We helped around 400 children today at our mobile
clinics. We started at Maseko’s church
of orphans and saw 129 children. While
we were there, someone asked to speak with me outside. I imagined she wanted to ask for more
medicine/toothbrushes/toothpaste/sanitary pads/soap or whatever else we were
giving away… what I didn’t expect, however, was for her to ask if I would adopt
her baby. She is due in two weeks, the
father lives in South Africa, she already has two children and cannot take care
of the ones she has – let alone this upcoming addition. Unfortunately international adoption from
Swaziland isn’t legal, so even if we wanted to – it wouldn’t have been
possible. I wonder what will happen to
the sweet unborn child…
We had started the day at 6:30am and didn’t leave the church
until 12:30pm. We traveled to our New
Hope Center where we were greeted with a production by our children! Maseko has a friend in the Police band who is
training our students in song and dance.
They had prepared a few songs for us and it was such a special
treat! We then treated all of our
children, and those from the nearby community seeing almost 300. The entire day, I kept seeing the medications
we purchased running low and worried.
However, it was like the bible story about the fish that became
plentiful. Miraculously, the medication
did not run out until the very end and there was only one child (with bloody
urine and likely a bladder/kidney infection) that we were unable to treat and had
to refer to the hospital.
After the clinic, the children had a huge feast of chicken,
rice, and salad. Then, Ty opened the
trunk and surprised the children with soccer jerseys (thanks Kaser family), practice
jerseys (thanks Peyton Bendix) and the brand new balls and goal posts (Thanks
Cheryl Brier). We even hired a professional
coach to train our team of orphans.
Watching them run around the field with a new excitement was so
beautiful. The pro coach is only able to
come on the weekends as he too is a Police man so the father of one of our
vulnerable children volunteered to come every single day after school for the
children to play. He even ran home and
returned with a whistle and started teaching the kids strategy. Honestly, I anticipated it just being a fun
activity for the children to kick around the ball…but my husband tried joining
them and got schooled by the 2nd and
3rd graders (don’t tell him I told you that!).
It’s always hard to say goodbye. Today at church we were joined by Sharon,
Nothando, and Nomalungelo – 3 of our Malindza high school girls. Sharon said that things at home are worse
than ever (her grandfather is abusive) and Nothando wanted more time to be able
to show me her recent school work – there is never enough time.
If you’d like to donate toward our mission: www.ifightpoverty.org/donate.html
or if you’d like to join us on an upcoming trip to Swaziland, email me: anniefightspoverty@gmail.com We would love to have your help!
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