Meet the 2025 Team - Oliver

 Hello, I'm Oliver and I am heading out as a leader of the 2025 Africa team and I am also a Hands at Work Advocate for St Andrew's. This will be my 3rd visit to Hands at Work in South Africa, although I haven't been for 6 years so very much looking forward to returning.

I am a Paediatric Nurse by profession and work in the Emergency Department so am very used to the unexpected and ever changing situations so am very used to the unpredictability of our community visits.

I am most excited to see the changes that have taken place over the past 6 years within our partner community of Mafambisa since my last visit and to see familiar faces that I remember from my other visits and that we have heard about in the blogs over the last few years. I very much looking forward to being able to support these children and care givers throughout our days in community and to see and support new members of our congregation witness these different communities is something I feel very honoured to be apart of.

Look out for more introductions over the next few weeks.

Mafambisa Team 2025!!

The time has come for us to start announcing our 2025 Team!

Look out for our updates over the next couple of weeks to meet our Team members. Team 2025 consists of some returners as well as some newbies who have never been to Hands at Work before. Team preparations are underway and planned to ensure that everyone is prepared for what undoubtably will be another amazing trip!

Day 12 - Home Visits in Seville B

On Wednesday we went on four different home visits as Pippa mentioned in our blog. Here is a little bit about them all. 

Visit 1: Adam, Alice and Ben 

Alice, Ben and Adam Visited Gogo Amelia in Seville B. She is an elderly woman who lives with her Granddaughter in a small two bedroom brick house. Gogo Amelia doesn’t know how old she is or when her birthday is due but we think she is about 60-70 - she is a widow as her husband passed away a number of years ago and she is the Primary Care Giver (PCG) for her 15 year old Granddaughter. Her Granddaughter’s father is not in the picture and her mother passed away a number of years ago as a result of a crocodile attack in Mozambique. The Granddaughter was previously struggling with school attending around once a week and also wasn’t attending the care point. In addition to this she was also not sleeping at her Grandmother’s house and her Grandmother rarely knew where she was! Gogo Amelia went to the Care workers at the care point and asked them to help her talk to her Granddaughter and after two care workers went round and spoke with her she started attending school and her grades improved. Money is really tight for the family as the paperwork allowing her access to money as a result of her husband dying disappeared or was destroyed in Mozambique whilst she was already living in south Africa so she sells nuts at the monthly market in the local town. We tried some of these and they were delicious!  Amelia also cleans two houses three times a week but only makes the equivalent of £1.50 per day to support two people.  

Despite all this Gogo Amelia was full of life and happiness and was really appreciative that we had come all this way and visited her at her home. Amelia had such a sense of hunour and the visit was full of laughter and joy despite Amelia’s circumstance! You will see from the picture below that at one point Ben wanted to hold one of the baby chicks and at first Amelia said that the hen would attack him but before we knew it she had enticed one towards her with the bits, swooped it under her skirt and into Ben’s hands before we knew it or the hen saw! Ben was a tried worried that she may realize and start to peck at him 😂. I know we where all deeply touched by Amelias story and her determination to keep working hard and providing for her granddaughter

Visit 2: Pippa, Harry and John 

Our small group, comprising of Pippa, Harry, John, Tyler, care worker Marsha and service centre worker Thembi, visited the home of Gogo Dinah and her eight year old granddaughter Trixie. As with a good number of home visits the full picture of who was living in the house only became apparent as the conversation developed.

Dinah has no papers and is reliant on finding piece work, which she currently has regularly cleaning at a house about one hour away. Not an easy walk as Dinah has an injury to her ankle and foot from being run over by a tractor nineteen years ago. She has three children, her daughter is the mother of Trixie, but is not living with them and only visits occasionally; her two sons are living away to find work elsewhere. However, it transpires that her two daughters-in-law are resident in the home and often find piece work locally too; additionally three more of her young grandchildren also live there. So rather than the gogo and Trixie just living together, there are seven of them in the small house, mainly supported by Dinah, the sons appear not to help financially at all. At a time in her life when she might hope to begin taking things a little easier, Dinah is having to provide and support her whole family.

