A hot day at the Care Point in Mafambisa - Tuesday 25 February

 Tuesday 25 February - A hot day at Mafambisa Care Point

Alongside the Holy home Visits today ( see below) it was a busy day the Care Point.  We arrived and were greeted by the Care Workers and we soon found out that there was a problem with the large water container (a 'JoJo') which is used for all cooking, drinking and washing at the Care Point.  A leak had developed and the precious water was being lost.  Conversations were had with neighbours and a loan was arranged for a new spare one for the Care Point... but it had to be transferred over a fence... watch what happened...

Once the JoJo was in it's new place, we then needed to transfer the water from the leaking old container to the new larger one...Mr Leonard to the rescue!

The new water container works!

After all this drama and activity the walk to the Holy Home Visits was peaceful - but with the temperature around 28C in the shade and very little wind, it felt super hot, but some of the team needed to go on Holy Home Visits...

Stella writes...
Today me and Richard met a woman on our Holy Home visit called Jemima. Our walk consisted of several rocky hills and stretches of areas with no shade- it was about a 45-minute walk from the Mafambisa Care Point. When we arrived at the home, only Jemima was present seeing as her three younger children were at school. Her eldest son worked at a local tavern, which meant he only arrived home in the early hours of the morning to quickly sleep before leaving again. In the home there were three boys (two of whom were twin boys aged 15) and one younger girl, (who is her granddaughter)  who was 8 called Constance. The youngest three of these children all attended the Care Point regularly.

 Jemima had repeatedly expressed her concern for her children growing up. When asked if she had any special prayer request, all she wished for was that they focused on their studies and made a life for themselves outside of her care. Hands At Work had also been involved in helping Jemima with her children’s paperwork; now that they have the proper legal South African documents, they can sit their exam equivalent of our GCSEs, allowing them to have better jobs when they’re older. Part of Jemima’s concern, especially for Constance, is linked to her upbringing. Her dad in Mozambique had pulled her out of school at a young age to maintain the fields on his farm.

 Thanks to both Jemima and Hands at Works’ effort, the future for the household we visited is beginning to show hope and good fortune.
Stella Richards

Eleanor writes...

Today, Tony and I went to visit a single mother called Stephanie who had three children: two daughters and a son... Clarissa who is 10, Theresa who is 8 and Gift who is 5. When we arrived, Stephanie told us her heart-breaking story of her past where she was kidnapped from her mother by her biological father after growing up with her stepfather who she saw as her caring and loving father. We inferred that the father was jealous of the new and happy family that the mother had rebuilt and wanted to take that away from Stephanie. She is doing piece-work, (informal/casual labour) but it only pays her £25 a month  and that's all she has to feed her whole family. The house they own is rent free if she looks after the house and takes care of the area around it.  Stephanie has not had contact with her mother since the birth of her first child we could tell that she is deeply missing her mother.  Tony and I are hoping that Hands will help her reconnect and contact her mother to tell her that they are all okay and she now has three kids. We hope in the future that their situation improves, and Stephanie can speak to her mother.
Eleanor Cowing
 

Erin writes...
Today, Isabelle, Eve, Molly and I went on home visit to Joyce’s home where she lives with two of her four children along with her husband, who is the Dad to their youngest, Martha. The eldest three children and the mother do not have South African papers but the Dad does and so does Martha. However, due to corruption they do not receive support from the government through grants for any of the children. The husband wants to move to Mozambique and to sell the house but Joyce does not want to move back over there. However, the husband could take Martha with him which would leave Joyce in an vulnerable situation as he owns the house and controls the money. Hands at work are helping the family, with the children attending the care house and looking into housing options for Joyce. 
Erin Price

After returning from the home visits some of us played with the children whilst others helped with preparing the meal.   We had been given some books from St Leonard's School in Dunston to pass on to the children at the Care Point, as well as some cards from Chasetown Community School and posters from Wolgarston students.  We tried hard to pass them on in an orderly way... but there was such a great deal of excitement and a kind of lovely chaos emerged, with some very excited children taking delight in the gifts they were being given.

It was moving to see something interesting and simple bringing such joy to  the children at the Care Point

Shortly after this we had a very heavy rain storm and we made a dash to the mini bus to go back to the Hands at Work hub.

We have been making some mini videos of the things that each day of our visit has involved. They are usually less then 2  minutes long and some are just a few second.  If you would like to take a look you can find them here...  https://www.youtube.com/@Link4LifeSA/videos 

Richard Westwood