The
morning started with many members choosing to get up slightly earlier (around
6:30am) with the hope of seeing a lovely sunrise over the mountains. However,
unfortunately the day started with clouds rising alongside the sun which made
it slightly less successful although it was lovely to see.
With
an earlier start we took the opportunity for an earlier breakfast which we
enjoyed on the veranda overlooking the Hands Village. After breakfast we were
ushered into ‘The Village’ for a prompt start to the ‘Hands on Deck’ meeting
which was to take place at 8am with many members of the Hands team joining us
including those living within the Hands Village as well as the service centre
team from the community and others involved throughout the 8 countries that Hands
at Work work in. This was an opportunity for our team to get to see the
continuous work of Hands throughout the 60 communities across Africa.
Something
very useful for our team, was to here about the continuous progress that has
been made with the care workers, care givers and children within our partner
community, Mafambisa, since the Maranatha workshop which took place within the
last week of June. Service Centre volunteers, Gugu and Pinky told us how they
really didn’t wish to attend the workshop and were trying to find opportunities
to be busy elsewhere. Despite this, they were encouraged through prayer and
scripture that they should be a part of the workshop in order to encourage
everyone who was attending. They then both went on to explain how beneficial
the workshop was for the care givers especially considering the turbulent times
within the Mafambisa community within the last year with the move from the
Siyathuthuka care point to the new Mafambisa care point. Although, it was also
beneficial for the children and care workers who managed to understand and
experience the love and joy of the gospel.
Kara
and Hannah, more members of the Hands family, then spoke to us all about their
trips to Mozambique and Zimbabwe which have taken place within the month. They
told us some stories of children that helped to put into perspective what we
have been experiencing over the last week. Kara spoke to us about a young boy
named George (name changed). He was attending the care point regularly and one
afternoon when walking home he was kidnapped. After his family and care workers
spent the night searching they found him and saved him. He looked to be about 8
but they soon learnt that he was simply malnourished and actually 11. Faith
(name changed), was a 6year old noticed by Hannah and she told us how the first
chance she had to meet Faith was the Wednesday. She went missing from the care
point and it was discovered by the Sunday that the young girl had died.
Both
of these highlighted the issues that are faced in Mozambique and Zimbabwe
related to witchcraft and the stigma surrounding this. This creates a very
dangerous society for the children within the care point.
After
the meeting concluded, we spent an hour and a half joining the maintenance team
to rake up leaves around the Hub. We were provided with a delicious lunch and
then met the Communications team to be given some tasks.
Daytona
and Celine (members of the communications team) met us in ‘the Village’ where
they introduced to us what their roles included, we found out that Celine was
very social media based and had large control over the Facebook, Instagram,
Twitter and many other accounts. She informed us that this role, required a lot
of writing and lots of chasing up of pictures to show people connected through
the social media networks about the different stories and what is going on
within different communities.
The first task that they set us to complete was a
‘Photo Scavenger Hunt’. This involved running around the Hands Village
in order to find different objects and people who we can take photos with and
answer questions while reporting back to Daytona and Celine between each photo.
The next task was to interview different people within the Hub, this included
why they are involved with Hands, how long they have been involved and what
their role is at Hands. We were challenged to find 2 Africans to interview and
2 international volunteers who live out in South Africa.
After
the communications activities we then had some down time and time to relax and
talk about the week that we have had as well as discussing our hopes for Kruger
tomorrow. After a lovely meal of burgers and chips we decided to enjoy some
more down time and an early night before the early start tomorrow.
By
Hannah and Oliver
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