Fifty Friends For Swaziland

80 Reported Kids Raped in Swaziland Since January

2010-03-08T15:38:00.000-08:00

via tomdavis.typepad.com

This just kills me. This means there are a lot more cases unreported. Please, please pray with us and send this to your friends to pray too. There's still so much work to do in Swaziland. This comes from our Country Director's blog - Jumbo and Kriek.

We have seen great progress in Ministry here in Swaziland, but when you read articles like this in the Observer this morning you know we still have ways to go to protect the children of Swaziland from all the predators roaming around. We are moving into the Marula season and alcohol abuse will be much higher the next 2 months.

Please join with us in a special prayer today for the protection and healing of the most precious in the eyes of our Father. Here is the article in the Swazi Observer of March 8, 2010

"ABOUT 80 children have been raped in Swaziland in the last two months, police have said. Statistics released by late last week indicate that from January to the end of February, at least 121 rape incidents were reported in the country, and more than two-thirds of these involved children.
Such alarming figures have fuelled the call for urgent passing of the Domestic Violence and Sexual Offences Bill into law.

Police Director of Domestic Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Senior Superintendent Leckinah Magagula has raised an alarm, especially to women and children - who are major targets of abuse. Senior Superintendent Magagula encouraged parents to keep a ‘hawk-eye' on their children, particularly during the current marula season. The seasonal marula brew and alcohol abuse had been cited as the leading cause for most rape cases in the country. Magagula said a number of children were raped on the way home after school and some at their respective homes.

Police have warned that most children were raped by people well known to them. The statistics show that they are in danger from their siblings, parents, uncles, neighbors and helpers. The unprecedented increase in rape cases has fuelled police to call upon parliament to urgently pass the Domestic Violence and Sexual Offences Bill to Law. Senior Superintendent Magagula observed that the country was using outdated laws with light penalties against the perpetrators. She prayed that parliament would apply the same urgency it show when passing the Human Trafficking Law. The country is stuck with pre-colonial laws such as the Crimes Act of 1889 and the Girls and Women's Protection Act of 1920. In essence, such laws cripple the efficiency of the judicial system and do not effectively address the evolving trends of abuse. "It is high time perpetrators are given harsher sentences," she said.

The Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Bill have been tabled in both Houses of Parliament and this legislation seeks to address some major gaps which appear in the current laws dealing with sexual offences and domestic violence. For instance, it has broadened the definition of rape to cover not only unlawful sexual intercourse with another but also unlawful sexual acts committed under certain circumstances, including any coercive manner, under false pretence or by fraudulent means, under duress, fear of violence or psychological oppression."

Book Review: Love Mercy

2010-03-01T23:00:00.000-08:00

I just finished the book Love Mercy by Lisa Samson and Ty Samson, a mother-daughter duet who travel to Swaziland and recount their journey of experiencing the kingdom of God. These woman actually traveled with Children's HopeChest and visited our carepoint. I was first compelled to read their story because I wanted to hear more about Swaziland but found myself struck by the authors' candid honesty regarding the questions and struggles they were faced with.

Throughout their journey to Swaziland, the authors relate stories of people they encountered. I couldn't forget the story they told about one couple who gave up everything to help the abandoned babies of Swaziland.

As Samson describes, "ABC became the first adoption agency in Swaziland. Local police now know where to drop off children they find who have been discarded and left to die. Charlotte, a little girl I held in my lap, was found by the river in a garbage bag. Another boy was buried in a shallow grave, the upturned earth noticed by a neighbor, who dug into the hole and found the child.

It all started with a woman with four things---a car, some bread, a jar of peanut butter, and a loving heart...

A housewife and stay-at-home mother, Robin prayed," Lord, use me" and meant it. She heard about some hungry kids living up the road in a squatter camp. Many were told "I wish you were dead" by the adults in their lives. Some were simply abandoned. She started by making them peanut butter sandwiches."

Samson goes on to describe the events leading to Robin and Gerald adopting their son and taking care of hundreds of abandoned kids. It's definitely the stories of ordinary people like this couple that are so moving and make the idea of living outside our comfort zone seem not so uncomfortable after all.

photo credit: Children's HopeChest

Bad news.