Trixie had been doing well at school up until last December, however since then she’s been struggling and didn’t pass her term in April. There was no apparent reason why her levels had dipped, a clinician visits schools regularly to do general checks on children’s wellbeing, as Trixie seems well. Marsha is going to accompany Dinah to the school on Monday next week to try and find out if there are any other underlying reasons for this sudden change in Trixie’s grades. 

After praying for Dinah, Trixie and the family we left so that Dinah could get back to her job that afternoon.

Visit 3: Sally and Chris P

Chris Parker and I went on a holy home visit in Seville B with Loneck and one of the care workers. Nina is a teenage girl lives with her elderly paternal grandparents. Her father (the son of the grandparents) has passed away. The care worker was keen to visit as Nina had not attended the care point recently and they were keen to understand why. When we arrived the Grandmother was doing the laundry for the family by hand. She quickly jumped up to fetch chairs for us and invited us to sit down under the shade of a tree with her. The grandfather joined us too from where he was sat in the yard.  

Loneck and the care worker reassured the grandparents that there was nothing to worry about. After introductions the conversation moved on to Nina and the care point. The grandmother explained that Nina’s three older siblings had decided of their own accord to enrol in Initiation School. The grandparents were not happy about this and were worried about how they would afford to pay to get them back. While the siblings are at Initiation School, Nina is delivering food to them each day after her day at school. This is approx a one hour walk away (so a two hour round trip) and this is why Nina has not been attending the care point. Loneck reminded the grandparents about the importance of Nina attending the care point and asked if someone else could do the food deliveries instead. He encouraged them to send Nina to the care point when she returned from school that afternoon so that he could talk to her about the situation. 

While we were talking, two younger children arrived at the house. They are also being cared for by the grandparents but are not currently invited to the care point as the care workers were unaware of them. It transpired that Nina was originally invited to attend the care point while she was living with her mother in another home before she started living with her grandparents. The Hands model is to support the whole family and now that Nina is staying with the grandparents and younger siblings Loneck and the care worker said they would look at whether the younger children could be invited to attend too. 

What also came to light during the conversation is that all three children have birth certificates and should be receiving the government grant. But their mother (who does not live with them) is the registered recipient and does not pass it on. Loneck and the care worker offered to look into this if the grandparents were able to share the children’s registration numbers. The grandparents seemed to welcome the visit and appeared keen to work with Hands going forward. 

Later in the afternoon back at the care point, Nina called in to see Loneck and the care worker as requested. Loneck reminded Nina about attending the care point and also pointed out that she should not be suffering because of the decision her older siblings have made. He encouraged her to work with her grandparents to see if there is someone else who could do the deliveries. And that in the meantime suggested she attend the care point on the way home from school for food and a check in with the care workers before doing the food delivery. She appeared to take this on board. 

This home visit really demonstrated the whole family approach that Hands takes. It also showed how the care workers notice who is attending and who isn’t and following up. As a relatively new care point they are still getting to know all the families but this is being handled sensitivity and they are acting on new information as they discover it.

Visit 4: Mark, Matthew and Chris W 

Matthew, Chris W and me were joined by Asalm (care worker) and Audres (Service Centre) on a holy home visit to meet Dolenda (pronounced Dorlinda). We heard that Dolenda together with her two children and three grandchildren were sleeping in the open air. The mother of the three grandchildren is away doing piece work on a farm. The owner of a site on which there is a building which was used as a large ‘chicken house’ saw their situation and on the basis of no longer rearing chickens, offered the building as a temporary sleeping area. In the meantime, on an adjoining site, the community has come together to construct a mud and timber frame building to provide a bedroom. The framing is complete. 

