Summary April/May 2007 trip to Swaziland
I flew from Thief River Falls, Minnesota to Minneapolis, on to Amsterdam in Europe, and across the Mediterranean Sea and the length of Africa to Johannesburg in South Africa. There I visited friends for a few days. One family are missionaries, and I also visited a friend from Swaziland who is going to college and working in a church ministry. I attended a seminar with friends at a church there. Also with these friends I was able to travel out to some of their mission projects including Soweto which is a very large area where people are in dire need.
From Johannesburg I flew to Matsapha in Swaziland to continue on the Walter Project that we began in late 2005. With the prayers and donations of many folks who care about helping the children of Ngculwini who were orphaned because their parents died of AID, much has been accomplished. It brought tears to my eyes to look about and especially to see the school completely built and ready for occupancy.
There were many tasks to be done and people to meet with whom we plan and share information. Briefly, the desks and chairs for the students and teachers were ordered, paid for and delivered to the school. A group of adults came to help unload and place them in each room. There is room for 90 children grades 1-6 in this school. Girls and boys alike will sit side by side, which is not the usual in this country I am told. Books were delivered to the school by the government education department.
The toilet/shower building is complete and hooked to the water and sewage system we have built. The utility building with the steel reinforced roof is complete with 4 water bins (10,000 liters) placed on top. The well (borehole) dug in 2006 was completed this year by placing a electric pump. This pump moves water to the storage bins, and from there, gravity flow serves the various outlets. All pipes are underground as are electric lines.
We had a large area plowed again this year for a garden to supply food for the children and the adults who work in the garden. We ran a water line to the garden area, where a water bin will be placed on a stand to provide for the garden. Having the water bin at the garden site provides more pressure for that purpose. A variety of vegetables were planted including carrots, beets, onions, cabbage, sweet potatoes and others. A large crop of maize was also planted. This is the mainstay of their diet as it is used in many ways. One note of importance: there are 2 types of sweet potatoes grown there. Just one teaspoon of the red sweet potato provides all the vitamin A needed by a child daily, and in turn this prevents the eye problems so common in Africa.
The people of Swaziland want to care for themselves and are so pleased when they receive guidance and help to learn to garden and do other tasks. We are teaching a variety of skills that can be money earning for their families. One such began when I gave a simple bag of sturdy cloth (that had been given to me) to a lady there and encouraged her to use it for a pattern to make others. This trip I found this is happening and providing money to the women who sew them. They have found an outlet through an organization in order to sell them in larger quantity.
There is a new sturdy fence around the garden area to keep out animals. The fence placed around the entire compound in early 2006 is still in place with an entry gate for cars to enter.
Plans were made this trip to build a small duplex for use only by teachers. This was part of the plan and agreement I made with then Minister of Education, Hon.Constance Similane, in 2006. The duplex will have a common wall and each side is one bedroom, a lounge/dining area, kitchen, and a toilet, shower, sink in one room. There will be a veranda on the front over the doors, and an exit door on the back of each apartment. A separate sewage system is being built for this building. This system and the duplex are under construction now as I write this in July 2007.
Hon. Constance Similane is currently the Deputy Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Swaziland. This trip I met with the new Minister of Education, Hon. Themba J. Msibi in his office. We reviewed the record of the meeting I had with Ms. Similane in 2006, going over the agreement made by she and I on the setup and operation of the school. This required breaking new ground, for this is the first school built in Swaziland to be used only by orphans. Minister Msibi agreed to the agreement and pledged to move forward working with us for the good of the children. I gave Mr. Msibi a list of potential teachers known to Walter Malaza, and I added one name of a woman I met in 2005 who was then going to college getting the required teaching credentials. Mr. Msibi is presently interviewing potential teachers to be assigned to this school.
I met with Chief Mgebscini Dlamini, whose chiefdom includes Ngculwini. This is one of 355 Chiefdoms in Swaziland. We discussed the goals and progress in building the project for the benefit of the orphans. Chief Dlamini offered his help and support to us. I asked that he provide men to volunteer to place the posts and attach the fencing around the new garden, and he agreed to do so. That task was completed that next week after our meeting. The posts were provided by people in the community and Walter’s church. Chief Dlamini and I also talked of the need for a committee of local persons to provide leadership in seeing to the needs and cares of the project after it is completed. He and I will continue dialogue on this with a committee in place when I return to Swaziland in October 2007.