2010-03-01T16:22:00.000-08:00

We just received some bad news. The piece of luggage the Children's HopeChest Vision Team had, with the pencil pouches and sponsor mail, was detained by customs in Swaziland. Unfortunately, this is something that just happens and there was no way to get any of the items back.

I encourage you all to keep writing to your kids---especially now, knowing they weren't able to receive our gifts and make sure to utilize the online function that allows you to send an email version of your letter.

To do this go to hopechest.org and click on the "write" tab on the upper right side of the page.

On a more positive side, the team from Swaziland is back in the U.S. and we are anxiously waiting to hear their stories and see if they have new pictures of the kids. I will keep you posted!

Gifts

2010-02-05T15:10:00.000-08:00

A team of people are headed out in a week to visit the kids at our carepoint. A lot of sponsors have been asking about sending gifts to the kids, however, it's a little tricky as not all the kids are sponsored yet and not all of the sponsors may be able to participate. We need to make sure that all the kids are treated fairly and that no one is left out.

But, we found a way to send gifts to all of the 170 kids that would be fun, fair, and easy to pack. We are sending these cute pencil pouches to all the kids which include a pencil, eraser, ruler, pencil sharpener, and stickers.

If you would like to make a contribution toward the cost of these gifts you can hit the "donate" button on the side of this blog under the "Pencil Pouch Gift Fund". The pencil pouches came out to $1.50 a piece so this ended up being a cheap and easy gift to send. I'm open to more suggestions for future gifts so please let me know if you have any other ideas!

Have you noticed?

2010-01-11T15:23:00.000-08:00

We now have one more sponsor added to our group! (I know, you probably didn't notice because there has been a lack of blogging lately) Slowly but surely, we are getting closer to our goal of 50 kids being sponsored.

If you are interested, this sweet girl needs a sponsor family. email me at meggan lambesis at gmail dot com

Do you have room in your heart...

2009-12-08T17:19:00.000-08:00

for this little guy? He's twelve years old and is in 4th grade. He lives with his parents and six siblings. He lives in Manzini, which is a very poor neighborhood that has a high rate of unemployment which prevents parents from sending their kids to school and leaves the kids in a very vulnerable position. The sponsorship of this little guy will provide for his basic needs and also let him know that there is someone out there that cares about him. Email me at megganlambesis at gmail dot com if you want to sponsor him!

Pictures of the Carepoint

2009-11-24T15:15:00.000-08:00

A family just recently visited our carepoint and spent some time with the kids---Here are some of the pictures they took. Do you recognize your little one?

The Kids

2009-11-22T22:03:00.000-08:00

As of right now we have 27 kids that have been connected with sponsors! Here are some of the sweet kids that now have someone who won't let them be forgotten.

We still have more kids available---Let me know if you would like to join us in caring for these little ones.

One Hundred Crashing Jetliners

2009-09-19T16:51:00.000-07:00

I just started reading The Hole in Our Gospel, by Richard Stearns, the president of World Vision. I bought the book two days ago and am on page 106 already---to say this book is amazing is an understatement. I just read the following passage and am floored. I think it's easy to read statistics and allow them to go right over our head because they are just a bunch of numbers. Stearns brings humanity to statistics when he writes,

"Whenever a major jetliner crashes anywhere in the world, it inevitably sets off a worldwide media frenzy covering every aspect of the tragedy. I want you to imagine for a moment that you woke up this morning to the following headline: "One Hundred Jetliners Crash, Killing 26,500." Think of the pandemonium this would create across the world as heads of state, parliaments, and congresses convened to grapple with the nature and causes of this tragedy. Think about the avalanche of media coverage that it would ignite around the globe as reporters shared the shocking news and tried to communicate its implications for the world...

Now imagine that the very next day, one hundred more planes crashed--and one hundred more the next, and the next, and the next. It is unimaginable that something this terrible could ever happen.

But it did--and it does.