Simultaneously, a separate block building is being erected as and when materials can be purchased. The foundations have been laid for what will be a two-bed house. Together with the mud building, there will be three bedrooms to accommodate 6 persons. We went on to talk about a recent injury Dolenda had sustained when a needle went into her hand. She needed surgery but the stitches opened before the hand was healed and now looks as though it is infected and we asked whether she was going back to the clinic to have this checked. With the children not particularly helping at home and with Dolenda struggling with doing the washing, it was suggested that the care workers could assist with washing clothes and the children were hopefully going to take these along the next day. Having prayed for Dolenda and her family. Dolenda was happy for us to take a photo of her with the team and I left a photo of my family with her with some reassuring words on the reverse praying that God will look after her and her family.

Although our time in the community and time in South Africa has come to an end there are a few more blog posts to come so please check back over the weekend! 

Day 12 - Seville B

Our last day in the community was a visit to Seville B which is a Care Point that has only been open for a year!

We woke up at Wits and had a lovely breakfast before heading out to the community. On the way to Seville B we stopped to pick up Eunice and Loneck in Pfunani and then also stopped by the roadside to buy some cabbages and others food items for the community. We had to pick up 12 cabbages! They cost R10 each which is less than 50p each and they were huge! The “boys” helped Audres and Loneck to carry them. Whilst we were there Chris also decided to buy some oranges and apples from a stall to help support the local community and replenish our bus fruit supply. They were the best “oranges” we have had all week! 

Before visiting the Care Point in Seville B we made a stop to see the village chief to let him know we were visiting his community. Hands at Work stop there every time they visit to keep him informed and also to keep him onside. Although while in conversation it was evident that he is as concerned about the poorest children and those without identification papers. Seville B has a main road down the middle with South Africans living on one side and Mozambicans staying on the other. There is an increasing amount of people from Mozambique moving into Seville B. During our extended chat with him he challenged us to give him a solution to the problems he faces as the chief of the community and we asked many questions as to the struggles his community faces. The majority of these were around Birth Certificates and Papers. 

When we arrived at the Care Point we were given a warm welcome by the Care Workers. We played bubbles with the young children before having a relationship group with the Care Workers. We got the chance to get to know them and hear about the struggles they are currently facing.

Seville B is currently operating out of a locals house as there is no existing purpose built Care Point; this is next to one of the Care Workers home. Hands at Work have purchased some land ready for a new Care Point to be built. The community have been encouraged to clear the land ready for work to begin so that they take ownership of the Care Point, it will then be build in stages!  We were fortunate enough to be able to visit the land and it is now in the final stages of gaining permission from the local chiefs. John prayed over the land before we all departed for our Home Visits. 

On returning to the Care Point the children had already begun to sing and worship and were taking great pride in showing off their songs - most of which were led by some of the smaller girls! We all prayed together and then ate with the children. The meal consisted of pap, beans and beetroot (which Alice was very excited about!). 

After the food we got the parachute out to much excitement from the children. They were fascinated by the colours and enjoyed running under and touching the different colours! The favourite colour was ‘orange’! 

After this we got the speaker out of the bus and it was time to “shine” with the children! After many songs led by us the children wanted to thank us by doing a song of their own so we got to watch a very impressive dance display from the children. We then left the hub to return back to Wits. 

We reflected on the community and our time there; although new it was one where there was a deep sense of community and care for the children from the Care Workers. 

After a quick swim in the freezing pool and a lovely dinner we had our daily debrief with Tyler and Audres, to go over the day’s events and interactions, and share highlights and lowlights. We then all headed to bed. 

Blogged by Pippa 

Day 11 - Pfunani Holy Home Visits

Tyler from Hands reminded us that the reason they are called ‘Holy Home Visits’ is that we invite God to join us in them and then we wait for him to show up and be present. This might look like the conversation turning to water and then needing help collecting it so we have in the past helped the Care Giver with this; it might look like a challenging conversation or posing a question and trying to go deeper or unpack it; it might be praying or providing a work of encouragement. Each Holy Home Visit is different and no time limit is put on them. 

