Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission: Women Need Our Support

Yesterday, the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition released a report about prevention of vertical transmission, or prevention of transmission of the HIV virus from an HIV-positive mother to her child (available at www.itpcglobal.org).

Transmission of the HIV virus from mother to baby can occur during pregnancy, labor, delivery, or breastfeeding. However, there is a triple-dose combination medicine available in places such as the US and Europe that prevents close to 100% of all transmissions if the mother takes it correctly. Most women in the developed world have access to the medicine and to health care services, so vertical transmission has been virtually eliminated there- one of AIDS' few success stories.

Yet in the developing world (such as Swaziland), the story is very different: only a third of women in the developing world are given any drug to prevent vertical transmission at all. The highly effective drug is only available to about 8% of these women; a different less expensive single-dose medicine is given that is only about 40% effective. Stephen Lewis (former UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa) and Paula Donovan, co-directors of AIDS-Free World (www.aids-freeworld.org) and writers of the preface to the report, call this "a shameful example of double standards." And, these numbers are far from the 'universal access' goals that UNAIDS, the G8 countries, and other agencies were trying to achieve by 2010.

The report presented on-the-ground research from six countries about the barriers women face in accessing these health services, and criticized global and national programs for failing to ensure newborns and their mothers receive appropriate treatment and care. It illustrated that the emphasis is put on keeping babies alive and not following up with women, who must be put at the center on this issue.

In our experience, we agree, the response on this issue has been a failure, and the barriers that were identified in the countries in this report ring very true in this community. There are programs available that would work to prevent HIV in the child if the mother went to the clinic regularly and followed the instructions for treatment. It is not necessarily so simple for women to do that, and we agree it is critical to identify and respond to the sociological reasons why.

Many people say the prevention of vertical transmission program here has been a success, but their measure of success is if a pregnant HIV+ woman is given the prophylactic medicine when her child is born. This may mean the mother went without treatment for her own HIV, the baby and mother went without prenatal or follow-up care, no care was provided for the rest of the family, and no information about HIV prevention or reproductive health was provided to this woman. Also, this woman may have been handed the prophylactic medicine to take during delivery, but no one knows if she even took it or not (and in many cases she does not) because there is no follow-up with the mother. And women are delivering their babies on the homestead (meaning often in a mud hut, with no running water, electricity, supplies or health care workers), because they can't afford the hospital transport fees. Sometimes, mothers and their babies suffer and die this way, and it is tragic, for many reasons but one because it is preventable.

If a woman manages to obtain the medicine, she may not take it because she may be trying to hide her HIV+ status from a mother-in-law or husband (often authorities on the homestead) who can decide to throw her out of their home if they find out. Also violence against women is pervasive and constant, and as the report shows, is a real barrier to HIV+ women accessing health services.

We have realized that a community-based comprehensive care approach, which truly takes in consideration the socio-cultural reality of the person you are serving, is necessary for any health program to work, especially prevention of vertical transmission as a part of women's health. Women need special attention paid to them and their socio-cultural situation, which in Swaziland, can mean a deep gender inequality that does affect their access to health. Also follow-up is key here- with a pregnant HIV+ woman, a multi-drug resistant TB patient, or anyone that needs health care. You can’t tell people one time in a clinic- here, this is what you have to do for a year and a half- and expect compliance with that. You must have a relationship with people that is sustained over time.

We are doing what in social work we call ‘case management.’ We work with St. Philip’s Clinic here to identify mothers in need of prenatal care. Then we start providing home health care, going to their homesteads and working with their whole family. We do extensive education, and we closely follow the mother and child until the child is 18 months old, continually reinforcing the prevention and care steps the mother and family must take (prenatal care, basic HIV understanding and testing and counseling, arranging supervised delivery, follow-up care with the baby and mother including on infant feeding practices). We provide transport to the hospital and clinics, and supplemental nutrition for mothers and babies. You must sustain a relationship based on what people need. And if that relationship is broken in any way, you have to have the will and dedication to go out to the people and figure out what they need.

HIV+ pregnant women and their babies need this kind of personal attention, ongoing support and true "care"- health care that is more compassionate to their often silenced and neglected needs.

Thanks to FLAS (The Family Life Association of Swaziland) for the gifts of infant clothes which some of these photos show some of our mother and child patients receiving.