It happened today, and it happened yesterday. It will happen again tomorrow. But there was no media coverage. No heads of state, parliaments, or congresses stopped what they were doing to address the crisis, and no investigations were launched. Yet more than 26,500 children died yesterday of preventable causes related to their poverty, and it will happen again today and tomorrow and the day after that. Almost 10 million children will be dead in the course of a year. So why does the crash of a single plane dominate the front pages of newspapers across the world while the equivalent of one hundred planes filled with children crashing daily never reaches our ears? And even though we now have the awareness, the access, and the ability to stop it, why have we chosen not to? Perhaps one reason is that these kids who are dying are not our kids; they're somebody else's."

Our hope is that through this Swazi sponsorship, there will be a children saved from becoming this statistic. We still have room if you would like to join our community and for those of you waiting to get your kids, they are coming very soon!

Sponsorship kits are coming

2009-09-05T16:09:00.001-07:00

That's right! I should have all the profiles of our sweet kids sometime next week and will start matching them with all of you. And, we still need more sponsors SO if you would like to join our community or know of anyone that would like to join please let me know!

Do Something Now

2009-09-01T08:51:00.000-07:00

Here's a powerful video from Children's Hopechest shot in Swaziland. Because of your help, these children will be set free from their slavery, will be fed, clothed, and healed. I'm so excited to meet our little ones---I should have their packets very soon!

(We also have kids that still need sponsors---let me know if you want to be a part of this community!)

Do Something Now from Children's HopeChest on Vimeo.

Gugu's Story

2009-08-30T16:14:00.000-07:00

The thing I love about Children's Hopechest is that their response to the orphan crisis is to come alongside someone who is already doing great things for the local community and provide resources for that individual to continue helping those in need. Instead of coming into a country and forcing their model onto a particular situation, they merely build up what's already at work. A case in point is with our carepoint in Swaziland. Hopechest found a Swazi woman, Gugu, who had created a school for kids who didn't have anywhere else to go. This article was written two years ago by a woman who visited Gugu and the carepoint we will be sponsoring.

River of Life School - Gugu's Story

Posted in poverty by Ericka Bennett on 9/4/2007

Squatter Camp - Manzini, Swaziland

It was less than a mile outside the city, but the moment I stepped into the squatter camp I felt a world away from anything civilized. The stench of human waste and rotting garbage was inescapable; I began to think we’d arrived at the city dump. This could not be a place where people lived! A few steps farther and dilapidated structures surrounded me, made from mud and sticks, or remnants of tin, plastic, or cardboard – they barely resembled what I would call a building. "The tool sheds back home are more stable!" I thought to myself as we continued through camp, searching for the "River of Life" school.

Where could a "River of Life be" in this place? As my group continued through camp, I couldn’t help but wonder. "Life" was not a word that came to mind as I looked around at a place so devoid of beauty. I was overwhelmed at the poverty surrounding me. Approximately 46% of the people in Swaziland are infected with AIDS, and I was in the midst of the poorest and most desperate among them. "Death," "hopelessness," and "despair" – these were the words I was contemplating...

And then I met her.

She was teaching the children with purpose and passion when we walked into the room. Instantly, I sensed they both loved and respected her. It wasn’t long until I understood why.

Her name is Gugu, and she started the River of Life School. Full of childlike faith and infectious laughter, she easily captivates everyone around her. She loves to tell stories, especially about how God is at work in the children at school. Her eyes sparkle when she talks, but behind them lie wisdom that easily surpasses her age and schooling. Her passion is contagious; her attitude inspiring. Life surrounds her.

It was never Gugu’s intention to start a school, only a Bible Club, which she began in 1999. Then, in 2003, she made a horrific discovery. "When we began," she said, "they were doing sexual abuse among them. Then I asked them, 'Why?! How could we stop this?' They said, 'We are at home – we are not at school – so we even do it during the daytime.' So I asked them, 'If I start a school, will you stop this?' And they said, 'Yes,' so I started a school."

