Mafambisa - Tuesday 15th May 2018

Today it was a visit to Mafambisa, it was great to be make my first visit to new site! 

But this wasn’t just a visit, this was Hands at work doing their stuff, Audrey briefed me on the two objectives for today’s visit.

Firstly was to try and help a a girl of 10 who had been abused very recently. The little girl, we will call her Patience had been traumatized by the incident, as you would expect. Audrey and her team had organized an appointment at hospital with a therapist, but they needed to get a form signed by her mother and arrange to take them to the appointment tomorrow. But her mother was not responding and avoiding the Team.

The second objective was to visit a young mother who lived in a tiny house with her mother and also her three children and a child that belonged to her sister. Hands want to see what can be done to increase the size of here property.

So with these two objectives in our mind we set off to Mafambisa. The new care point is not that far from the former Siyathuthuka and I managed to find it with no problems! When we arrived there were two care workers there, Keway and Virginia just starting to get stuff ready to start preparing the food for the children. We went with them down a side street to Pater Buwani House where the food is stored.

When Hands realized that they needed to move the care point from Siyathuthuka, Paster Buwani volunteered the grounds of his church as the site for the new care point.

We carried the food back and got started chopping up the vegetables. Once all the veg had been prepared we went around to the front of the Church in the shade and met with the care workers, a couple more had now turned up. So we had Alzera, who is the mother of the House, Emma, Keway and Virginia. Please remember those names and pray for them when you can. Everyone introduced themselves to the group and we then spent a short while in prayer.

Having finished the meeting, we split up Audrey, Kara and Nico went to try and find the mother of Patience, to get the paperwork signed.

Betwell and Patricia accompanied the rest of us to Louise’s house. It was a long way, we walked through the houses and onto the road that leads to the old Siyathuthuka building. We walked way past there, almost to the very last building in the community.

Louise and her family had been living with her brother in a different part of the community, but the brother had forced them out and so they had managed to find and get permission from the chief to use this plot of land. If they can secure funding then the chief would allow them to purchase the land. The land is quite cheap because when it rains a river builds up and flows through the plot. This could be fixed with a little time and a few shovels.

Betwell needed to understand the terms of the sale that the chief was proposing, and when land is purchased it has to be registered in someone’s name. This is another problem, as the family are refugees from Mozambique and as such do not have South African papers. Therefore they could not register the land themselves.

The discussion continued, as Louise and her mum knew a South African man who would be willing to have the land registered in his name, but the problem with this is that while, completely honest - the man could at a future time force Louise and her family to leave the land. Hands were not happy with this as a solution.

We returned to the care point and Father Buwani agreed that the land could be registered in the name of the church, and so securing the land for Louise and her family. 

Audrey and her team were also successful in tracking down Patience Mum and getting the necessary paperwork complete for her appointment tomorrow!

The children had arrived and were playing well. All but 10 of the children that used to attend Siyathuthuka have now migrated to the new care point. The care workers continue to visit those children. In addition there are several children, who for some reason had not attended Siyathuthuka and they are at the new care point. so I think in the near future the number of children cared for will need to rise! It was great to see Matthew (who was very ill when we last visited) looking so well! 

The children all seemed very happy at the new Care Point and Audrey and her team are really happy with the new place, and that Paster Buwani And his wife Martha are becoming involved.