Blessings and love,
Srs. Diane and Barbara

Lent Message- 2009

Dear Sisters, Brothers, Friends, Benefactors, and Colleagues,

Our warm greetings from Swaziland.

As Christians throughout the world celebrate this time of Lent we at Cabrini Ministries would like to share a few thoughts with you. Let us start with these words of St. Paul from Scripture:

Though he was in the form of God
Christ did not regard equality with God something to be grasped.
Rather, He emptied Himself,
Taking the form of a servant. (Phil.2: 6-7)

In these words we see Jesus’ understanding of what was asked of Him in bringing His Father’s message of love into the world…that He would serve others with every gift of nature and grace given to Him in becoming human. Before He died Jesus acted out his servanthood in a way unforgettable and startling to His disciples by washing their feet.

In Lent we enter a particular time of renewing and deepening our relationship with God through Jesus by spending time reading, praying, and contemplating His life and actions with the desire to become more like Him so we can continue His work of servanthood in today’s world. If we desire to become more like Him, we too must become more and more emptied of ourselves so we might serve others.

As we celebrate Lent we would like to share with you a wonderful blessing and inpouring of the Holy Spirit which helped us to act out symbolically this servanthood and grow in desire to live it more fully as an organization.

Youth with a Mission, a Christian evangelical organization working in Swaziland and led by Jim and Lisa Nave, had received a large number of new Nike sneakers. The organization which gave it asked only that a ceremony of foot washing be done before the sneakers be given. Jim and Lisa along with Petros and Elizabeth Kunene, Mathew and Nini came to the Mission and asked Sr. Barbara and I if they could wash our feet and pray over us. We were very touched by the experience. And then at the end we were surprised to receive new Nikes. In reflecting on the experience we desired very much to do the same for our entire staff of about 43 local people. Youth with a Mission agreed and we set the date for our February staff meeting.

When the day arrived we all praised God in song and then Petros Kunene spoke to the staff (in siSwati) about the good work the staff do daily as servants of the community who are sick, orphaned, without sufficient food and often voiceless. The scripture passage from St. John was read and Sr. Barbara and I went around the room washing the feet of all the staff while Jim, Lisa, Petros, Elizabeth, Mathew and Nini prayed over each and every staff member. We asked God to make us true servants like His Son, Jesus. We ended by coming together in a circle of about 50 of us to sing and pray over Youth with a Mission who had brought us such blessing.

When the shoes were brought in (with the correct size for each staff member!) everyone was surprised and happy, but clearly the inpouring of the Holy Spirit which was given to all of us made the shoes secondary in the experience. Many of the staff are very poor people themselves, like the people they serve each day and yet it was clear that all knew the true gift which had been given was a renewal of our commitment to be Jesus as we serve Jesus among His more vulnerable children.

May you also in God’s great love know Him again and more closely in this time of contemplating more closely His life as a servant of all, His suffering, death and resurrection.

With grateful hearts,
Srs. Diane and Barbara

Visitors and Volunteers: Brian Gaisford's Hemingway Safari Group 2009

Recently we enjoyed a visit by a group of people on safari. Swaziland has some of the best game parks in the world, and our friend Brian Gaisford leads safari groups as part of his Hemingway Gallery and Photographic Safaris outfit, based in New York (www.hemingwaygallery.com).

As many of you know, shipping anything to and from Swaziland is costly and unreliable to say the least. Many people want to donate much-needed items but unfortunately we can't usually take them because there is no good way to get the packages. The best way for us to bring items to and from Swaziland is actually carrying them with our luggage. Enter Brian and his safari group- and their extra duffel bags.

Brian was able to send us $7000 and Brian and friends were able to gather many donated items- shoes, clothing, etc- in New York. His safari group this year consisted of 12 people, including John and Barbara Costantino, who won a safari for two at the Cabrini Mission Foundation Gala fundraising auction in 2007.

So how to get this stuff to our remote location in Swaziland? Each person actually carried on two extra duffel bags full of supplies for their flight to Johannesburg, then they drove to Swaziland, visiting St. Philip's Mission, with a trailer of supplies.

Here is the safari group with us and all the stuff hand-carried by them.

We hosted everyone for a small lunch.

Some of the children put on a show (of course!) with some wonderful traditional song and dance.

