From Africa, with love.

Please know that the leadership, staff, older children and volunteers at Project Canaan are praying for UNITY in the United States. 

 

It appears to me that the States are very un-United at this time and the behavior and rhetoric that I am seeing and hearing has left me speechless.  My father used to say that speaking less, and listening more was a good thing, so that is what I am trying to do.

 

The Khutsala Artisans of Eswatini, Africa want to step out in an attempt to support and encourage UNITY in the USA.  There is very little that this tiny Kingdom in sub-Saharan Africa can do to help, but we want to try. Our voices are small, but our hearts are big, and we want to send love from Africa.

 

We have designed a small, but beautiful collection of jewelry that we are calling our UNITY Collection.  It is not on line, and you cannot buy it, because we want to make sure we are doing the right thing first. 

 

Today I am only asking for your constructive opinion of the intention of the pieces and if they resonate with your heart.  Would wearing them encourage you to have conversations with others about unity rather than division? Would wearing them remind you to be kind to one another?  Would giving them as a gift show someone, who perhaps looks different than you, that you care about them?  I am not asking if they are your style, and I don’t want any trash talk in the comments section.  Seriously.

 

We want to be sensitive and caring.  We are not trying to take advantage of a ugly time in history.

 

We have designed simple bracelets and earrings, which say UNITY to us.  Our SwaziMUD beads are handmade and baked in our kilns here in Africa.  There are three designs.  One has five colored beads and is designed to display unity in diversity.  One has red beads that represents the same color of blood that we all have in our bodies (and for followers of Jesus, represents the blood of Christ that saves us). The third bracelet is simply the word UNITY stamped in to pewter.   All three are unisex and adjustable in size.  They would be $15 each.

 

We have designed our earrings in two shapes and three colors.  We have intentionally chosen the shape of a “tear” to represent the tears that continue to be shed all over the world for injustice and the second shape is a circle, representing love, energy and power.  Our earrings will be made in red, black or the mix of five colors.

 

I am thankful to have a solid group of readers whose opinions I want to hear.  If the response to this idea is positive, we can have the UNITY Collection at Khutsala Artisans in the USA within two weeks.  If it is not well received, we will remain quiet and continue our prayers.  If you are moved by this and want to place a large order for your family or church or group, you can email me directly at janine@Heartforafrica.org. 

Live from Eswatini … from Africa, with love.

Janine

We have figured out how to make snowmen in Africa! ☃️

 

Khutsala Artisans is an incredibly important part of the Project Canaan Ministry because it employs 100+ people, who in turn are providing for 1,000+ people from their wages.  While we make and sell dozens of different 3D animals, keychains, and lots of SwaziMUD jewelry (handmade ceramic beads), it is our annual Christmas tree ornament that is our biggest seller of the year.

This year our ornament is the CUTEST little snowman, complete with a red scarf made from authentic Swazi fabric.  And of course, we made a larger decoration to sit on your mantle and match the ornament.  

So now we need to sell them all!  I am looking for 20 people TODAY to become Khutsala Brand Ambassadors and commit to selling 50 ornaments each (snowman or an assortment of any of our ornaments).  They are all in our warehouse in Michigan and ready to ship to you next week!  You would be surprised how many people post the ornaments on their social media pages and sell 50 to 100 within hours!

Our ornaments are only $12 each and make a perfect gift for anyone on your list, plus you are helping employ Swazi’s with all the profit going back to help provide for our 248 children. Will you be a Khustala Ambassador this year?  If yes, please email me at janine@heartforafrica.org or mandy@Heartforafrica.org and we will get you set up!  

We also have a really great fundraising program through Khutsala where we can make customized keychains (or ornaments) for your school, club, sports team or even your next missions trip!  The photos below are two examples of custom work that we have done recently.  It’s an easy and fresh way to raise money without selling high calorie snacks!

This past week we also worked on a beautiful beaded poinsettia bowl, and so while we haven’t made any yet I thought I would show it to you today to see if anyone likes them and would buy one?  It’s 9” wide x 2.4" high and will retail for $45. If you are interested in ordering one (or more), please email me directly at janine@heartforafrica.org and I will bring them back with me when we head to the US/Canada in October.

We need your support more than ever with so many jobs on the line.  Will you shop at Khutsala today or become a Khutsala Ambassador?  THANK YOU!

Live from Eswatini … laughing that we are making snowmen in Africa!

Janine

 

Avocados = love.

