We started our day in rural Malindza Village. We toured Mpaka High School where our 3 Malindza
orphans attend school. The school was
large and appears to be high performing.
They serve a decent hot school lunch every day (including chicken on
Thursdays!). There is also vocational
training (woodworking, foods & nutrition, home econ, etc) on site. While the teacher was showing us around, our
lovely Nomalungelo appeared. She noticed
us from her classroom window and came to say hello. I am sooooo happy that we are breaking
through her shy shell! We promised the
girls we’d be back to pick them up from school but we needed to stop by Sharon’s
house to set up her new GHFP solar panels.
Sharon’s grandmother was waiting for us at the road with her
two littlest ones (She cares for 4 orphaned grandchildren). She was nonstop
hugging and dancing saying that she prayed for a miracle to help her with
Sharon and God listened and delivered Give Hope, Fight Poverty. She kept repeating “Nothing is impossible
with God. One day this thing (AIDS) will
be finished and Sharon will not need any more tablets (ARVs).” We found out that our sweet Sharon is
positive from a mother to child transmission at birth. Her father died when she was born and her
mother died a couple of years later.
Sharon’s grandmother was then given this child who she described as a
bag of bones. She knew something was
wrong and suspected it was HIV. She tied
her to her back with a blanket (normal "Mom" way to transport an infant) and made
the long commute to Siteki to have Sharon tested. She said that Sharon was so
light weight she didn’t know if she was still attached to her back or if she
had fallen off on one of the bumpy dirt roads.
Her HIV illness suspicions were confirmed and at 2 years old Sharon
started anti-retroviral treatments. The
Gogo said that for the last 13 years she prayed that she would not die until
Sharon was old enough to be able to make the long trek to Siteki by herself to
get her tablets (HIV medication) every couple of months on her own. She said that now that we are sponsoring her
schooling and Sharon is old enough to retrieve her tablets, she is ready to die
when God takes her. Even before the
words were out of her mouth, the GHFP team immediately started crying. How could the world ever be the same without
her amazing spirit? I wouldn’t even want
to imagine it.
Just as we tried to compose ourselves, I receive a phone call
from our little Philo in eLangeni saying that she has ringworm all over her
body and wants our help. Literally after
I hang up the phone I get another phone call from a scared little girl saying that our Malindza orphan
Nothando is pregnant and has dropped out of school. We told Philo we would bring her medication
tomorrow and we told Nothando that we will always love her no matter what and
that we will support her and make sure that she is able to finish high
school. She was afraid to tell us as she
thought we would turn our backs on her.
How can you turn your back on one of your own?! Life in Swaziland is overwhelming. Sometimes I think I need to be here full
time. Other times I think if I were here full time I
would die of a broken heart at 35. But
all of the time I am thankful for all of the people – YOU – who are helping us
help these amazing children who literally have no one else.
At the end of the day we receive a plea from our eLangeni
primary school saying that it is only halfway through the school year (their
school year is from Jan-Dec) and their pit latrines are already
overflowing. There is literally fecal
matter on the bathroom floor now as the toilets have reached their
capacity. They said that each
port-a-potty should only have 25 students per year using it. They have 634 students and only 8
toilets. A recipe for sanitary
disaster. We (GHFP) are going to build 8
more pit latrines, another hand-washing station, and a soap dispensary for our
eLangeni primary kids. If you would like
to contribute, please donate online. Any
amount helps!!: http://www.ifightpoverty.org/donate.html
Celebrate Swaziland... there is so much to emulate here. Compassion, empathy, tradition, community, selflessness, and LOVE!
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