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| Audress digs a channel to keep the water out |
We have taken quite a few photos already and you can view them on our Flickr album or click on the picture at the right of the page.
Here are some of the reflections of three students who visited different homes.
Jessica writes…
Before the children started arriving, we all headed off to our
home visits. My group consisted of: Izzy, Richard, Dan, Dudu and I – we only had
a short walk to the home where we heard about the family and their background.
When we arrived, many children were playing outside and Harmony came out to
greet us.
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| Wet washing up |
We learnt that Harmony has a son who currently lived with her, alongside his many children. Amongst the children, was another child, Promise a girl aged seven.
Promise is not a blood relative of anyone else living in the home and was placed there by Hands at Work. We were told that Promise’s mother is a sex worker in Nelspruit ( the nearest city) and was living in conditions that are much too dangerous for a child to grow up in. Promise had already been attending the care point prior to her removal from her mother as she lived within a short distance from the Care Point and was eventually removed when Hands at Work felt they needed to intervene. Sadly, the care worker with whom she was living became sick and died and so, not long after, she was placed into the care of Harmony, who supports and cares for her, but needs financial help from the Promise’s mother as Harmony has very little money herself
The agreement for her to move into Harmony’s home was that Promise’s
mother would pay childcare and support from a distance. She agreed after a
large fight. However, the mother eventually stopped paying, stopped visiting
and stopped being involved in her daughter’s life, Harmony became unhappy and began
to struggle to support the daughter from her own pocket with no working member
of the family. Harmony wants the child removed from her house (as she cannot
afford the costs) but has been discouraged
from that solution by the support and involvement on Hands.
Hands at Work are working hard to find the mother and allow
the daughter to stay in Harmony’s home where she has finally been secure. Promise
continues to attend the Care Point and will be supported by Hands at Work to be
able to live in a secure home.
Today my group (Tony, Maria, Virginia Isabelle and I) visited
a woman who lives in Mafambisa called Lyric. We had the longest journey out of
the three groups, which included walking up several muddy and hilly landscapes.
Due to the ongoing rain, the roads and paths were very slippy so we had to be
careful what routes we chose to take. When we arrived we had to wait outside of
her house because she had just left to pick up her two youngest children from
school.
Lyric had four children in total- all of them being girls-
and three of them regularly spent time at the Care Point with the other kids.
Her eldest daughter, Princess, was 18 but did not live with her mum. She moved
to Mozambique with her boyfriend after running away from home countless times.
Those at Hands At Work and Lyric herself have been having trouble contacting
Princess as she doesn’t want to share her location in case they attempt to find
her. However, it’s speculated that she’s gone to seek medical attention for her
ongoing health issues with her eye, which has been flaring up recently.
Lyric told us about her house; it was a rental home which
had three beds and a decent amount of land outside where she was growing crops
and feeding chickens. Although the roof was slightly leaky when it rained and
space was very minimal, Lyric was thankful for her home, and didn’t want to
leave when her family asked her to move back to Mozambique. She also told us
that she was having trouble trying to find a stable source of income to support
her family and was relying partly on friends and neighbours for short-term
favours. At the end of our visit, she asked if we could pray that she could find
work and that her daughter was safe.
Whilst Lyric was a single mother having to raise her
children by herself, the support she has been getting from those at Hands at Work
and people close to her has seemed to be positively impacting both her and her family’s
quality of life.
Erin writes...
This morning, at relationship group the care workers
were sharing their struggles and the difficulties that they
have experienced. Cynthia was telling us about how her husband
has left her again and only comes back with no warning, which can often
cause Cynthia a lot of stress because she does not know the state he will
arrive in.
Today, we visited Cynthia’s home where she told us
her four children live with her and her grandchild. Her eldest daughter is
25 and is currently stuck finding a job which is also the same
for her son who is 20. The two other children go to school and the
daughter’s son stays with her but they eat at the care point and that is
the only meal they have a day. The two eldest children have the leftovers
that Cynthia brings home, if she can. Cynthia has said she finds the
situation very difficult and depressing and she does not want to move
back to her initial family home to Bushbuck Ridge (about 2 hours away) but
it may come to that cause she would then have the support of her wider family. She
lacks support from her husband because he could not find a job due to his
ID card being cancelled. We do not know
the reason for this but it has links to corruption. This has resulted in no
money coming into the house apart from the small amount they receive from child
benefits. All of Cynthia’s children have an ID card apart from
one who is in the process of getting one.
After returning to the care point we played with the children once again and also helped to serve the delicious food (pap and vegetable stew).
At the Care Point in Mafambisa, the children always sing and pray to thank God for the food they will receive before it is served to them. You can watch a short clip of one of the songs they sang today here... 'I'm going forward'