TV, travel, hunger

Skipping the usual apologies, I'll jump straight to an update of the past six weeks: I was essentially consumed by visiting teams and travel. In July a TV crew from a big church in Toronto came to shoot two TV programs on Hands at Work's in South Africa and in Mozambique.

In each country, we told the story of four orphan families: two families being supported by Hands at Work and two families living in areas not yet served by us. It was a terrifying experience--taking cameras and microphones into homes of severely suffering people. But the TV crew were compassionate, caring people, and we trust the product will stir the hearts of people across North America.

Because I know readers get bored quickly, I won't get into the South African shoot details. But the Mozambique families were must have their stories told. A quick summary of the two families living in villages we hope to expand to if we get the funds:

Jaos (9) and Luisa (7) lived under a tarp that was tied to a tree. Their mother died last year and their father was in an accident and can't use his arm. Their clothes, blankets and cooking pots were stolen from beneath the open tarp, and volunteers from a church in their village found the kids shivering in the shockingly cold winter air. The kids are going entire days without a single meal. The only food they get is by begging from other already poor neighbors or by offering to pound (by hand) a neighbor’s corn into flour for a fee of a handful of the flour. This is Jaos and Luisa doing the begging and pounding; the father is out of commission. Obviously they are not in school.

Volunteers from the church built them a small room made of straw to at least shelter the wind. When I met them, the kids hadn’t eaten in a day. They had a single set of clothes: her dress and his jean jacket so crusty they would stand on their own. Yet they couldn’t help smiling each time the white guy looked their way.

Luisa (left) and Jaos with their new straw home

Amelia (12) lives in a family of 6 kids. Her father died last year. He was a farmer. When he got sick he sold both his fields for medicine but died anyway. Now Amelia’s mother is sick. They have no real source of income and also beg for food or sell firewood at the roadside.

None of the kids are in school; they stopped going because with no food they couldn’t concentrate and with no soap to wash their clothes they were being bugged by other kids because of the smell. When I met the family, I was sitting on a plastic pail in the yard speaking to the sick mother. It was noon, and Amelia came walking in with a bundle of sticks on her head. She had left at 5am to walk to the bush to find the wood. 7 hours. Alone in the bush. Do I have to tell you why that is dangerous?

Amelia cooking corn meal we brought for her family

Comments

[Marlene]

And we complain about the cost of fuel! Shame on us.