My mentor and friend, John Weatherson of FAO, helped me immensely in saving me time and effort as I searched out vendors, learned the Swazi ways, and accomplished what I was there for. He was the first person I met in August 2005 when I asked for his help to “cut through the red tape” that every country has. At that time my only vision was to put in a well and electricity so there would be clean water. This project would not have happened without the vision and leadership John was willing to share with me. John provided fencing, seeds, seedlings, fertilizer and personnel from FAO to assist us. His long time employee and my friend, Joao Mahlalela, spent a good deal of time teaching and assisting the people in planning, fertilizing, and planting the garden. He continues to oversee the work and teach proper watering of the garden. This is the second year a large garden has been provided for the children and some of the volunteer workers.
John Marrengane, our builder along with his crew, has done beautiful work in all aspects of the project. Visitors to the project have told me the school is the most well built primary school building they have ever seen in the country. John settles for nothing but the best, and his men do their best for him. One of his painters, Andreas, died suddenly last December and I tried to find his family to speak with them, but they were not at home when I was there.
When this project is complete, I will continue to lead those of you who continue to contribute money to the next needs to be addressed. Through my times in Swaziland I have seen much devastation and most of all is the plight of people without water. While there I was able to travel out to some of the outlying areas removed from the usual routes. I rode along with one of John Weatherson’s men, Bethwell, and Joao several times as they went about their work. This is in an area where 4 wheel drive is best on the pickup. We used it more than once! I met many people and crossed many dry creek beds, for this has been a 4 year drought in the area.
In one place I saw 35 orphan children between the ages of 3 and 8 or 9 who gather together for the day. One child was 5 and unable to talk or walk due to a birth injury, yet she could smile. The children spend the day outdoors or in a chicken house at the site. There is no other cover. There is a small concrete block building about 8x8 at the most, where dry food is stored when there is food. Two women were cooking maize meal porridge for the children in a big iron kettle over a fire on the ground. There is no water there. The women carry it in a plastic container on their heads from afar. There needs to be a water well there. It will have to be solar powered for electricity is many miles away.
Further down the trail there is another place where there are 40 families. Their nearby creek ran dry more than a year ago. It was their only source of water. Where that creek further along ordinarily joins into a river, the river is nearly dry. These people have no water except what is brought in. These 40 families have absorbed the orphans of AIDS in their midst. I could see where someone had tried to raise a garden but without water it was nothing. This community needs a larger supply of water than the other I told you of. This too will have to be a larger solar powered pump from a well yet to be placed.
I believe this gives you an idea of what my time in Swaziland is spent doing. I visit individual families and attend church there. I am welcomed everywhere I go where I am called Gogo, grandma, and am sometimes referred to as Bonsile, a Swisati word for someone who is older and has a vision of the future. I have only met one person there older than I. The life expectancy is only 33 years. AIDS has devastated this country as in the rest of Africa and around the world. Actually, India has the highest rate of AIDS in the world.
I know God led me to this mission to help the hurting orphans of Swaziland. I could never have come up with anything like this on my own. God has placed people to help me all along the way. Some of them I have told you about here. There are many more who pray diligently for me, for the mission and for those in Swaziland who need help and for those there who provide help.
The Swaziland government is working to provide for their citizens and it is an overwhelming job. The population between the ages of 20 and 50 has been greatly reduced due to AIDS. These are the parents, doctors, nurses, teachers, shopkeepers, farmers, bankers and other business people. They would ordinarily be the teachers of life skills for their children. There are over 80,000 orphans in Swaziland today in a country just under the size of New Jersey. Can you imagine what New Jersey would do if they had 80,000 orphans drop in? There were 45,000 orphans in August 2005 when I first was there, not even 2 years ago. According to the census done while I was there this trip, there are over 20,000 children who are head of households! Unbelievable I know. The parents and many grandparents have died so there is a vast chasm left with no one to teach these children life skills. WE CAN HELP!
Please help me to help those who cannot help themselves. Each of us is part of the family God placed on this earth. Some of us need to share with the many who have little or nothing. Thank you for your prayers and donations to help me reach the accomplishments so far. There is so much yet to be done.
May God Bless You as You Bless Others
Bonnie Van Schaick
Tax Deductible Donations may be made to:
United Methodist Church
Attn: Action4Africa.com
Box 595
Thief River Falls, MN 56701