HBC update

Olga, Daniel, Panii and Ingrid have joined Jogbeth, Aline and Edler at the HBC as Caregivers, which makes a total of 7, visiting 19 clients. We are especially thankful for Daniel as this means
1) we may be able to reach and visit more men
2) he is quite gifted in languages and can visit clients who speak languages other than English, Afrikaans and Otjiherero.

Edler will be on maternity leave from April to July and is anxiously waiting to welcome her fourth child.

Income Generation
Having their own vegetable garden at home (see previous post) will provide the clients with the nutritious food they need to keep their immune systems strong. It can also be a source of income as they sell ‘extra’ produce.

This is one of the Income Generating Activities we are investigating for the HBC clients. The other is jewellery making and bead work. We plan to send Jogbeth and two clients to be trained in jewellery and bead work in May, so that they in turn can train the other clients who are interested.

Gardening

Over the last few months our HBC Coordinator, Jogbeth, has been hard at work turning part of her backyard into a garden.

This garden has two purposes.

Firstly, to produce food that can be shared with the HBC clients.

The second purpose is to try different ways that fruit, vegetables and herbs can be grown in small spaces and find suitable methods for the clients to use in order to start their own food gardens at home.

Many of the clients have only limited space at home, but there are several options such as using pallets, drums and even old tyres!

Seedlings in trays and drums being prepared to grow potatoes and onions

Currently Jogbeth has melons, tomatoes, spinach, cabbages, carrots, corn, onions, mint and lemongrass. She will soon be planting potatoes and herbs.

To close...

Thought I would post some pictures of our After School children, taken by Di Marshall. The After School Program is promoting a future and a hope for these precious ones, so that they can have all the opportunities they should have!

This will be my last post for the year - a very blessed Christmas to all!

Home Based CARE

Edler visiting one of her clients

Christmas can be a difficult time for the clients in our Home Based Care program. They may travel to the villages/rural areas to spend time with their extended families, which may mean they don’t have their normal support system. Or they might stay in Windhoek but members of their household travel, so then they need additional help.

Jogbeth doing a bible study with the children

The EBCAIDS caregivers are busy finding out where all the clients will be over the holiday period, so we can properly plan for the care they will need. Please pray for this.

Jogbeth counselling her client and family

There are now 16 clients being visited by four caregivers – Jogbeth, Aline, Edler and Olga. This is a 100% increase over the number of clients we had when we started just over a year ago. These include some male clients, so we are praying that there are some men who will be willing to join as caregivers, so that the needs of the men in the program can be better met.

Closed.

After School Program is closed for another year – our sixth, in fact! This year we saw an average of 144 children register each term and an average daily attendance of 68. But the highest daily attendance was…99 children. WOW.

We were pleased to welcome Di Marshall, SIM’s HIV-AIDS Consultant, to the mayhem of the final day of ASP on 19 November. She’s in town to look at our programs and talk about the assistance SIM is able to give us. (And the credit for the photos goes to her!)

The afternoon started with some study/learning time, as some of the children still had their final exams the following day.

Mercia with the Grade 1s and 2s

Lazarus with the Grade 5s

Then it was time for some singing,

and games,

Ready for 'Lions & Leopards'

Tangee showing the children how to splatter their partner (ie, ME) with the water balloons

The children took the 'Water Balloon Toss' a bit more seriously!

before we finished with prayer and giving the children each a “goodie” bag with some treats to eat.

My favourite part? Tipping the rest of the water all over the children!

We look forward to seeing them back after the summer holidays!

Botswana

Back from our networking trip to Flying Mission Botswana, and what a great time we had! It’s a fairly straightforward drive from Windhoek to Gabarone, taking us about 14 hours to get there and 12 to return…but I don’t know that I’d ever recommend anyone to do it in one go unless they’re pressed for time. The term, “vast distance” has a completely new meaning for me now!

Sunrise close to the Namibia/Botswana border

We left on 28 October and returned on 1 November (okay, the small hours of the 2nd of November actually!). The group consisted of Pastor and Mrs Makai, Florence and I from the EBCAIDS Committee, and Tangee and Absalom representing the After School Program.

Tangee and Absalom look at a garden used to support the youth group at a township church

The aim was to look at the projects that Flying Mission is involved in and supports in Gabarone and surrounding towns, with a focus on youth and children’s work. Flying Mission is also heavily involved in home based care, and we hope for another occasion to have a look at those projects.

Behaviour change group at a primary school

And wow did we see a lot! Behaviour change programs in schools, the HIV-AIDS arm of the Evangelical Fellowship of Botswana, life skills programs (Face the Nation) run by the Open Baptist Church, sports programs (Kings Foundation), a feeding program, youth groups in churches, an after school program, Youth for Christ… Also looked at some good resources and curriculums being used.

As well as getting a meal, the children who come to the feeding program can relax and play games

Tangee with a volunteer and two of the children from a school feeding program

The hospitality and people were fantastic – especially Saralee, Pastor Emmanuel and Mercy. Thanks guys (especially Saralee for not thinking me a nerd for wanting to spot some locations from “Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency” books!!). Even through accommodation mix-ups and car break downs, we really enjoyed our time, learnt a lot and made new friends. We’ve got a lot of ideas to work on now and see what we can incorporate into our programs.

Relaxing - yes we also got a chance for that! - with our new Flying Mission friends

Please pray for Flying Mission and all the churches and organizations putting so much time and effort into preventing, treating and educating about HIV and AIDS.

Sunset at the Mokolodi Nature Reserve

Parents evening

Our final parents’ evening for the After School Program in 2009 went really well on 21 October, with about 40 parents/guardians and 90 children attending!

The children attended in their school uniforms, to add a more scholarly touch to the proceedings. The volunteers and children had put a lot of work into preparing for the evening: the Grade 1 & 2 and Grade 3 & 4 groups showed what they had learned through their extra/remedial work as well as memory verses from Bible Club, the Grade 5s performed a drama, and the Life Skills group (for Grade 6 and up) presented topics they had covered.

The Life Skills group (left) and Grade 4s and 5s (right)

In addition to this Lazarus had practiced songs with the children and the “choir” gave some lively performances. Displays for the different activities had also been set up, showing what was done in Bible Club, Life Skills, sports and arts and crafts (with the children’s handiwork on display).

The evening’s highlight was the awarding of certificates to the children for attendance, good behaviour and good marks/significant improvement in their subjects at school. This is the first time we’ve done this and it was great to have the children’s achievements recognized and see their pride in their accomplishments. As always, we closed with prayer, tea and refreshments!

Less than a month to go now until we finish for the year on 19 November.