More of the show...

These girls are very good singers.

Brian was presented with a basket that was handmade by one of the children's mothers. He writes: "There was a note to me with the basket and when I showed it to my group, it brought all to tears. Thanks so much for that and the basket now hangs with the note in my house."

We are very grateful to Brian and the safari group for visiting and bringing the supplies. The supplies mean so much to us and the children who often have only one set of clothes and shoes. We especially recognize the extra effort made by Brian and the group in adding this visit on to their safari vacation. It's amazing what can happen when people choose to participate by volunteering and find creative ways to help. THANK YOU!

Blessings and love,
Srs. Barbara and Diane

Restoring Life: Staff Stories

One of our goals at Cabrini Ministries is restoring life. We use this phrase often, because it captures both the literal and figurative meaning of the renewal and growth of livelihoods that we aim for.

Two of our staff members' stories illustrate the cycle of "restoring life."

This is Phindele. When we first met Phindi, she was so emaciated and weak from HIV and TB that Sister Diane had to pick her up and carry her to the vehicle to receive care, even though Phindi was a young adult. She could not even receive HIV treatment at first, because her liver had shut-down. Phindele's story was typical: she had left her rural homestead for work in an industrial part of Swaziland. She contracted HIV there, became ill, and returned to her homestead, as is usually the case, to die.

TB with HIV is killing so many of our people. These are photos of our patients from a recent slide show we did for the World Health Organization about the TB/HIV situation in Swaziland. Phindele looked like this once. Everyone thought she would die.

She was one of Cabrini Ministries' first ARV patients, and she was treated for TB and HIV. She was lucky in that this was the time when ARV medications for HIV were first being distributed around the country in 2004. She has managed to gain back her health, and now lives a productive, normal life. She is able to raise her children, who would have been orphaned, and she can help her extended family.

Phindele is one of the many people we see that get a new lease on life thanks to medicine and care. Now, she works in our healthcare department, doing monitoring and evaluation, and she is a community educator, training other people in her community about prevention of HIV. Restoring life with treatment and care has been our focus, but we, with the rest of the country, must also support critical prevention activities, such as Phindele's community education.

Tfobhi (pronounced "Tobi") came to Cabrini when she was pregnant with twins and needed healthcare services. She got to know us as a patient, and began working with children in the hostel in 2006. She led the Weekend and Evening department, which managed such activities as study halls and tutoring, traditional games, crafts, sports, song and dance, and teaching life skills. She has shown great leadership abilities and now supervises all of the hostel staff.

She writes: "I have learned a lot. When I came here, I didn’t know that I had so many potential skills, or that I could do so many things. Through working, I can say that I can try- I don’t know if I’ll be able to do everything, but I will try. I’ve gained a lot. I learned a lot about children. I knew children, but I’ve learned that you can’t approach different children in the same way. Also, I was very, very shy in talking to people, but now I try to correct and teach people; now I talk, present and demonstrate."

Tfobhi's growing skills and confidence as a leader are particularly significant in the context of female status in this country. Before a new constitution was adopted in 2006 which granted some rights, Swazi women had the legal status of minors, and were unable to own property or open a bank account without the permission of a male relative or husband. Still, women in our community often won't raise their eyes or speak up. Both Tfobhi and Phindele demonstrate great courage as managers and community educators, and are role models for our young girls.

These are photos of Tfobhi during the last Christmas event at the hostel.

There is a cycle and continuum that restoring life involves. Both Phindele and Tfobhi were once healthcare patients, as were or are many of the employees at Cabrini Ministries, and they are individuals who have so much to offer their communities. Healthy people can build healthy communities. We are grateful to all who help to restore the life to this community.

Blessings and love,
Srs. Barbara and Diane

Christmas 2008

Dear sisters and brothers, friends and benefactors,

May our loving God bring you deep joy and peace in this time of Christmas. We remember again our humble God coming into this world, becoming one with us so that we could become one with Him.

It is always a “wonder” to remember that God came among us small, vulnerable, into a poor country ruled and oppressed by another country; his mother had no proper place to give birth and in his early years he lived as a refugee in another country. A very unlikely, paradoxical God and Saviour! And yet in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection we have been given access to our good God and to abundant life without end.