There is a lot going on here and Project Canaan is more than a home for children in need.  Now that we have water security we can start growing more food on the farm, and we want to start our fruit orchards as well.  We currently grow bananas and dragon fruit, but we want and need to focus on the production of food, as we continue our journey to sustainability, and we have hired an agronomist to help us with this.

As more and more children are placed with us through the Social Welfare department, our expenses continue to rise. The children who are being placed with us are arriving in a greater state of starvation and sickness, requiring very specialized diets.  Our children who are under the 10% height/weight chart are immediately put on the “underweight diet”.  Those who are under 3% (many are far below the very bottom of the height/weight chart) go on a special diet we call the “Jonathan Diet” because it was specially designed for Jonathan who arrived almost dead.  We have 28 children on those diets today.  One of the key elements on those diets is avocados, and we can use a lot of them, but they are expensive.

Jonathan upon arrival - July 2017

Jonathan at Christmas 2018

One of our solutions to this challenge is to plant an avocado orchard on the farm with 500 avocado trees.  We have chosen four different varieties so that we will have fresh avocados all year long, providing this wonderful, healthy and delicious fruit for our children and staff.  And if we have the funds to purchase them we will plant these trees during our 10^th anniversary celebration in July.

Here is where you come in. Our Khutsala Artisans have designed and made a fabulous avocado key chain from beads and wire and we are selling them for $12.00. When you buy one of these key chains we will plant an avocado tree in your honor. Think about who you could give a thoughtful gift to today?  Who do you know who LOVES avocados?  We would plant a tree in their honor and you could send them the key chain as a notification of your gift? It’s only $12.00 and you will be providing fruit for life for children in great need.

This is the front and the back of the avocado key chain from Khutsala Artisans

This year we are celebrating the 10^th anniversary of Project Canaan and our theme is “Rooted in LOVE” and what better way to kick this off than with an opportunity to buy an avocado tree, whose roots will grow deep in to the African soil and provide life for our children for decades to come.

Everything we do, we do in love, and we believe that our friends and families support us for the same reason. Why else would you get on a plane and travel for two days to come and serve? Why else would you write a check to help us build a home or a school for orphaned or abandoned children?  Why else would you buy an avocado tree (or 10) for a farm in Africa?  It’s all because of love.  Will you show us some love today? 

Ian just said, “Just think, we will be able to serve fresh guacamole at our 15^th anniversary celebration.”  I like the way the man thinks!

Please shop today by clicking here.  Wouldn’t it be great if we could get all 500 avocado trees purchased this weekend? 

If you just want to buy trees you can make a donation at www.heartforafrica.org with a note in the “Comments” section that it is for avocado trees.

Thanks for sending your love in a tangible way today.

Janine

This week ...

This week we received three babies – two newborns and a 14-month-old who is the size of a 4-month-old, weighing 12 pounds.  One newborn was the result of rape/incest, one newborn came from a severely mentally disabled woman and one from a young lady who lives on the street and her baby was starving to death.

Baby Cheri

This week Rick Cogbill and our Canadian friends from the Mercy Tech Mission were busy training our mechanics, teaching our welders, a millwright is here training on our milling machine and steel lathe and another man is helping put a plan together to fix our roads.

This week Pete Wilkerson, a landscape architect from SCAPES LANDSCAPES in Georgia was here to locate and clear the locations of seven buildings that we will build in the next three years.  He trudged through bush in the rain, directed hand slashing and taught some basic pruning and trimming techniques so that our property looks beautiful.

The clearing at the bottom of the photo is where the next Oasis building will go (Emseni #2 Campus)

This week we had a flock of 2.200 laying hens arrive, which will start laying eggs soon that will be hard-boiled and fed to orphans and vulnerable children throughout the country through our 30 church partners. We also had 3 calves birthed at the dairy.  

This week our Pre-kindergarten class went on a field trip, our toddlers went on walks, and 2.5-year-old, Stephen, took his first few steps (something that we didn’t know would ever happen!).

Our Khutsala Artisans were busy making new product, including beautiful new cardinals and the ever-popular unicorns and Llama keychains, ornaments and 3D animals are underway (you can pre-order for a March delivery at www.khutsala.com).  They are stunning!

This week we kicked off our adult learning sessions for our staff who cannot read or write. There are three different groups; one in the nearby community of Gebeni, one in the nearby community of Sigcineni and one here on PC - all taught by Swazi volunteers from Project Canaan who commit to 6 hours of teaching every week for a whole year!  It is a government program that we are implementing here and it is called Sebenta.

