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The following is an extract from Cheryl's diary, written during their visit to South Africa & Lesotho.
Monday 27th July
Well, I woke up in sheer paradise. I slept like a log and don't think my body moved all night I was so comfortable. The poor boys came out of their room grumpy and mumbling that they were freezing!
The sun was beautiful coming up over the mountains. We've a free day today, so Jeremy and Laura who are children's leaders
in the church are taking us to the lion park in Bethlehem. Today we
also met Moshoesohoe who is a youth worker for the church - who Hope
for a Child sponsors. We had a good chat with him.
Moshoeshoe lives in Clarens with his mother and his 2 twin brothers and
his elder sister. His father died when he was a child. This year he has
been involved in youth work and children’s clubs within the church,
being a good influence to the young boys in the community. He is part
of the project Mapheo, a team working with the large numbers of
vulnerable children and orphans in the Clarens community.
Moshoeshoe is very good at beat boxing and break dancing.
Tuesday 28th July
We met the People of Hope team today. These are beautiful women form the township that volunteer to go out 4 days a week and care for the sick.
Aids affects 80% of the community and its best for people to know when
they're affected so they can have early treatment. So they offer HIV
testing every Wednesday in the church. (These tests are like pregnancy
tests but cost 400rand / box 20 = £10 / test). If a person is found to
be affected they can have counselling and the state provides treatment.
HIV however causes other problems like low immunity which in itself
escalates to other problems like susceptibility to every bug going,
disability, unemployment and so fourth.
I visited with Sidi. We visited the squatters slum where 100s of people
are living in tin / cardboard huts as they can't get proper housing
form the council.
The first woman we met aged 90 is infected with HIV. She hadn't eaten
or drunk for days as she keeps vomiting and having diarrhoea. Her hut
must be 4m by 2m and consists of basic things like pots and a rug, a
bed behind a curtain and some chickens outside.
Another lady who really affected me is also about 90 and living alone
in her hut, no bigger than the size of my bedroom at home.
She has HIV, but also hypertension and the surgery doesn’t have blood
pressure tabs for her, so she has to suffer. It gives her dizzy spells
and headaches and she can only walk for short distances, which means
she can’t collect water from the well.
Today has been a proper eye opener. These People of Hope women are so influential. They visit the dying and sick and offer prayer and
encouragement. They take the church out into the community.
Wednesday 29th July
We drove to Lesotho this morning. We crossed the border and got our
passport stamped. By crossing that border, you definitely go back 200
years.
Farmers farm with Oxen - and there's hardly any cars. People of Lesotho
seem a lot more lively than the South Africans - selling their goods in
the little stalls in the marketplace, shrieking and laughing.
Thursday 30th July
We visited Dihlabeng School this morning - that's the Christian School attached to Dihlabeng Church. 120 pupils.
They have a beautiful functional building, which they have built through people’s donations.
I spent most of my morning playing 'tig' and dangling upside down from the monkey bars.
I had fun.
Tuesday 4th August
Today we visited Cheryl and Nigel and their workers in Maseru, Lesotho
to see the work they are doing out there at City of Joy Church.
City of Joy Church Maseru was established in 2006.
The biggest issues in Maseru are poverty, where 40% of people live under the poverty line surviving on less than $1 / day.
HIV is a big problem with a 60% rate of infection. Many babies are born
with HIV or contract the infection from breastfeeding. Many teenage
girls are abused and catch HIV from infected adults. Most children are
related to a HIV positive person in some way so they all need to be educated.
There is a lack of nutritious food in the poorer areas of Maseru such
as vegetables and many people survive on eating ‘pap’ every day.
Protein is a big problem as meat and nuts are expensive to buy and
beans don’t grow well. City of Joy is looking into guinea pig farming
or ‘Dussie’ farming for protein provision.
The quality of the water is very bad so many people become ill from the
water. The church educates the community on how to sterilise their
water by UV method in plastic bottles left in the sun on the tin roofs
for 2 days.
Many children are orphaned or abandoned and often abused by their
families. Many children also take on the role as head of their family
when their parents are sick or have died from illness or HIV. The
church runs a children’s ministry 3 days a week where around 100
children from different age groups come to the centre and are taught
English, Sesotho, Maths and life skills such as HIV education and
prevention and about acceptable personal space with adults.
City of Joy church deals with these above issues by the following ministries:
HIV / AIDs projects
Farming / educating on nutrition
Bokeletsa Bana Ministry with the children.
The things I saw today should never be seen. It shouldn't exist.
Women and children sick from lack of food, clean water and basic resources.
Children being abused, raped, abandoned, all because of traditional beliefs and culture.
I don't know whether to vomit or cry.
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