It is because of the great Love which we celebrate at Christmas that we respond with love by caring for those who are vulnerable today. Those of us who work directly with the orphans and the sick, those who pray for this work, and those who contribute material resources for this work all participate in returning love for Love. All of us together continue this message of love and reconciliation in today’s world.

Sr. Barbara, myself (Sr. Diane) and all the staff of Cabrini Ministries thank you for your kindness and generosity and for participating with us in the life-giving circle of love. May you and your loved ones be blessed again and again.

Sincerely, Srs. Diane and Barbara

How to Build a House... and a Community

Hello Everyone!

Back in May, as you know, we at Cabrini Ministries were not really in the business of building houses. We provide educational support and housing for orphans at the hostel, and healthcare and nutritional support for the local community with our drop-in center and outreach programs. But in June, a string of opportunities propelled us head-first into residential construction, so we started building houses.

First, some context... The Swazis in our community often talk about how much better things were 30 years ago. Traditional mud and stick huts were better maintained, and thatch roofs were made of the expensive, good quality thatch from outside the area. Well-built and well-maintained traditional huts do fare decently in rough weather and heat. But today, because the adult labor force has been hit so hard by HIV and AIDS, many people can't maintain their huts as well as in the past. People use cheaper thatch that must be replaced every year, and there are less healthy adults to do this. As a result, many of the huts are in poor shape, with no roofs and not much protection from the elements. Some living situations are not even huts, but makeshift structures. Orphans and the elderly are two groups in particular need of better housing.

The Swazi government organization NERCHA (The National Emergency Response Council on HIV/AIDS in Swaziland) receives money from the Global Fund for improvement projects in Swaziland. We contacted NERCHA and shared that our community was in need of housing, and in June we were awarded a grant of about $100,000 to produce 35 houses for the most in-need orphans and elderly in our community by December. We immediately got started. The photo above is the existing hut in poor condition (as you can see, with no real roof) from the homestead where we built house #1. In the photos below, we will take you through the process of building a house as we learned to do it.

The houses we built were made of cement, so first, you need many bags of cement.

With those bags of cement, we made bricks. You can build about 32-37 cement cinder blocks out of one bag of cement, sand, and water. It takes between 350-420 bricks to make one house. So we had to make a lot of bricks.

We used our maize-drying area as a makeshift brickyard because it is fenced. The bricks need to be watered three times a day as they are drying, and they take 7-14 days to fully dry.

Next step is mixing the cement and pouring the foundation. The houses are fifteen feet by fifteen feet.

We then lay and mortar the bricks and put in some steel reinforcers. This house is a double-house for a boy and a girl family of orphans so they could each have their own space.

One of the best parts about this project is that we were able to hire local young men to work on the houses as contractors. There are lines at the door for jobs in this area, so this was especially helpful to the community. They were paid the market rate and did a great job. We also had the guidance of Mr. Cuelho from Manzini who helped as a construction manager. And family members and neighbors pitched in. As a result, I believe we were the fastest and most organized house-builders NERCHA has worked with yet.

The last major step is smoothing the cement over the bricks, and putting in the windows, door, and roof. And finally...

Ta-da! A finished house. We are on schedule to complete all the houses by December. These houses were logistically challenging to build, with almost all the materials being made at St. Philip's Mission, then being transported out to homesteads for construction. But they will be long-lasting and will stand up to weather and heat well. Also, particularly for the orphans receiving the houses, this will help them to be less of a burden on their extended families, and a bit more easily adjusted into society.

These houses are top-of-the-line for the area, and this project has had a huge effect on people and hope in the community. People have really taken pride in the process and everyone has been happy and excited about it. We are so grateful for the grant and the experience!

Happy Thanksgiving to our friends and family in the U.S.
Blessings and love,
Srs. Barbara and Diane

Today the Hawk Takes One Chick at the Margaret Mead Film Festival NYC

On November 15 2008 at 6pm in NYC, there will be a screening of Today the Hawk Takes One Chick as part of the Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival.

This 72 minute film was shot entirely on location in our community and features the adults and children we serve, as it presents the lives of three grandmothers and the challenges they face. Read more about the issues in the film's study guide:

http://der.org/resources/study-guides/TTHTOC-study-guide.pdf

The film will be shown in the Linder Theater at the American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY 10024. Both Jane Gillooly (the filmmaker) and Sr. Barbara will be there, so please come see us if you can!