Ncobile is my favorite Sebenta teacher :)

This week was a typical week – lots going on, lots of moving parts, lots of love needed and lots of love received in all of our departments by lots of people.  We now have 222 children living at Project Canaan and they need a lot of love.  February is Child Sponsorship month - will you help us show them love by sponsoring a child this month?  You will be blessed beyond measure.

In the US: bit.ly/ProjectCanaanChildrenAngel

In Canada:  bit.ly/ProjectCanaanChildrenAngelCA

Live from eSwatini … watching love conquer all.

Janine

Life without electricity

When we first moved to Swaziland the landscape around us looked very different than it does now. At night when the sun went down, and we looked across the valley to the neighboring community called Sigcineni, it was very dark, with only a few open cooking fires dotting the hills. Now when we sit at the end of the day and overlook the distant hills we see hundreds of lights illuminating small houses that are home to many of our workers.

What is the difference you ask? Employment is the difference.  Many of our workers come from Sigcineni and their monthly salary has enabled them to first, feed their families, second, pay school fees, and third get electricity brought to their house.  For most, this is the first time in their family’s history that they have had electricity – lights to do homework by, lights for night time security, power to even have a refrigerator.  Electricity is life changing. Employment is life changing.

In order to keep these workers employed, we need your help. I am not asking for a donation, I am asking you to do some Christmas shopping at our Khutsala Artisans website at https://heartforafrica.myshopify.com/.  After paying our worker’s salaries, 100% of the profit goes directly back to help provide for our 211 children who live at Project Canaan.

Khutsala Artisans employees 100+ from our local community and they have had skills training in the area of bead work.  This year we made 100,000+ beaded items and shipped them to our warehouse in Illinois.  This includes a spectacular handmade wooden Nativity Set that includes 14 pieces that incorporate SwaziMUD beads and a sisal manger (the sisal harvested from Project Canaan).  We only made 200 of them and at the time of this blog post there are 134 Nativity sets left https://heartforafrica.myshopify.com/ so you should order yours today.

This year’s Christmas ornament is a very sweet Gingerbread man, complete with handmade SwaziMUD ceramic buttons.  You can even get the whole collection of six ornaments for $60 at https://heartforafrica.myshopify.com/collections/christmas-ornaments

 

Our Khutsala Artisans are very proud of the work they do.  Whether it’s the animal key chains or SwaziMUD jewelry, they are surrounded by beauty and hope every day that they come to work. In fact, our Khutsala motto is “Creating HOPE through beauty, design and excellence”.   Will you shop today and give the gift of HOPE (and maybe even electricity)?

Start your shopping today at  https://heartforafrica.myshopify.com/

Live from eSwatini … it’s time to Christmas shop!

Janine

Cue the calf

Cue the calf.

 When I was in the marketing business, we had an in-house photo studio and we did a lot of food and product photography. That was the “easy” part, but photographing children was always the hardest photography to do.

A few weeks ago we had the idea of setting up a manger scene (down at our dairy of course) and get a nice photo of an angel looking over baby Jesus in the manager.  We could have one of our cows in the background and it would be perfect.

We chose Rose for the angel role as she is beautiful and always does what she is asked to do.  Then I went to get our smallest baby boy to play the role of Jesus. I was quickly told by the Supervisor that I had to take baby Mercy because “she is really pretty, always smiles” (and is a favorite in a place where we are not to have favorites!). I didn’t really have a choice, so took the baby I was handed.  It was not lost on me that our baby girl called “Mercy” was taking the place of baby Jesus.

Down to the dairy we went and our young volunteer Jacob came to help put the calf in the shot.  The 3-day-old calf wasn’t interested in participating, and 6-year-old Rose didn’t think that our request to allow the calf to suck her whole hand to keep him there was reasonable.  Thus, we had Jacob put the calf beside a reluctant Rose, and then jump out of the photo (with the calf running after him).  Then “perfect” baby Mercy started to cry because she didn’t like the prickly straw poking her and the calf was not happy about the crying baby. 

All in all, we did this quickly and efficiently so that we have some really cute photos for our year end giving campaign.  Here are a few cute photos for my wonderful blog readers.

