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

Hands at Work in Africa

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A New Level of Love and Devotion (DRC)

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An orphaned child isn’t an easy child to care for. Extended family members seldom expect the challenges that accompany the arrival of such a child. When Grace’s parents died before she even began school, she and her twin brother were taken in by their aunt and uncle, who struggled to care for the children and needed support.

Esperance Home-Based Care sent local volunteers to help care for the children, inviting them to attend the free community school and providing them with a meal each day. Then 6-year-old Grace became a patient in the home-based care when she suffered a serious burn on her leg. For three weeks, the volunteers paid special attention to Grace to ensure that her injury was treated and healed properly. Her uncle and aunt, still struggling to know how to care for these new children, were overwhelmed by the commitment of the volunteers and the attention they paid to this one tiny girl.

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Literacy School Expansion (NIG)

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Construction of a literacy school to benefit vulnerable women and children began in Kano, Nigeria in early November. Since 2007 local volunteers in Kano have operated literacy training out of a two-classroom building, but the need has outgrown the current space, requiring the construction of a new facility.

Women from the rural agricultural community of Nariya in Kano marry young and know little of life other than working the land alongside their husbands. The volunteers host groups of these women for three month stints in the farming off-season, teaching them the foundations of reading and writing in their single-building facility. The ability to read and write is a skill set to which these women have never been exposed. It is a skill set that opens them up to the world in a myriad of ways and an ability that, to lack, is isolating.

Better Learning in Zambia

The 277 students of Shekinah Glory community school are enjoying a new roof and toilet thanks to funding from Visionledd in Canada. Shekinah Glory is one of 12 community schools operating in Kabwe, Zambia. The school has been running without a roof for many years. Funding was secured to construct a new roof in mid-2008, but shortly after it was completed a big storm blew it off. The recent repairs funded by Visionledd provide a classroom setting that is conducive to better learning and, so, aid the children.

Food Security in Swaziland

    

Orphans have food security for six months in Kaphunga, Swaziland due to a successful maize crop grown at the homesteads of the volunteers. With the blessings of seed and fertilizer donated by WOW, ample rainfall and timely planting, the Asondle Sive Bomake volunteers were able to harvest 100% of the maize crop they planted at their homesteads.

To tell the story of this successful crop is not only to highlight an excellent planting year. It is a benchmark in the story of a group of volunteers, mobilized by one volunteer, a woman, Nomsa Lukhele. To know Nomsa, the founder and head of Asondle Sive Bomake Home-Based Care, is to know a woman after God’s own heart.

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.

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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.

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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.

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Waves Across Africa

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Carly2.jpg Have you ever stopped to consider your life and wondered how you got to where you are today? I often do! If you asked me three years ago to tell you where I would be today, in May 2008, I would never have guessed that I would be living in South Africa , a part of Hands at Work in Africa. The past 3 years have changed my life completely. My name is Carly, I’m an ordinary 28 year old woman, who was living an ordinary life in Sydney, Australia. I wasn’t the type of person who dreamt big or looked to do ‘missions’, I simply prayed that God would use me, in whatever way He chose. It’s been an adventure ever since…

View from the Ground

LizeMarie-in-Zambia.jpgby Lize-Marie Theron
For more than a year, I have worked as Hands at Work in Africa’s Human Resources officer, supporting projects across the continent from my office in South Africa. And this January I got my first opportunity to travel with Hands at Work in Africa CEO George Snyman to our projects in Zambia. It was an amazing experience that taught me many things.

We traveled between Kabwe and Luanshya, visitng project leaders and spending time with volunteers on the ground, where I learned much about giving. In Zambia I experienced an unknown freedom in the desire to give. In Zambia money had no meaning. Love was evident and it spoke to me. Of course money is what brings resources to those who serve on the ground, but it was obvious: money is not the solution to Zambia’s problems.

In Kabwe I experienced the heart and passion of a project

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Hands are at Work in the USA Office

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SanFrancisco.gifWith much excitement and joy we announce the official registration of Hands at Work in Africa (USA). Hands USA, as we call ourselves, was officially formed last fall, and our team and activities have continued to develop and grow from that initiation.

Our Roots

While we exist to work with all churches across the USA, it was with Wellspring Church that our passion to start Hands USA was born. I, along with my husband, Henry, and our 3 children, traveled with Wellspring to South Africa last July. We had decided to visit Africa as a family after hosting George and Carolyn at our home for dinner while they were visiting Wellspring Church in 2006. We had been touched by their commitment and compelled to look beyond ourselves here.

That same evening after our guests had left, Henry and I made the decision to go, but also to be open to whatever further involvement God might have for me in serving Africa rather than going back to work or school as I had anticipated in the near future. In Africa, I told George about this decision. His response was incredible. He said, " Lauren, we have been praying for a year about someone like you,

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Work Exploding in Zambia

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luanshya-training2.jpg Hands at Work’s initiatives in Zambia are certainly exploding. In West Zambia, incredible new projects are just breaking ground. In Kabwe and Luanshya existing projects are expanding as new communities are also brought into the family. Long-time Hands at Work leaders Sal and Robyn Hunziker recently returned from a 6-week trip to facilitate some of the expanding work across Zambia. Here is a brief snapshot of some of their work, provided by Robyn.

By the way, many readers still know the Hands at Work Luanshya property by its old name: “The Farm”. It’s been renamed, after a gigantic, signature tree growing in the middle of the property. In the Nyanja language the tree’s name is Kachele, representing fullness and vigor. So next time you visit you’ll be welcomed to: “Kachele Village”.

Visit to the D.R.C.

margaret_congo.jpgIn late August CEO George Snyman and home-based care trainer, Levy Mwenda, left to visit Margart and Dominic, our project leaders in the Democratic Republic of Congo. George and Levy report that despite a lack of government infrastructure and no access to ARVs, the amazing project continues to grow, showing love to the sick, caring for orphans, and recently beginning a program for the youth.

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Construction Continues

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Hands_Village1.jpgConstruction of the ground-breaking Hands at Work village continues! A large crew of local workers overseen by volunteer Michael Kaufman and construction manager Sal Hunziker have sweated out 10-hour days getting to roof level of the Footprints training and accommodation center and have also started the staff accommodation. A strong boost is expected on October 17 when a construction team from Westside King’s Church in Calgary arrives to lend a hand.

In a previous post it was written that Hands at Work “needs to be off ASM by the end of the year.” This was incorrecly taken by some readers to mean ASM was throwing us into the street on a whim. That is not the case. ASM is also a growing ministry, and a phased transfer over the next few months to the new property will be done in line with the expansion of both ministries. It was, in fact, ASM who generously provided the land for the new Hands at Work village. And the incredible opportunity to move together as a family of staff, footprints, and visitors to our own land far outweighs the challenges!