We went on three ‘Holy Home Visits’ in Pfunani on Tuesday - read about each one below. 

Visit 1: Chris W, Matthew and Harry 

During our visit to Pfunami today, Chris, Matthew and Harry went on a Holy Home Visit with Angel, Lonic and Tyler.  We visited a home where 3 generations of the same family were living - 15 people in total.   The grandfather had passed away a year ago.  The Grandmother was living with 9 of her own children who ranged in age from her eldest daughter who was 26 to her youngest - the twins who were 7.  Her three eldest daughters also had children of their own.  Unfortunately none of the fathers of the eldest daughter’s children were living with the family.  It appeared that the older children and the grandchildren all had South African papers and so we're able to get a grant (like Child benefit) but the youngest children were not able to get papers because the government would not accept that they were the mothers own children because of her age.  The three eldest daughters were all trying to find work but had not been able to find anything so far.  The family asked for us to pray that they would be able to find work and that the children would do well in school.

Visit 2: Sally, Ben and Mark 

Sally, Ben and me were joined by Eunice, Sharon and Thembi on two visits. The first was to Nomsa’s house where she lives with 3 sons and 2 daughters aged 2-15 years. However, no one was in but Sharon allowed me to take a picture of her outside the home. At the second visit we met with Linsa who was living with her South African boyfriend, a 15 yr old daughter, a 10-yr old son and she also has a 1-month old baby girl. Linsa allowed Sally to hold the baby and even though it was hot by our standards the baby was well wrapped in blankets. The other children were not at home. Linsa said that when she was younger she left school early to look after her siblings and then look after her own children. She left the family home and moved into another house down the road and together with her partner they can stay there as long as they wish. Linsa said that she is unable to get piece work and her partner chooses not to work even though he has South African papers. The family situation sounded familiar to other stories we had heard on other visits. At the debrief later on Sally shared with the team what a privilege it was to hold Linsa baby.

Visit 3; John, Pippa and Adam 

Adam, Pippa and John accompanied Audres and Pfunani care worker Pindile on a Holy Home Visit to Gogo Maisi’s home. It was wonderful to walk through the dusty lanes with Audres, back in his home community, meeting people he hadn’t seen for a while. He explained that the eighty year old Gogo (grandmother) is living with, and looking after, her seventeen year old granddaughter, as the child’s mother has gone, partly to live elsewhere, partly to find work. She lives on the same property as her son and daughter-in-law, but there is a tension between them and they have no interest in helping her. Hands at Work have built her a secure two room home on the land, however she receives no grant (money) as she has no official papers. The granddaughter also receives no grant because her mother has failed to complete the necessary paperwork, this means that she often goes to school without uniform, pens or pencils; the local service centre staff are planning to meet the child’s mother and encourage her to fill in the forms, enabling the girl to access grant funds.

When we arrived the gogo wasn’t home but her daughter-in-law, Nzelda,  quickly found her and brought her home; she offered us chairs, and we all sat while she talked to Audres about her situation.

In addition to her home and family issues, the Gogo has recently been unwell; she had visited the local clinic and been given a referral to the hospital, HAW had helped her to get to the appointment but on arrival was told there was no doctor available! However, the hospital did give her some medication and she has been feeling a little better in recent days. At the end of the visit we all sat on the ground with the Gogo and her daughter-in-law and we prayed with them - for safety and protection; for healing of relationships; for health and wellness; and for the access to grants that the granddaughter is entitled to. What a privilege to sit with this lady for a short while.

Day 11 - Pfunani Community

Wow what a day we had in Pfunani today! It was so full of many interactions that were all different and all special! 

After a great breakfast at Witts, the place we are staying this week, we drove back to the Pfunani Care Point. This involved traveling 6km along dirt roads. Pfunani is a very remote rural community!

