to look after both of them. With no home or money (being from Mozambique and not having a South African ID and Assa’s mother not being able to get consistent work) the family desperately searched for a place to live. Thankfully, someone from the community offered them a temporary house built by the government and to this day, Assa, her mother and Gabito continue to live in this house. But with temporary housing comes the continual fear that the original owner of the house will return and kick them out, leaving them homeless—a very likely event in a poor and despairing com­munity such as theirs.

But things are not all hopeless for this precious family. Last year, Nomsa a Care Worker for the local Hands at Work partnered Community Based Organisation, Pfunani, heard about their situation and began to visit them at their home every week. She encouraged them to go to school and helped them with their house chores, especially when Assa’s mom was away working at the local orange farm. She also took time to encourage Assa’s mom and urge her not give up even though life is very hard.

In order to lighten the burden even more for their family and other families like theirs in Welverdiend community, Pfu­nani Care Workers cook five nutritious meals per week for the most vulnerable children at the Care Point. Assa and Gabito enjoy playing with the other chil­dren in similar situations as them at the Care Point. Pfunani Community Based Organisation has also helped the family by providing them with blankets and a mattress during the cold winter months. This was a huge blessing because their home lacked these basic items.

“For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home.”   Matthew 25:35

Not My Love, but His (SA)

Nora is a volunteer care worker at the Mandlesive Community-Based Organisation (CBO) in South Africa. As a care worker, she joins several other men and women who share her heart of servanthood to bring hope to the most vulnerable children in her community. The care workers visit these children regularly, offering help with homework, spiritual guidance, and a listening ear. They walk them through heartaches and encourage them to follow their Father and the plans He has for them. Evidently, their stories are every bit as compelling as those of the children whom they serve.

"After my boyfriend left me alone to care for our daughter, I started selling home grown vegetables to earn a living. It was tiring work, and often left me stressed and tired at the end of the day. At the time both my sister and my mother were very sick, and I found myself caring for them and my sister’s children in addition to my daily jobs.

My only hope was these women who would come and visit my sister each day. They taught me how to bathe her and care for her. Once my sister died and my little family gained four more, children, I decided that it was too much to bear and I needed some way to cope with my life’s situation. Then my mother passed away. This is when I asked to join these faithful women who had been devoting their days to caring for my sister and her family.

Now that I am a careworker at Mandlesive Community-Based Organisation, I couldn’t ask for a different life. I care for nine orphans by assisting them with their daily activities such as washing, cooking, helping them with their homework, just as the other careworkers cared for my family.  Giving to the community from the bottom of my heart is the reason that I get up every day; the reason that I can cope with losing my sister and my mother. There are often times where I must give up some of my family’s support in order to bring necessities to these children, and sometimes it is difficult for me to explain this to my family. Sometimes people laugh at me and tell me that I am stupid to be giving up my life to care for other people. While this hurts me, the pain of seeing a hungry child hurts more.

The Lord has overwhelmed me with his blessings. He has kept me and my family safe – there are many times where I have worked with very contagiously sick patients, and He has spared me from illness. My daughters are happy and healthy, I have sweet potatoes in the garden and mangoes on my trees, and my family has food on the table each night. I am able to love these orphans that I care for as my own children because I recognize that it’s not my love to give. Our Father has so richly blessed us with His love, and I know that the love that I show these orphans does not come from me, but Him.

Nora was recently trained by Hands at Work, through the Walking with Wounded Children Program. The training, developed by a team of counsellors and psychologists, equips those who care for children with tools to lead them on a path of healing from any emotional wounds or losses they may have experienced. This training, combined with the love embedded in the hearts of women like Nora, are bringing God’s hope to vulnerable children across Africa.

Bringing the Hope - Part Two (ZAM)

Loveness walks to visit the patients and children whom she serves. Most of their homes are deep in the Zambian bush.

It is Tuesday. The sun is particularly hot and the sand below her feet is dry. Loveness is accompanying a care worker on one of her daily home visits. They arrive at a home nestled in the bush, where a grandmother sits on a grass mat, and leans against the wall of her home. She has been sitting on this mat from the time the sun rose, and will stay there until she is ready to go to bed. She is the guardian of Agnes*, her seven-year-old granddaughter. Agnes’ mother  passed away due to HIV, leaving her behind with her memory, and her disease. Seven-year-old Agnes and her grandmother take care of each other, but there is no source of income, and their small home is not secure and is falling apart.

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Bringing the Hope - Part One (ZAM)

The community-based organisation “Shalom” operates in three communities near Kabwe, Zambia. These communities are components of both rural and urban Zambia, with much maize and bean farming. Most people who live in these communities are street vendors, peasant farmers or make their living wandering the streets asking for casual work. There is very little industry, and poverty is rampant. Water access is unreliable, and often dries up during the hot seasons in August through October.

Loveness Chitafu coordinates the Shalom Community-Based Organisation (CBO) in Kabwe, Zambia. This CBO is comprised of volunteer care workers who have given their lives to support the most vulnerable children in each community.

