$850,000 US for water??

Giving thanks for fresh water flowing

This week Project Canaan became “water secure”.  This is a REALLY BIG DEAL and may not make any sense to those of you who have access to water any time you turn on a tap or flush a toilet.  We don’t have that luxury (which you likely take for granted).  Let me explain – I know you will think this is really cool.

We don’t have a river on Project Canaan, so we have built three dams which are only filled by rain fall.  We have drilled down below dam #2 and we pump the water 1.7 KM/ 1 mile up 100 meters/yards to a holding tank. There it is goes through a filtration system and then flows back down the mountain to our homes, schools and to the front office. The tank is filled a couple of times each week.

There is no aquafer (body of water below the surface), and we have had many surveys done to look for water that we could source. We are completely dependent on rain water, and we have been in the worst drought in recorded history for the past few years. 

This is a bone-dry dam #1 where we gathered in August 2016 and prayed for safety as the bulldozer started up the mountain.

That lead us to the top of the mountain where we found seven natural springs.  Even during the drought the water flowed freely from the springs.  Once we knew there was water at the top of the mountain, then we had to find a company who could bring it down to the farm.  This was a MONSTER project at a cost of $850,000 US. 

Natural springs located 900+ meters/yards above the farm

I cannot tell you how much conflict this brought to our lives. There were people who just didn’t think we should be trying to raise that much money for “just” water.  It caused conflict on our Board, and with some donors. Of course, those people don’t have to worry about only showering every few days to save water or bathing 190+ children with no water.  But we were steadfast in our belief that the Lord created those natural springs and put them on this property for a reason – for us to never be without fresh water.  AND, if it’s God’s will, it’s God’s bill, and He would provide.

We secured the water rights with the government for two of the springs and started raising funds. First, we had to make SIX MILES (9.5 km) of roads up a mountain with our bulldozer.   Not an easy feat. Then all the materials (steel, concrete, piping) had to be taken up by tractor loads.  

The project was done in four stages:

1.     Build two weirs/dams at the top to redirect the water. You MUST watch the video  below of a guy taking one of hundreds of loads of wet concrete down a steep hill to build the weirs.

2.     Install 1.7 km (1 mile) of steel pipe above ground.

3.     Dig 7.8 km (4.8 miles) of trenching to bury the OPVC piping underground from the steel pipe down to connect to a 500,000L (110,000 gallon) holding tank.

4.     Dig more trenching to connect that tank to another holding tank of the same size behind the egg barns.

As we raised the funds for one phase, we would start that phase. The OPVC piping had to be ordered from Spain, so each order would take 6-8 weeks to receive, and then we could continue.  

Weirs being built

Chloe on weir #2

Each and every person who Ian has taken up the mountain to see the progress has been BLOWN away by the magnitude and scope of this engineering feat. No photo or video can possibly capture the complexity or scale of the project.

Two years later, the pipe was connected to the second holding tank, and on Thursday we became water secure! Once that holding tank fills up (which should take two days), the water will then be channeled down to fill dam #2 (remember, that’s where we get our drinking/bathing/cooking water), and when that is full it will overflow and fill the Living Water Dam (dam #3).  I should also mention that there is a T-junction in the piping so that the community of Gebeni can also tap in to the water once they have their piping secured. 

Easy eh?  Ha!

I cannot tell you how proud I am of my husband, Ian, for his tenacity, perseverance, passion and absolute faith that this project was the Lord’s will.  This project is like a “life’s work” and  generations to come will have water on Project Canaan because of his faith. 

Thank you to David Bryant for working tirelessly to raise the funds for this project and for never giving up.  Thank you to Tim Lambert and Chad Gregory for having our backs through this journey and for your commitment to water security. Thank you to each and every person who gave a large amount or a small amount or even bought a Water bracelet to have a part of this massive undertaking. 

Thank you Jesus for the gift of fresh water, and for being our living water. Because of you we will never thirst again.

Live from eSwatini … I am eternally thankful.

Janine

PS I loved this comment that someone wrote on my Facebook wall in response to our water photos: “I am partnering in prayer with you for ALL the ways that water symbolizes and releases life over your community.”  Amen.

Droughts, hurricanes, wars and rumors of wars – who can really save us?

Greetings from Durban, South Africa where I am sitting over looking the Indian Ocean.  We are here celebrating Ian’s 52^nd birthday and taking a day or two to reflect on where we have been, what we are doing and where we are going.  We have 164 children living at Project Canaan now, and the responsibility of that weighs heavily on our shoulders.

As far as my eyes can see, I see water, and it's beautiful and powerful and awe-inspiring.  It seems that water has been at the center of conversation for us for a very long time now.