Update on Nick Kristof's Kids

Hello everyone,
(Apologies for the delay in communications... email and phone service in the bush have been sparse lately.)
We would like to update you on a few things in the next few weeks.

First, we wanted to take a longer-term look at several children's lives.

In May of 2006, New York Times reporter Nicholas Kristof visited us in Swaziland to do a feature about AIDS. His work ended up in the form of a short New York Times video, available for Times Select subscribers at: The World Hasn't Moved On. Click here to watch:

In the video, Kristof focuses on children orphaned by AIDS, and profiles three groups of children orphaned by AIDS in our community. It is interesting to look at each of these groups of children and see how they are faring since the video was shot over a year and half ago.

Nomzamo, a 12-year-old orphan, is struggling to take care of her two younger sisters at the time of the video. She must feed, clothe, and otherwise raise her sisters. At the time of the video, Nomzamo and her sisters lived in a mud and stick hut with a poor roof. They did have a living grandmother, but the grandmother worked on a farm several towns away and was gone all week only to visit with them on the weekends.

Nomzamo and her sisters are doing somewhat better now, by happy fault. For one, the grandmother retired, so though she is very old, she is an adult presence in the home. Cabrini Ministries visited the homestead and talked with the grandmother about boarding the children at the hostel, but the grandmother refused, because she said she needed Nomzamo to cook for her and to keep the house safe so no one would steal from her. They are having a difficult time affording and otherwise obtaining food. They did receive donations from the World Food Programme, but run out, so Cabrini checks in regularly and helps with corn-soya and mealie-meal. The land around them is very dry from the drought and they are unable to grow crops. (Read more about the food crisis or the drought here or here.)

One positive, unexpected turn of events was that their house was fully rebuilt by SWADE (Swaziland Water and Agricultural Development Enterprise). SWADE is building a dam nearby and many residents, including Nomzamo's household, were forced to relocate. Their amount of land was preserved, however, and a house was built with better structure and materials as a replacement. The family now lives in a very solid, concrete house, painted, with windows.

Cabrini Ministries also supports Nomzamo and her sisters with extra school expenses. The government covers school tuition for all registered orphans, but there are other expenses such as uniforms, shoes, supplies, etc. that are necessary but not covered. (Read more about school fees for orphans here.)Through a foundation grant and sponsorships from private donors, we are able to pay for about 100 children's extra school expenses and ensure they are able to go to school.

Wandile and Temdoline, portrayed as brother and sister in the video, are not actually related but are two orphans that have stayed with each other. They lived with Wandile's aunt at the time, who was shown very sick with AIDS, unable to provide food for the family and close to death.

Wandile's aunt became a patient of Cabrini Ministries, and was put on anti-retroviral medication. She responded very well to the treatment and got some of her health back, but food was still difficult to secure. The homestead was run as a part-time shebeen, which is an illegal home-brewing drinking hut. Shebeens tend to leave children extra vulnerable to abuse and neglect. The aunt eventually abandoned the children and took the last of the food.

The children followed another child home from school one day hungry and having no place to go. The child's mother, which was Wandile and Temdoline's neighbor, though barely having enough to feed her own children, could not turn Wandile and Temdoline away. This kind of woman reminds us of our unity as a worldwide family and our duties as "neighbors" to each other. The children are currently living with this neighbor.

This is a common situation in Swaziland of a family being overstretched taking on extra members, with the orphaned children being at the end of the receiving line and last to get their needs met. Cabrini Ministries checks in with this homestead regularly and tries to provide help where needed.

Siphiso says in the video he thought about suicide after he had watched both parents die, but that he didn't want to abandon his two younger brothers. We thank God for Siphiso today, because we have been happy to have had an opportunity to see him grow, and he and his brothers are doing much better under Cabrini's care. Siphiso and his brothers were living on their own as a child-headed homestead.

We were able to have Siphiso and his brothers move into the Cabrini hostel in late 2006. Another important thing we helped Siphiso and his brothers with was figuring out his extended family relationships in the area, which were complicated, so now they are reintegrating into their family and staying with adult relatives over school breaks.

