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.
56 South African church leaders completed a six-week
Hands at Work training program on July 9 on the church’s role in fighting
HIV/AIDS and caring for widows, orphans and the dying.
Situated in the province of Mpumalanga and bounded by Kruger Park to the east, the local municipality of Bushbuckridge is a neglected area that is suffering under the crippling weight of poverty, social disintegration, and HIV and AIDS.
With the mandate to capacitate locals to care for the poorest of the poor in their communities, Hands at Work has committed itself to helping start up four new home-based cares and multi-care centres in the Bushbuckridge area. These new efforts are concentrated in the north-east corner of Bushbuckridge; encompassing approximately twenty villages in a 280 square kilometre area. The residents have very little access to government health and social services. The first step towards starting up these home-based cares is to mobilize the pastors and Christian leaders in the community to begin actively caring for the poor, sick, dying, and orphaned within their community.
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.
Hands at Work founder George Snyman will be in Western Canada Aug 9 to 19 speaking to churches and other organisations. The following key events are open to the general public:
Sunday, August 10 – Westside King’s Church, Calgary, AB – 9:29am, 11:11am, and 6:46pm
Tuesday, August 12 – Lakeview Church, Saskatoon, SK – 7:00pm
Sunday, August 17 – First Assembly Church, Calgary, AB – 9:00am and 11:00am
For more information on these events or to arrange a meeting with George, please contact: deb@manbiz.com.
It is wonderful news that we have just completed a week long visit from Hands at Work in Africa founder George Snyman and co-worker Lynn Chotowetz, who came all the way from Masoyi, South Africa, to help us consolidate our new partnerships and forge the way forward.
Through the generosity and assistance of Westside Kings Church in Calgary, a number of joint events and strategy sessions were scheduled to keep George and Lynn fully engaged with the work at hand.
This trip was essential to help Hands Canada define our role, and establish partnerships with key organizations. We now have a renewed sense of commitment that with the support of the church and community, ordinary folks like us can make a difference, and that we can positively affect change in Africa.
George began his mission in Canada by speaking... (read on)
"Statistics turn people into a number... A quantity... A thing... But
AIDS doesn't happen to 20 million people in the same way. It happens 20
million different ways one person at a time.
Each story is different. Each story deserves to be told by itself."
Check out facelessbook.com. There are currently 4 profiles up there now, all stories from orphans, caregivers and volunteers of Hands at Work projects. Courtesy of Dave Zak.
Deputy Chief of Mission for PEPFAR, Don Teitlebaum (R) with orphans from WINROCK program in Masoyi, South Africa."Hands at Work
provides home-based care services for Orphans and Vulnerable Children
in the Masoyi community. Through its PEPFAR grant of R5,250,000, Hands at Work
Africa has assisted 6,500 children and over 1,200 primary caregivers.
With PEPFAR assistance, the organization hopes to reach 100,000
children in sub-Saharan Africa by 2010."
Taken from: PEPFAR Program Awards More than 700,000 rand for Ten Mpumalanga HIV/AIDS Organizations
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…A long-time Hands at Work supporter shaves his head in support of a Hands at Work project. See the video:
In March, long-time Hands at Work in Africa partner Westside King’s Church sent a team of congregation members to work with the Hands at Work Luanshya Service Centre supporting the launch of a new home-based care (HBC) organization in the community of Mulenga.
Below is the team’s report of their activities training HBC volunteers, mentoring youth, and generally participating in Zambian life.
The Hands at Work in Africa Int'l conference was a huge success with over 75 attendees from 12 different countries.
For those of you that were able to attend here is a file full of all the presentations and handouts from the event. Thanks for coming! See you next year!
George Snyman, founder of Hands at Work in Africa, is touring North America and the UK over the next month and a half. If you are interested in a more detailed itinerary with all the locations that George will be speaking at please email: lynn@handsatwork.org.
A new session of Footprints is upon us! How exciting to think that this will be our 4th group of Footprints volunteers to join the Hands at Work team for mid-term volunteer service. Training officially began on 25 February 2008, but preparations began long ago, including prayerful consideration of which projects will receive the volunteers when they complete their 10 weeks training and depart to act as “scaffolding” at our projects across Africa. Please remember to pray for them.
by 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
Brook Bruns
With 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.
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,
• Regular monthly giving • Financial Statement for first 17 months as a registered charity • Your Will, Their future - a legacy from you will be such a welcome gift to ensure a future of hope and fulfilment for those affected • Schools Service - From infant classes to agricultural students, talks are tailored suitably • Hairless for Hands! GBP1395 raised! Forthcoming fundraising events: throw yourself off St Peter’s Church for Hands at Work Abseiling with local scouts - “hands...at work... in Africa” photo exhibition - “An evening of Words and Music” - performed by singers of the much acclaimed Midlands Chorale and The Keele Poets - whose poetry reaches parts of your soul no-one else ever has • Christmas is coming...
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 22nd, 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.
