Swaziland Blog

March 2009, I took a motorcycle trip around Kruger National Park. Delivered food and clothing donations along the way.

Starting at Hectorspruit, South Africa. First I went down to Swaziland. Then, north through Mozambique. West across southern Zimbabwe. Back to South Africa, completely circling the park.

My bike was a Honda CTX200 Bushlander. Great adventure!

The three boys we have been caring for at the Safehouse are growing strong and healthy. They have learned English, and have been attending the free school at Moyeni. This year they will attend the English language public school about a mile from the house. The school charges students about $200 for the year.

This is a recent photo of Susan with the 3 boys. We are very proud of them, and can really see the work God is doing in them. Zakhile (right), is very responsible with his health issues, Fana (left), is a fantastic story teller and Mancoba loves to share with everybody in need.

We have assistance from volunteer Cuban doctors. The clinic visits outlying areas where the locals have no access to hospitals. Many of the visitors have never been outside of their small townships and rarely have seen even a nurse. Donations of medical supplies are greatly needed.

Labels: cuban doctor, mobile clinic, swaziland, volunteer

A location has been found to accommodate some of the children unable to find a safe place to stay. Fana, 7, could not stay at his foster home because the foster mother was keeping him home from school so he could work for her. She also locked him out some nights if she was unhappy with him. Manoba was driven away from his Aunt's home because the Uncle would beat him and her when Manoba was around. So she kicked him out. We are still looking for funding to hire a full time caretaker and to cover other expenses of renting the 4 bedroom house. This will be a good ongoing project for some individual or organization to take on. Dámaris, of Guatemala City in Guatemala, Central America, will supervise the house. Dámaris (pictured) has been a volunteer with the Moyeni Project for several months.

Tanya, Serena and Micha from the Vancouver area just spent a week at the mission. They stayed with some of the other volunteers and spent time helping in the classrooms. They also went on home visits, did recreation with the kids and helped in minor first-aid situations.

We have been keeping an eye out for properties that we can use as a "safe house", since it may be cheaper and faster to buy then build one from scratch. So we found this very large 8+ bedroom complex in Siteki. It is well situated at the very edge of town, on the bus routes, 5 minutes walk to the markets, plenty of room to expand, motivated sellers, and has a beautiful view of the valley. The bad news is that it has sat empty for years and needs extensive interior remodeling. Remodeling may take 2 months and cost some $20,000. Asking price is US $85,000. But we think it would be a great bargain at US $55,000.
As a safe house we would install a resident manager and allow endangered children and difficult to place children there temporarily. There is a critical need for this as many vulnerable kids have no suitable alternative. Some families take in unrelated children to use them as unpaid laborers.
We are seeking donors, sponsors to get this project started as soon as possible. Please help.

In April a group of volunteers from the South Africa Vredelist Dutch Reformed Church spent a week helping in many ways. They trained our teachers in teaching and disciplinary techniques. They also organized some sports events, conducted a dance exercise class, and generally enjoyed fraternizing with the children. They donated a PC with educational software installed, and gave a brand new color TV plus a new DVD player. We welcome more educational software donations for PC or Macintosh, and childrens DVD movies. We have also recently entertained volunteer guests from Orlando, Florida, USA.

This boy seems to have a broken spirit. He never laughs, just stares emotionlessly, or looks down. He does not want to take your hand if you offer it and doesn't respond to hugs. After discovering that he had many genital warts, we scheduled him for an operation to remove them at Good Shepherd Hospital last week. He was very unhappy about the pain afterwards and stood by his bed for hours crying. Friday, we took some ice cream and chocolate to him and all the kids in the pediatric ward. His "granny", whom he stays with earns about $8.00 a day as a cleaner at the hospital. She looks after 10 or 12 children in her home.

These kids go to the Moyeni school in Siteki, Swaziland. I will be doing some individual interviews soon to tell a few of their stories. Most of the students are orphaned or abandonded. They stay with relatives, family friends or volunteer caretakers. As "outsiders" they often don't get the love, attention, respect or kindness the caretakers may normally give their own kids. They also get viewed as competition for the meager food, clothing and attention available in the household.

Marcos has been traveling around southern Africa for several months. He was recently in Mozambique where he spent time with friends on a treasure recovery ship. While in Swaziland (Bulembu) he visited the ABC Ministries, where Robin and Gerry Rigter care for about 24 orphans. And he spent a few days with us in Siteki where he entertained the children and shaved over 60 of the kids' heads. You made a big impact in a short time, Marcos - Thanks.