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Building a Future Together (SA)

10-year-old Londi and his gogo live in a small, run-down mud hut in the rural village of Siphamandla in north-eastern South Africa. He is a friendly boy who says he loves his grandmother very much and hopes she will live a long life, especially because she has taken care of him since his mother died when he was very young. The grandmother cannot work, and the two survive on a meagre government child care grant.

Londi is in Grade 3 at Mpakeni Primary School, but because he has no one to help him with his homework, school is an uphill battle for him. Londi’s biggest concern, however, is the state of their home. The stick and mud shack is likely to fall apart when the heavy summer rains pound down on it.

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Opportunity to Learn (NIG)

Boys who attend free community school with Michael, run by volunteers in Ago Okota, Lagos Slum, Nigeria.

10-year-old Michael is a vulnerable child living in the Lagos slum of Ago Okota. In 2010 when his mother could no longer afford to feed and keep him, Michael was given away to another poor family. His job was to work for the family, walking the streets selling rice and beans and passing the income over to his new guardians. He dreamed about attending school, but wasn’t allowed. He had joined the tragic situation of thousands of children walking the streets of Lagos: modern-day slavery.

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Counter-Cultural Example (ZIM)

41-year-old John is a volunteer care worker in Pimai, Zimbabwe committed to transforming the hopeless situations of vulnerable children in his community. Pimai is a poor rural village surrounded by tea and coffee farms approximately 130 km from Mutare, Zimbabwe. Many of Pimai’s population are families who fled Mutare after falling ill from HIV/AIDS and becoming too sick to work. Desperately seeking a place to feed and house their families, they moved out to the rural village. With the inevitably high death rate among many of those patients, scores of children have been orphaned and left in extreme vulnerability.

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Compelled to Compassion (MAL)

Lainess with the children she cares for - Thandi and her younger brother TamandaniOne of the children being impacted in Malawi is Thandi. She was 12-years old when her mother died and her father, as his culture customarily dictates for a male widow, abandoned the family. Thandi was left alone to care for her 18-month-old brother, Tamandani. Living in their rural Malawi village, Chinku, there were no social services or support to aid them.

The situation had seemed hopeless until a local woman named Lainess, whose church was mobilised by Royie and the Hands at Work team, came to their aid. Lainess had suffered the early death of her husband and had been struggling to make ends meet. But after hearing the stories of what was being done by the churches in nearby Mgwere, she felt compelled to participate in demonstrating the compassion of Christ and joined others in her community to become part of the Chinku volunteer care worker team. That’s when she decided to open up her home and take Thandi’s family under her care. Lainess does everything she can to fill the gap left by their parents; in order to secure milk to feed young Tamandani, Lainess regularly makes the day’s journey by foot to the city of Lilongwe where she is able to get milk from an organisation operating there.

Growing in understanding of the needs of vulnerable children in her community like Thandi & Tamandani, Lainess helped her church join with other churches in the area to launch a school and care centre. It’s a safe place for Thandi & Tamandani to come and just be like other children their age while Lainess is learning to be a mother for two more very grateful children.

A Defence for the Helpless (ZAM)

Six-year-old Maywa Tanda lives in a community in northern Zambia. At the age of three, she lost her father to a vicious attack by men in her community who left him to die from his serious injuries. Traumatized by the incident, Maywa’s mother fled to Luanshya with her and her sister Belinda. The two little girls became orphans soon after when their mother became ill and passed away.

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Walking with Wounded Children (SA)

Esther is a careworker at Siphumulile Home Based Care in South Africa“I was spending my life sewing comforters for a living to support my 3 children with my husband. I have always had a place in my heart for the children, especially those living below their means. In my community, if a hungry child came to my house, I would always feed her. God had blessed me with food every night and I was happy to share what I had with any child in need. It hurts my heart when a child tells me he’s hungry, it makes me feel like I am hungry also. So when a local clinic member told me about the group of Christian volunteers going out to care for those in need, I left my sewing behind to join them in becoming a careworker. I worked with several other women who cared about children as much as I did to fundraise so that we could feed the children of our community who needed it the most. We pooled together what we had raised and bought potatoes and machines to make chips to sell, and used the money to buy food parcels and other necessities to give to the children.” –Esther, a careworker from Siphumulilie Community Based Organisation who recently was involved in the Careworker training, Walking with Wounded Children.

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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.

South Africa/Swaziland Regional Conference Highlight

We just finished our first regional conference last week, and it was a huge success!  For many the highlight of the South Africa/Swaziland conference was Thulile sharing her story of helping children.

In November 2009, five brothers and sisters under the age of 12 huddled themselves in their stick and mud hut on a deserted hillside in rural Swaziland and watched their sick mother die. Their father had died in the same hut a year earlier, leaving the children to look after their sick mother for months before she passed away. They had not been attending school, had no school uniforms or books, and now they were alone without even a single day’s food.

After two weeks fending for their lives, a neighbor found the children eating mud on the bank of a river to keep their stomachs full.  He went to speak with Asondle Sive Bomake (ASB), a hands at work partner CBO in the area.  After the neighbor spoke with ASB, they assigned Thulile to visit the children. When Thulile first went to see the children they ran away.  Thulile said, "They didn't want to be around other people at all." 

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