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!
