We arrived at the care point early and Jackie our Hands at Work representative used the time to go through what is know as the "Hands at Work Wall". This is based on the book of Nehemiah in the Bible. This tells the story of Nehemiah rebuilding society. Jackie put a chair in the middle of our group and asked us to imagine it was a child in the community in which we were visiting. We named the child Kwame and decided that he was 6 years old. Jackie then challenged us to think about how Kwame was vulnerable, we replied that perhaps Kwame was short of food and hungry, or that perhaps he had been abused, or had been exposed to something when he was young. We also thought that Kwame had perhaps lost his parents to AIDS as many children in the community had.
The Hands at Work Wall attempts to put a wall of safety around these vulnerable children by ensuring that the children get a wholesome meal once a day, that they have access to education and a secure place to live. The latter may be with relatives or friends. The care workers in the community support this model by being 'with' the children. We have seen this first hand and in action, as we have walked around the community with these workers and seeing them in relationship with all the families just as they walk down the street and visit people's homes.
The foundations of this Wall is Christ, with a layer above of the local church leaders and above that healthy community leadership. Not all of the community are Christian but the children who come along to the care point experience a strong Christian presence amongst the Care Workers and their support network.
To our surprise the children arrived early after having only a half day of school. The reason for this was unclear but a popular theory was that this had something to do with a sports day. This gave us some time before our home visits to play with children.
After praying, worshipping and some dancing with the Care Workers and children we left the Care Point in small groups for our home visits;
Alison and Claire met a family consisting of a mother and three children - the father had disowned them. The youngest son lived with the mother and the oldest son and his wife had just moved in to help support her and the youngest due to the mothers severe sugar diabetes.
Alice, Alice and Alex met two children who had lost their parents six years ago and now live in a government home that was built for them along with their Aunt. One child wanted to be a policeman while the other wished to be a doctor of animals or as we would call it a Vet.
Adam, AJ and Nicholas visited a 16 year old who unfortunately was unable to visit the care point today as he was at the clinic. We went to his home to show support and pray with his grandfather. The boy came back and we prayed for his health. He challenged Adam to a dance off which he then decided he was too unwell for when in a shocking turn of events Adam accepted the challenge. He then revealed his least favourite subject in school is mathematics (we could relate to this!) and shared his dream to become a fire fighter.
Jessica, Chris and DJ visited a mother, who lived with her three sons, in a small home with a compound and a small garden. She had a few chickens, some cattle and a small vegetable garden where she was growing lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, papaya and other plants that we couldn't identify. Jessica remarked after our visit that she saw this as a real answer to pray, as it was not many years ago that the mother was really struggling with a home that wasn't big enough and no source of self sufficiency. Hands had helped her to rebuild her house and had supported her to achieve what she currently has. We also met one of her sons who kindly showed us his maths book, which was full of good marks and then he proudly showed us his school report with marks in all subjects above 60%. He dreams to become a pilot.
At the end of each evening we sit down for a de-brief with one of the Hands staff. This evening we sat down with Herman (He's great!) and reflected upon our experiences of the day. We reflected on how much we had actually learnt from the people of Share, so much sense of community and support, when most of us had never spoken to our neighbours. The care workers would stop and talk to everyone in the street checking that they were OK and catching up. We also all agreed how powerful the reaction to us just coming and listening to people's stories was and how this meant the world to them, this created a range of emotions and a feeling of empowerment and responsibility.
Without exception, we are all learning so much from these people, who have so little and yet give so much to each other, their community and to us. Jessica summed our feelings up by pointing out a poster on the wall that says :-
Jessica, thank you so much for sharing all of this in such detail and ...so perceptively with us...well done all of you.
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