In a place of death, hopelessness, and despair, Gugu sought to give hope. She made it her mission to give the children around her a future, and she set to work. In a country with no government funding for education, schooling is impossible for children in poverty. School fees usually cost around $175 US dollars – about 1,225 South African Rand. Gugu’s River of Life School, however, doesn’t even require one Rand.

"There are no fees," Gugu told me. "At first, I asked them for just 10 Rand. Only 10 Rand (approximately $1.30 US dollars)... but they couldn’t even raise 10 Rand. Then I decided, 'I'm not going to quit because of that, as long as the children are raised up in a way that tomorrow, they could be somebody.'"

And so, she didn't quit. Starting with 103 students in one room, she began to teach. They didn’t have desks at first, so the children used a door laid across some bricks. Because of their troubled home lives, she dealt with violence among the children in the beginning but since has taught them commitment and discipline. "This is a deal between me and the children," said Gugu. "They want to come. I have no problems with them now. Before, they were like animals – fighting and all those things – but now, those things have stopped. They want to come. Even in the rain and the cold they will come. Now I know if I die, commitment has been taught into their lives."

Commitment has definitely been taught into their lives, along with Life Skills, English, Math, SiSwati (the language of Swaziland), Social Science, and Religious Studies. Of the first 103 students, more than 20 have g one on to attend schools in the city because they learned their basics at River of Life. Of the 22 current students there, the older class (10 to 16 years old) stood and shared their testimony with us. We heard again and again, "When I came here, I couldn’t read or even write my name. Now I can read books, and write, and learn. And now I can read my Bible... and now I am a Child of God."

These were the words of the students we met at River of Life. These were the words that told us what they’d learned, but they were the same words that taught me something extraordinary. Gugu’s school doesn’t stop at the basics. It’s so much more than any curriculum; it is a place where these forgotten children learn respect, kindness, and compassion. It is a place where they find life, hope, and a future. It is a place where they see the love of God. In the midst of the death that surrounds them, it is their River of Life.

As we walked back through the refuse and out of the squatter camp, I took one last look around. I was still in a horrific place – poverty-stricken and crumbling around the poor souls living there. In my las t glance, I still knew this was a place of much death, hopelessness, and despair.

But today, I had learned something astounding at Gugu’s school. Today, I learned that our God brings life where there is death, hope in the midst of hopelessness, joy in despair, and beauty in the most unexpected places.

"Our God is alive and able to do immeasurable things!"
-Gugu

Ericka Bennett, a graduate from Auburn University, is from Alabama and recently moved to Georgia to work with Adventures in Missions after the orphans in Africa broke her heart. If you want to learn more about how you can help Gugu's school, contact Ericka via email - erickabennett(at)adventures.org.

you can also find this article here:

River of Life School - Gugu's Story

A place to be a girl

2009-08-19T13:21:00.000-07:00

(Swazi children at a Carepoint)

What is to become of a Swazi orphan with no one to take care of her?

Truck-Stop Girls

By M. CATHERINE MATERNOWSKA

Published: August 23, 2009

In May, I was traveling down a South African highway with a colleague and a driver, headed toward Swaziland. A private foundation had assigned me to assess a health clinic that it set up for truckers and the girls and women who trade sex with them for cash and goods. Truckers are well known to transmit H.I.V. up and down the highways. And Swaziland, a small, landlocked country dependent on its busy trucking corridors, is particularly troublesome. It has the highest H.I.V. rate in the world: one in three people is infected.

When we reached the Osheok border post, the Swazi official welcomed us, inspecting the vehicle efficiently. Apart from a gas station, a dozen roadside vegetable stands and some dingy bars, there was little activity in the little border town. Adjacent to the customs office, there was a small building fashioned from a shipping container with a hand-painted sign outside: "Truckers Wellness Center." It's an innovative way to set up a clinic. While papers are processed at customs, truckers use the clinic to obtain medications for "hot urine" and other sexually transmitted diseases.