Last Saturday we were glued to the TV, like so many others around the world, watching for surging ocean water as Hurricane Irma moved north through the Caribbean and on in to Florida.  The week before we watched helplessly as Hurricane Harvey dumped 33 trillions gallons of water on Houston and other parts of Texas.  During that same week we had a conversation with a vegetable farmer from the Cape Town, South Africa area who told us that their rainy season had just finished and their dams were only 1/3 full. He told us that Cape Town (and surrounding farms, wine country etc) will run out of water before the rains come next year.

I have always heard that water is life, but why does it seem that water can be life-giving and life-taking all at the same time?

While I don’t understand why God allows droughts, floods or hurricanes, I do believe that HE is the only one who can make it rain (or not), and I believe that He is the only one who can save any of us from disaster. I don't understand a lot of what God allows/does and doesn't do and I sure don't understand why He doesn't STOP many of the things we see from happening, but that is not for today's blog.

On Thursday we got a call from a Social Welfare officer about a 3-day-old baby who was found in a plastic bag, hanging on a branch of a tree.  The child was still covered in blood and his umbilical cord was tied with an elastic band.  A passerby heard the child cry and called the police.  Why did God allow that?  I believe that God is the only one who could save that child’s life. The mother could have dumped him in an outdoor toilet (where 30+ of our other children have started their lives), or lit him on fire (like two of our children), or strangled him and dumped him in a garbage can (like one of our children), or left him in the river to die. BUT she didn’t. Something in her had mercy on that small baby. Something whispered to her spirit to give him a chance, and she did.

As I sit and look at the Ocean and give thanks for my husband’s life and this journey we are on, I am stopping to ask you for help.  While it is God who saved each of our children’s lives, it is us who must feed, clothe and care for them, and He invites people to be a part of that journey with us.  This is difficult timing because SO MANY people need financial help to recover from the disasters that have recently struck.  We do not get government funding to raise these children. We are 100% donor funded, and without more help from monthly donors we will have to say “no” to a baby who has been dumped or abandoned.  Please, will you help us today by becoming a Heart for Africa Angel?  Or even make a one-time gift to help us help a child?

To give in the US please click here.

To give in Canada please click here.

We can’t control the rain, the wind or the weather, but we can do something about helping a child in need.

Thank you for considering my request today.

Live from South Africa … the ocean brings me peace.

Janine

PS In other news, we have a lead on who was involved in the break-ins on Project Canaan. This "Wanted" article was in the newspaper yesterday. We pray that the thieves will be found and prosecuted.

I am struggling

I find myself crying a lot these days when I sit with Ian at night watching TV.  It’s like I am on overload and don’t know how to “de-frag” my brain or put my world on hold for a time.  But in the morning I go down to the Children’s Campus and am refueled again as I see babies walking whom we thought would never walk. Or children laughing whom we thought may never laugh again.  And then I get a call about another child and the horrific situation that they are in, and my heart sinks and the tears need to be held back until the child is safely at Project Canaan and I am home on the couch again.

We received eight babies in ten days over the past two weeks (!).  That means we now have 135 children whom we are legal guardians for until they finish High School.  We also have 20 babies who we do not have  any funding for. That is a shortfall of $4,500 each and every month.  So, really, I only need 100 of the 1,000+ people who are going to read this blog this week to sign up to give $45 a month to cover them all. OR maybe 45 of you could sign up to give $100 a month?  Or, maybe you would like to make a one-time donation of $2,700 to cover the cost for a whole year?  I don’t know how the Lord is going to provide for His children, but I pray He does (and does it quickly!).

Each of these new babies who arrived has a story worse than the one before.  One little girl is HIV positive, but because her mother dumped her with strangers at 3-months of age, she was never started on treatment.  No one knows her name or when she was born so we “threw a dart” and gave her a birth date of December 17^th and we are calling her Margie.  Can you imagine … she is living with strangers for five months and they didn’t know her name or age?  They guessed that she was 3-months-old when they got her. 

Another baby was dumped in a pit latrine on a Sunday and not found until the following Thursday!  Can you imagine, a newborn baby girl, lying in human waste for FIVE DAYS????  No water, no food, no clothes, only darkness, and many years of urine and feces. AND she lived! And she is only had a few bruises and a bit of swelling on her face!  A MIRACLE for sure.

Five days in a pit latrine and she looked this good!

And then there’s the drought that I keep talking about.  Everywhere we go there is such a sense of helplessness and hopelessness.  I feel guilty when I take a shower that I think is too long and wish that we could water the grass at the baby home campus so that the children aren’t playing in dirt. But then we go out to the community to see elderly people who take all day to walk to and from a nearly dry river to get a bit of water for cooking.  