One amazing thing is how much Siphiso has grown! He is now taller than many of the adults around here. We think this is one of the visible consequences of good nutrition that we are beginning to see over time with many of the children in the hostel. Siphiso is 17 but as a result of his past, only in grade 6. Because he is so tall, he sometimes gets made fun of by the younger students. We will probably pull him out of the school system after his grade 7 exams and support him to go to trade school, which tends to make older students like him feel much more confident and successful.

The other brothers, Mcolisi and Sipho, are doing well, physically healthy and growing tall too.

Thanks to Nick Kristof for his original reportage, and thanks to all our supporters that help us improve the lives of such children over the long-term.

Love and blessings,
Srs. Barbara and Diane

Volunteers & Visitors Series: Katie McCaskie and Youth With A Mission (YWAM)

For being out in the middle of the bush, Cabrini Ministries receives its fair share of visitors and volunteers, that bring to us a wonderful flow of fresh air, positive attitudes, a variety of aid and assistance, and always good times... !

We wanted to share with you some of the photos and perspectives of a few of these visitors and volunteers as part of a series, and honor all of them in spirit for all that they've brought to us. Siyabonga (Thanks)!

Love,
Sr. Barbara & Sr. Diane

Volunteer visitor Katie McCaskie shares her great writing and photos below about her time here recently:

"As part of a four-month odyssey through Africa, I spent three weeks with Cabrini Ministries in Swaziland and I can honestly say that it was the most meaningful and enjoyable time of my whole trip! I'm a clinical social worker and during graduate school I had the privilege of working at Cabrini Immigrant Services, a grassroots agency in NYC run by another amazing Cabrini woman, Sr. Pietrina Raccuglia. At her suggestion, I contacted Sr. Barbara and Sr. Diane about spending some time with them in Swaziland and they kindly agreed.

"Shortly after arriving, Sr. Barbara told me that one of my jobs would be organizing the two-week stay of a volunteer group from Youth With A Mission (YWAM- www.ywam.org ), an international Christian organization. The group included 8 volunteers, ranging in age from 19 to 30 from 6 different countries: USA (Jessica Landrus, Jane Kim, Victoria Vail), Germany (Johannes Birzele), Northern Ireland (Debra Lindsay), Australia (Luana Martin), Malawi (Daniel Kaphuka) and South Korea (Audrey Oh). It was quite a multicultural bunch. They had already spent several weeks together taking classes in South Africa and were completing their field experience in another area of Swaziland and at Cabrini Ministries (CM).

L to R first row: Jane, Joyce, and Johannes; second row: Luana, Sr. Diane, Jessica, Audrey, Debbie, Victoria, and Katie; third row: Daniel

"Energetic and enthusiastic, the group came ready to contribute and accomplished a great deal in two weeks, including painting the 'K-Line' (turning a truck-size utilitarian storage box into an aesthetically pleasing structure and a potential shady location for children to read, study, etc); constructing a protective fence around the hostel; setting up Shelterbox tents (read about Shelterbox at Cabrini here) on homesteads for families in need; cleaning the entire health care outreach center and assisting with services; conducting vision screenings and measuring the weight and height of all the children returning to the hostel after school vacation; and helping with Olympic Day. Here are some photos demonstrating their handiwork:

Jessica painting the K-Line

Daniel and Johannes building the fence

Jane and Debbie decorating the hostel

Victoria and Audrey decorating the hostel

"I was thankful to work with Joyce Djokoto, a long-term employee of Cabrini Ministries, who helped make the process a smooth and enjoyable one for both the YWAM volunteers and the Cabrini community. I also worked with Joyce on the educational enrichment program with David Senzanje, the Director of Education, and Mavis Steenkamp, a teacher. CM started this program to support students while school is out of session and they are staying on homesteads with their guardians. The students came to St. Philip's Monday through Thursday for a half day and had the opportunity to receive individualized attention in a more dynamic, innovative way than is usually available to them at school.

"Lucky for me, I was at CM for two very special events which were both happening for the first time ever. The first was a staff outing to Mantenga Falls organized by Maggie Horne, a fabulous Peace Corp volunteer who has been working at CM since February. The staff, many of whom were visiting the falls for the first time in their lives, observed and spontaneously participated in a traditional dance performance and afterwards, engaged in some fun competition involving water balloons and "three legs." :) It was so wonderful to see everyone having so much fun, especially knowing some of the seemingly insurmountable challenges many of them have had to overcome just to be alive.