We watched truckers filing into the clinic throughout the evening, but there were no girls. So I wandered up and chatted with the border official, who said: "You want girls? Then go to Matsapha. They'll attack your car!" Matsapha is the main overnight hub for truckers. It was well past 11 p.m., but we decided to go there. As we drove, the "majestic mountains, fertile valleys and lush forests" described in Swaziland guidebooks appeared only as shadows.

Matsapha was still, almost abandoned. A lone gas attendant directed us to the edge of town and an old sign on a hill for the Economy Flats motel. The driver slowed, and as the official predicted, about 10 girls in tiny dresses and little shorts swarmed around our vehicle. But when they saw my female colleague and me, they screamed and went off. I sent the driver out to negotiate. "Tell them we just want to talk," I said. "I'll buy them dinner." The lure of food was enough. Three girls got in the car, and we drove down a narrow, beaten track through the trees to a rundown complex of rough cement-block buildings. This was their home. This was where the truckers slept and the girls earned their meals.

We sat on stones outside the barren rooms and talked with the young women. Dozens of girls, between the ages of 14 and 24, were hanging around the compound. Men smoking cigarettes and drinking liquor walked up and down the path and in and out of the cement-block buildings. The girls were alert to one another's needs, listening for sounds of violence in the rooms or the shouts of the younger girls closer to the road.

I met eyes with a 16-year-old named Mbali. She was thin, with close-cropped hair and a beautiful smile. I offered her a packet of crackers, which she ripped open with her teeth. After wolfing them down, she looked at me and said, "I hate having sex." Her parents were dead; she was unable to pay her school fees, had been abused by an overburdened aunt - and now, like many of the girls, she was a runaway. Nearly one in four Swazi girls is H.I.V. positive, and Mbali is one of them. Her treatment options are limited. "I have nowhere to sleep unless I find a man," she said. "Sometimes I don't have money and food for two days. A man without a condom will pay more, so obviously I say O.K. because I need money."

She continued: "I am so tired. These men are so rough."

I've been working with women and girls for over two decades now - in Haiti, in Zimbabwe, in Tanzania and in Kenya - and I have heard this story often. But this one, deep in the forest of Swaziland, seemed so desperate. I was as surprised as she was when I suddenly burst into tears.

Mbali held my face and said, "Don't cry!" She hugged me. How absurd can life be? A 16-year-old, H.I.V.-positive orphan was comforting me while I wept. It was a strange way to carry on an interview, but that's what we did. I asked her what she needed most. "Someplace safe," she said. "Someplace to be a girl. Someplace where I won't have to have sex with men anymore."

The driver of our car appeared, carrying takeout food from a nearby bar. I could hear trucks speeding along the highway through the forest. I kept thinking about what Mbali asked for: a safe place to be a girl. How strange. How simple.

M. Catherine Maternowska is an assistant professor at the University of California, San Francisco, and a consultant to the Nike Foundation and the North Star Foundation.

Gugu's Carepoint is a place of safety, a place to be a girl. With your help, the children here will not have to wonder what means they must endure to get a meal and to just survive.

This article is from the New York Times and can be found here as well.

Gugu's School

2009-08-18T16:39:00.000-07:00

Here is a video of the carepoint we are sponsoring that is named after the woman, Gugu, who opened it for the destitute children in the surrounding area.

This is definitely one of the most heart-wrenching sights I've seen in awhile but you can help bring change into these kids' lives! Let me know if you would like to participate in helping one of the 230 kids at this carepoint beat the odds that are stacked against them.

Getting started

2009-08-10T15:26:00.001-07:00

"What happens when one person believing in compassion becomes a community?

---They have the chance to brighten the world..."
It is our hope to brighten the world for fifty orphans in Swaziland through this group of fifty friends. Our goal is simple, we want to connect our community of friends to another beautiful community of children who need our help. We will do this through:

Connection--We have the opportunity to write letters to our children and connect to others in this Swaziland group through various online forums such as this blog and facebook.

Provision--We will take care of the children's physical and spiritual needs through monthly donations of $34.

Visits--We will plan trips throughout the year so we can visit the children.

Commitment--We will support our children for at least 3 years financially, pray continually for them, and, most importantly, make sure that they are not Forgotten.