My standard reply to those asking how they can help is to tell them to send a donation. Or to ask relatives, their church or employer to donate. Maybe they can organize a yard-sale or bake-sale to raise a little money. We also accept volunteers to come here and work at the school. Volunteers play with the kids, assist teachers in class, teach remedial classes, make home visits and run errands. Volunteers will pay their own travel and living expenses. Figure about $150 a week for food and room. Free meals at the school are included. Hospital services are excellent here in Siteki. Good Shepherd Hospital is very respected, and they only charge $2.50 for a visit, including medicines. If you are admitted, expect to pay a little more.
You could be here in 3 days if you leave tomorrow!
Mail checks by Registered Mail to: Mpumalanga Ministries. PO Box 542. Siteki, Swaziland. Africa. L300

The 2 cooks who work for the Moyeni Project earn less then $100 a month each. They cook breakfast and lunch school days for some 250 students and staff. They use a ramshackle, falling-apart bamboo hut to cook over an open campfire. The meals are usually rice, beans, cornmeal, cabbage, spinach and other vegetables as available. Months go by without any meat or fish being served. the children are also served sour milk as they cannot tolerate fresh milk. They love it. They eat sitting on the ground, standing or sitting on any available log, rock or stoop. There is no cafeteria, yet. The only water source is a big plastic cistern with a single faucet, 10 meters from the kitchen. Everyone eats everything on their plate, with no complaints and no leftovers. Each child also washes their own bowl and spoon. That does not remind me of my school cafeteria in Black Earth, Wisconsin.

Here's a story about one of our school kids named Fana, age 7. Fana's mother and 3 siblings have died of AIDS. His father is HIV positive. Fana is HIV negative. The father doesn't want the boy anymore and put him to live with a girlfriend in Siteki. The girlfriend says he can hang around the property but cannot sleep in her house. We don't think she feeds him, so he mostly eats at school on school days. The two teen girls in the picture have never been to any school. They spend their time collecting firewood. Susan told the girlfriend today to send the teens to our free school. We will see if they show up. The father will sign off on Fana so he could be a good candidate for adoption. We are looking for a family near the Moyeni school he can stay with temporarily.

(Pictured - Directors of Global Revival Church, and 3 volunteers)
This post is a letter I sent to a lady from Orlando who inquired about helping raise funds for the Moyeni Project
"Hello Jasmine, Thanks for replying. I guess you saw our Ministries web site
I can give you some more background about Mpumalanga Ministries. The two managers (Pastor Wiets, and his wife, Ina) are both volunteers for the past 18 months. Before that they were volunteers in Guatemala. They are extremely dedicated and hard working. The church Pastor, Cleopas Masilela, is a Swazi and also does not get a salary. His wife is a teacher at the public grade-school. We all even pay our own rent. The school teachers are paid about $100 per month and they are Swazis. Same with the 2 cooks. My wife and I are from South Florida and we are working for free and using our vehicles to run all errands. I teach 2 remedial reading classes.
The ministry has very little funding (No government funding). The food for breakfast and lunch for 230+ kids is donated by the World Food Program. It is extremely basic. No meat or fish. It is mostly corn meal, soy meal, beans and rice. The few veggies we buy ourselves out of our own pockets. A Canadian donor provides milk bought from Mabuda Farm every day.
As you may see from our "Wish List" we have big plans, but what is needed urgently is day-to-day expenses money. Wiets and Ina didn't even have enough to pay their landline phone bill and it was cut off last week.
So... any fundraising you can help us with will be fantastic. Even small amounts will make a big difference for our small ministry.
Let me get some ideas together, and you can make some suggestions yourself. I will send another email soon.
Bye for now."

These are some of the 230 orphans that go to the Mpumalanga Ministries free school. They also get free breakfast and lunch with food donated from the World Food Project. For some of the children these are the only meals the get. Their caretakers may not have any food at home. In Swaziland the government resists putting children in orphanages. Traditionally children go to the nearest living relative. With the AIDs rate at 42% (highest in the world) this system is totally breaking down. "Grannies" find themselves jobless and caring for 10 or more orphans. If the Granny works, then the children who cannot go to school are left home alone to fend for themselves. I will be posting more pictures and descriptions later.

We are 2 Americans volunteering in Swaziland. This blog's goal is to help communicate the desperate situation of the people and children here. Also to show about not-so-desperate life in general. I am using an on/off road motorcycle to move around. We also have an extended cab pick-up truck which we use for the ministry. We are the main transport for getting sick and injured children to the clinic and hospital, picking up building supplies, and generally running errands. Susan does most of that driving. I teach a couple remedial reading classes to kids below their grade level. I'm organizing the web site and helping to spread the word and raise funds. And I'm exploring the country by motorcycle.
See the Mpumalanga Ministries web site here