The staff at Mantenga Falls

Sr. Barbara and Ms. Mamba dancing at Mantenga

"The following week, Maggie organized an 'Olympic Day,' a delightful afternoon of games and activities to welcome the children back from their homesteads. The day was also part of a larger effort to create a healthy sense of competition in the hostels and highlight the children's special accomplishments and talents. The YWAM volunteers assisted Maggie in decorating the hostels with signs about hygiene, positive affirmations, and child-friendly pictures, including the four animals that served as the team mascots: cobra, zebra, cheetah and lion. It was a joy to watch these children really PLAY, something that they have had very little opportunity to do in their lives as a result of extreme loss and hardship, and the cultural mores that expect children to be somewhat seen and not heard. The day ended with an American style barbeque with the help of Sr. Barbara who provided some basic ed on hamburgers and hotdogs!

Sr. Diane and kids on Olympic Day

COBRAS! on Olympic Day

Jane and Audrey and friends on Olympic Day

Three-legged race on Olympic Day

"I was exhausted by the end of the three weeks, but felt so blessed to be welcomed into the community and invigorated by the dedication that I witnessed. I'm grateful to the staff for their willingness to get to know me and share their knowledge and experiences, even though it was only for a short time. I learned so much from Sr. Barbara and Sr. Diane about HIV, AIDS and TB in Swaziland and the grave consequences for the nation and its future. Their respect for the Swazis was clearly apparent, and like good social workers, they approach their work with an understanding that the client or the community is the expert of their own lives. Their dedication and compassion seem endless and it was incredibly inspiring. It was a pleasure and a privilege to spend valuable time with such passionate, open-minded, and remarkable women."

Colleen-another terrific Peace Corps volunteer who has been helping at Cabrini the last few months- and Katie enjoying the American-style BBQ

From Our Farm to Your Table: Income-Generating Agricultural Projects That Make A Difference

If all goes well, the chilies that we have been growing on our farm at Cabrini Ministries will soon end up in bottles of Tabasco sauce.

This is the magic of connections that make things grow. Toby Ward, a friend who helped us pick up the pieces after the storm damage, suggested we get in touch with someone at an organization called Technoserve, which helps small farmers find markets for their crops.

We have had good success with growing chile peppers in the past, as they like our very hot weather. We've produced surplus of this crop- beyond what we needed to supplement the nutrition of the OVC children in the hostel and our 800 health care patients a month- so we wanted to sell the extra peppers for income to put back into the agriculture project in the hopes that it will be able to support itself soon enough. Where we needed help was finding people to buy our surplus produce. We tried approaching grocers, but many already had their chosen vendors and we couldn't find larger-scale buyers that would make the project worth it.


Enter Technoserve... They not only provided the marketing connection to a top-notch company like Tabasco, but they also offer a lot of great technological advice about growing crops. For example, when growing chilies, the crops must be planted and grow very straight, otherwise they grow 'J roots' that prevent good peppers from forming. This kind of advice is critical to our Swazi agricultural staff members and volunteers, because we can grow better crops and generate more income for the project to make it more sustainable, and everyone can take the agricultural knowledge home, share with their communities, and grow better crops on their homesteads. We've started tilling the soil and making plans to grow Tabasco's special breed of chile. If all goes well, we should have 4-5 acres of chilies for Tabasco by December.

Click below to see a video about Technoserve's work with farmers in Swaziland:



We've also made a connection with SWADE, the Swaziland Water and Agriculture Development Enterprise. They have put in a dam near us for irrigation for poor farmers to grow cash crops. They're going to use two acres of our land, put in irrigation, grow experimental cash crops, and teach the local people how to grow the crops on their own homesteads. They provide all the 'input'- the seedlings, the labor, and technical advice, and we get to keep the produce for the children and our patients. They will also help us find markets for the produce. One of the first experimental export crops will be gooseberries- apparently there is a good market in Australia and South Africa for gooseberries.


We're beginning to feel very hopeful about the longer-term sustainability of our agriculture project due to these developments. We've always been able to grow good produce, but the marketing has been slow-coming for us. These projects are helping us get our foot through the door and helping local people improve their abilities to support themselves.

Cheers to good friends, good ideas, good health, and good food!

Love,
Srs. Barbara and Diane