Heritage Day

We have been celebrating Heritage Day in South Africa. A day to rejoice in the rich culture of the many groups in this wonderful country; the rhythm and harmony of the African music, the colour of the Zulu bead work, and the caring of ‘ubuntu’ within the extended family.

We are also celebrating the ‘heritage’ we are blessed with in the Zanini Bantwana team. Often we feel that we are working with giants. Not people with a lot of what this world thinks of as important. But people with great spiritual standing and strength. Recently I noticed one of the team had written on Facebook at 4 in the morning. I mentioned it to her and she explained that she likes to pray between 3 and 4 each morning. You don’t meet people of that callibre every day, not even in Christian ministry.

Then one of the hospital staff wondered why the Zanini Bantwana staff come to work so faithfully each day and work away, but there doesn’t seem to be anyone checking up on them all the time or getting them to sign in. Why do they keep on working when they could get away with it? Sethembile replied that they may not sign in, but what they do is written on their consciences.

God has blessed this work with a remarkable group of people. We salute them and celebrate them.

 

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Amadeus meets AmaZulu

Some visitors bring a real boost to the Zanini Bantwana team! Read about it in..

the OUTCRY! Sept/Oct 2011

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Everyone a Winner!

There is a boy in hospital with a spectacular talent for drawing. Here is a lovely portrait he drew of a fellow patient. He has had no teaching. He can just do it. This drawing only took him about 15 minutes.

He keeps his drawings in his bedside locker and is always very pleased to show them to visitors.  Sadly, he is very seriously ill and the future does not look at all hopeful. Both his parents are dead and his home is with an uncle, but he has accepted that he will probably never get back home.

As part of our work with the children, we get them to draw and do craft activities. The materials are simple – pencils, crayons, paper, glue – but they need constant replenishment. To help with the cost, we have decided to auction this picture.

But it is going to be an auction with a difference. In this auction everyone will have the privilege of making a payment, and the person who pays the highest amount will get the original picture. Everyone a winner!

You can make a secure online credit card payment here.

The winner will be decided on 20th June. (That’s my birthday and a bid in this auction would be a most acceptable present!)

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Good News!

Hospitals aren’t all bad news. OK, nobody really wants to be there. Most children would rather be out playing or at McDonalds. But there is a lot of good stuff that goes on in hospital and it is easy to forget that.

The other day I spent an hour with a little boy who had his arm and leg all covered with rods and bolts – made him look like a prototype for Transformers. Anyway, we played away and had a great time. It turned out that they were doing some surgery on him to correct birth defects. For the first time in his life he would be able to walk and play and do all that normal stuff. This little boy was so pleased that he would be able to go to school and look normal.

The doctors are doing a great job. There is Good News in hospital, but sometimes we don’t notice it.

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I don’t like Mondays!

Many of us agree with Bob Geldof when he sings “I don’t like Mondays”. What do we not like? Well, a whole plethora of irritations – back to work/school, the weather, the car breaks down, or worst of all our iPhone goes on the blink.

I was having an OK Monday. Nothing specially bad, but nothing specially good either. Then I went to see Ayanda (not her real name). Ayanda is three. She has been in hospital for the last 5 months. She is HIV+, has TB, is partially blind and deaf, can’t sit up, move her legs or right arm, does not eat solid food, cannot talk or play.  Ayanda has had an extended stay in hospital during each of her 3 short years. Her mother is unmarried, unemployed and cannot get any government assistance because she has no ID book. Her mother has not been in to see Ayanda for the last 6 weeks. Ayanda is profoundly on her own in a way I have never been alone.

What a nerve I have to complain about Mondays or indeed any other day.

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Our Latest News

CLICK HERE TO READ THE LATEST NEWSLETTER

the OUTCRY! Jan/Feb 2011

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Time for that last minute present?

A gift of just £25/$40 will allow one of the Zanini Bantwana team to spend a full day with the children in hospital.

Go to https://www.givengain.com/cgi-bin/giga.cgi?cmd=donate&cause_id=1809 or click on the “Donate Now” box on the right and make a secure online credit card payment.

You know it makes sense!

Many thanks from the team and the children.

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No Room?

“No Room!” We hear that phrase a lot at this time of year. We listen again with pride and joy as our children retell the Christmas story one more time in their nativity play. But for many of us it is little more than part of a long-standing Christmas tradition.

However, all too often for our children in hospital it is a daily reality. No room in a family to love and care for them. No room in a community to value and support them. No room in hearts to provide the time they need.

We may not know what it is like to hear those words “No Room”. But our God knows all about it. The incredible story of Christmas tells how our God came down to be one or those despised and rejected. That first Christmas, he wasn’t in the big houses, he didn’t share in the rich food. He was with the poor, the meek and the lowly. And this Christmas he promises to be there again.

The challenge of Christmas comes to us once again. Are we going to make room for others? Room in our schedule, room in our budget, room in our homes, room in our hearts.

 

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the OUTCRY! Nov/Dec 2010

Here is the latest edition of our newsletter. Sorry it’s a bit late!

 

the OUTCRY! Nov/Dec 2010

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Another Link

To lose both parents and have to go and live with strangers is traumatic for any child. But how do you cope when you are neglected and seriously abused in that new home?

Noreen, a girl of 15, faced that situation and fled to the hospital for safety. There was nothing medically wrong with her, but she stayed in hospital waiting for a new home to be found for her.

After she had been in hospital for a month, the sister in charge of the ward called us to ask if we could help her. We agreed to have her come to our family while the social worker continues to carry out the necessary investigations. Hopefully a good long-term home will soon be found for her. In the meantime, we are giving her a warm, secure home where she can be cared for and experience God’s love.

Our hope is that we can be a link in the chain which enables Noreen to become the young woman God wants her to be.

(N.B. In the interests of confidentiality, Noreen is not the girl’s name and the photograph is not of her.)

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