We arrived quite early as it is not that far from Wits, the care workers and the service centre people had only just arrived and opened up the Care Point. 

We started by playing with the under 5’s who had already arrived; there was much running around and laughter on the Jungle gym climbing frame. Washing the pots and getting ready was also going on at the food prep area. There were not enough potatoes for today’s meal so Loneck and Audres went off to buy more.

A game of football started up between the team Dads and the team younger members. The Dads showed off their experience and won the day! 

Potatoes arrived and some frantic peeling took place to prepare the potatoes for cooking. This was followed by everyone joining together in the shelter for a relationship group! We did some singing - which is always special and a delight and then Adam shared a word of encouragement based upon Micah 7.7 from ‘The Message’ Bible :

 

7 But me, I’m not giving up.
I’m sticking around to see what God will do.
I’m waiting for God to make things right.

I’m counting on God to listen to me.

Adam encouraged the care workers not to give up when things are tough but always to trust God that he will be there for us and will guide us. A short discussion ensued basically with the same conclusion that God has said that he will be with us always, be with us when things are tough , and when things are going well. All we need to do is to ask! We concluded the relationship group with prayer and a little test for the care workers as to whether they could remember the names of the team and a test to the team as to whether they could remember the names of all the care workers. Both groups did well!

Once the meeting was over - we headed out on three holy home visits leaving Alice and Chris behind to help with the cooking and play with the under 5’s - see separate blog.

I , Chris got to cook the pap today, which is basically ground maize and it gets added to boiling water to cook it! The dry ingredient is added to the boiling water slowly whilst the mixture is stirred. The stirring gets harder and harder as the mix becomes thicker and thicker, but the constant stirring is vital to prevent the pap becoming lumpy. Next for cooking was fried onion and carrot.

Half-way through food prep, one of the youth named Aidan arrived, and helped me to do the right thing at the right time. He explained that he had got out of school early as the teachers were in a ‘vital’ meeting and he had persuaded one of teachers to let him go early as he had visitors (us). It had been a privilege for Alice and I to have attended a Youth Camp at the hub last year where several of the young people attended. It was great to strengthen that relationship! 

People started arriving back from their holy home visits and children started to arrive from school! Another game of football started up which included team, young people from the community and some older members. 

One very special thing we had noticed about Pfunami was the sheer space that was there and the multiple activities that could take place! Football in one space, basket ball in another and under 5’s playing in another! 

It was soon time for the children to come together and sing, dance and pray before their food! Food today was pap with potatoes, gravy and cabbage! 

No sooner was food over then we got out the speaker and led Shine, Be happy and other songs. The children joined in enthusiastically as did the care workers and the service centre team.

It was soon time to say goodbye, but as a special thank you to the team for visiting the care point Aidan led the children in some special dancing, to some locally loved music. We stood in a circle and the children, care workers and the service centre team all took turns of going in the middle and dancing and even some of the team!!! 

We said our goodbyes, it had been a special day of building relationships. As a final act Ben left the children with some words of encouragement based upon Deuteronomy 31:6

“Be strong and be brave! Do not be afraid of those people, because the Lord your God goes with you. He will always be there to help you. He will never leave you.’”

Ben said: As you grow up, the lord will continue to walk with you. In struggling situations, be brave because Jesus will be beside you. Continue to work hard in school and attend the care point and continue to play and smile. We pray that you listen to god and let him guide your path. 

Amen

We reflected afterwards upon our visit, we reflected on the part that the older teenagers, Aidan and Simon were having. We reflected on the depth of relationship that we now had with this care point, and how we need to return to continue to support and encourage. Cherissa had said to us at the beginning of this week the importance of ending our trip well! Certainly today had ended so well with so much love between the care workers the children the youth leaders the service centre and the team. 

Thanks be to God

Blogged by Chris P