"You want me to put my hand in her mouth?  Nope."  Rose

Speaking of cute … have you see the really cute key chains that we make here in Swaziland and sell at www.khutsala.com?  This weekend we are offering 25% off all stocking stuffers (including our beautiful jewelry made with our own handmade SwaziMud ceramic beads).  Just use the promo code STOCKINGSTUFFERS and shop away!   If you want to see some of our 100+ artisans making the beadcraft check out this awesome video https://vimeo.com/238577273.

Every dollar you spend helps us support the 175 children living at Project Canaan.  Yesterday we received 18-hour-old baby “Helen” to the family.  She might be the cutest part of this whole blog.

Thank you for thinking of us as you prepare Christmas for your family and friends. 

Live from Swaziland … 19 more days until Spencer and Chloe come home!!

Janine

Mental illness and our babies. Please read this to the end, and share.

This week we received two more babies, both came to us because their mothers are mentally ill.  The first child lived on the streets of Manzini for the first 18-months of her life. We call her “Beauty” because that is what her Swazi name means, and she is beautiful. She was not fed, not bathed, not cared for and ended up in hospital before Social Welfare could rescue her and send her to a place of safety.

Two days later we received baby Mandy whose mother is also severely mentally ill and has spent the last two months sneaking in and out of a government hospital, sleeping under beds, in closets, stealing food to survive etc.   Mandy’s mother was volatile and the hospital and social worker called the police to be involved when the baby was taken for safe keeping.

If I were to guess, I would say that close to HALF of our 166 children come from a mother with some kind of mental illness.  Let me give you a few specific examples of cases with our children and how each case is so different and so sad:

• “H” comes from a mother who was not born with psychological challenges, but she started having epileptic seizures (or “fits” as they say here) and they went untreated for most of her life, causing her to become mentally challenged by her late teen years.  “H” has no signs of epilepsy and is a bright, smart child.

•   “M” comes from a teenage mom who was a happy healthy child until her mother died of an HIV/AIDS related illness when the girl herself was 9-years-old. M’s mother had been caring for her mother for several years and contracted HIV by being in constant contact with her mother’s blood and body fluids. The family decided not to tell her that she was HIV positive nor did they start treatment.  In 2013 she was very sick and went to the hospital only to find that she was HIV positive. She had a strange moment of happiness that she had a connection with her mother because she got the HIV from her, and then had a complete psychotic breakdown, and has never been mentally stable since. 

• “Q“ comes from a mother who was on treatment for HIV/AIDS and possibly TB and had adverse reactions to the medication.  Anti-Retroviral Treatment  (ART)can be very hard on a person’s internal organs and even with proper nutrition and protein there can be many side effects that can affect a person’s personality. We even see that with some of our own children who are on ART and we have to be extra sensitive and supportive to them when we see them struggling.  Baby Q’s mom didn’t have anyone to support her so she would leave the baby alone for days, destroy neighborhood property and was eventually admitted to the National Psychiatric Hospital, which is where we picked up Q.

• “M” comes from a mother who is mentally disabled and her Grandmother is also severely mentally disabled. I met them both.  We were told that it was a family where there was a lot of incest and we can see that “M” herself shows signs of the family health history and we will be challenged with her for her life.

The reason I am telling you all this is because the situation of baby abandonment and dumping is escalating here.  We need more help to care for the children and we have found an easy way for YOU (yes, you who read this blog each week, but aren’t certain if you want to get involved or how to get involved) to GET involved. And we want to make it easy for you, without asking for a donation.

The 2017 Heart for Africa Christmas ornament is our most beautiful yet. It is a beaded red bell with a handmade ceramic bead on the bottom made from authentic SwaziMUD.  The profit from every 25 ornaments sold provides everything one child needs for an entire month!  That includes food, medicine, clothing, electricity, caregivers and lots of love. Not only that, but the 110+ people who make the ornaments can feed and provide school fees for their own children.

Today I am looking for 50 people who will commit to selling 50+ ornaments to their friends, family, school, community group, church.  There are five different designs now and each one comes in a beautiful organza bag with an informational card.  We have also created the entire ornament line in a “Snowy collection”, for those people who decorate an all white Christmas tree.

Please email me at janine@heartforafrica.org or our North American Sales Director at kime@heartforafrica.org TODAY if you want to get involved.  Your friends and family will be starting their Christmas shopping soon so let’s make sure they are shopping with a purpose this year.  This could also be a great service project for you kids. 

Live from Swaziland … is it time for you to get involved?

Janine

PS Our ornaments will also be available in smaller quantities at www.khutsala.com as well, but today we are looking for Ambassadors to help us help more children.