So this week I am struggling. I am struggling because I miss Spencer and Chloe who seem to be a million miles away in Canada and the US. I am struggling because I feel like I am always asking for money on Facebook and from my blog readers.   I am struggling because I wonder when our Boards of Directors are going to tell me that I am not allowed to bring any more babies to Project Canaan. I am struggling with the tuberculosis that we are dealing with on a daily basis.  I am struggling because I am a “fixer” and this can’t be fixed.  With the drought upon us, every government person or police officer or hospital worker that I speak with says things are going to get worse before they get better. 

And then I go back to the Word of God and see that I really am blessed and should not be carrying these burdens because Matthew 5:1-12 in the Message bible says,:

 “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.

 “You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

 “You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.

 “You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat.

 “You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being ‘care-full,’ you find yourselves cared for.

 “You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.

 “You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.

 “You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom.

 “Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don’t like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.”

Amen.

Live from Swaziland … He carries me.

Janine

PS – we are getting a 2-month-old baby on Monday.  

US monthly donor page

Canadian monthly donor page.

Drought relief?

 

I fear that you are tired of hearing about the drought, but I beg you to read just one more blog on this topic and hear about a “short term solution” that we have found to help some of the neediest people.

Yesterday’s national newspaper announced that the country’s Capital of Mbabane (which has been on water rationing for many months) will be going to the level of rationing.  Starting today, people living and working in the Capital will have their water turned OFF for FOUR days, and then turned back on for two days. Off again for four days, on for two, until the rains come.   Think of the implications this has for hygiene, health, business and life.  BUT, if there is no water, there is no water.

Project Canaan still has water in dam #2, which means our borehole still has water, but the dam is shrinking daily.  We have had the property surveyed and we are told that there is no water to be found, so drilling another bore hole is not an option. Bringing the water down from the mountain springs at the top of our mountain is the only solution that we see, so we expectantly wait for the Lord to provide the $800,000 US needed to do that. 

But, while we wait on him, we have to help those in greatest need in our own surrounding community… the elderly and the orphan headed households. Today I want to share our plan with you.

We have hired a young man, who will work 6-days a week with the Community Health Motivators to identify the people in greatest need.  Every day they are identifying people literally dying of thirst because they have no water or starving to death because there is no firewood to cook with and/or no food to cook. 

Drought Relief Food Pack

We have created a Drought Relief Food Pack for only $75 US or $100 CDN and will feed a family of 1-3 people for a full month, including food delivery and follow up.  The pack includes 22 pounds of rice, 22 pounds of maize flour (the staple here) 22 pounds of onions, 11 pounds of sugar beans, salt, cooking oil, soap, sugar, soup mix, 60 eggs, 4 cabbages, candles and matches. 

For the families where there are children, we will distribute Feed My Starving Children Manna Packs. Where there is no access to water or firewood, we will take wood and water from Project Canaan.

Our desire is that we can visit each of these families monthly to encourage them, pray with them and deliver food.  Our hope is that we can do this until the rains come and the next crop is harvested in April 2017. We need to help people get through the next nine months (praying that the rain comes). 

Matthew 25:34-40 says, “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.  For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶ I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?  When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?  When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

Will you help us today?

You can buy a Drought Relief Food Pack in the US by clicking here.

You can buy a Drought Relief Food Pack in Canada by clicking here.

Live from Swaziland … giving thanks for His provision.

Janine

Tuberculosis at the baby home

Someone mentioned to me that my blogs are getting very heavy.  Each time they read them they feel my pain and sometimes they are just too much to read.  They wondered if many people might stop reading my weekly blog because of I am just making them too sad.   I hope that isn’t the case.  The Swazi people can’t just stop being hungry or sick because it makes them too sad, so I pray that you will continue to read, learn, pray and engage.  We are in a crisis that is only getting worse every day.

It’s winter here, which means its around 45F at night and 70F+ during the day, but we are all cold.  There is a darkness over the country right now that is not allowing light or warmth in to our bones or our lives.    We see fear in the eyes of our people, and it is heartbreaking.  Tears flow freely and there is not a day that I don’t shed more than my share.

As if the worst drought in recorded history wasn’t enough and starvation in every community around the country, we are starting to see the impact that hunger has on sickness.  When people are on anti-retrovirals for HIV/AIDS they must eat properly (including protein) for the medication to work.  They have no food.  As treatment starts to fail, there is an increase in opportunistic infections and diseases … like Tuberculosis.

This past week we learned that several of our Aunties, who live in the baby home and toddler home, tested positive for Tuberculosis.  We do not know yet whether it is drug-resistant or even multiple-drug resistant, but we pray that it is not.  They have been removed from the home for now, but not before they had the chance of infecting other caregivers and children.

Here is the thing.  Anyone and everyone who has been living in Swaziland has been exposed to TB.  They don’t even do the skin test in Swaziland that would show if a person had been exposed because we have all been exposed.  Having a health immune system helps the monster from getting in to our lungs or other organs.

This week I saw fear in the eyes of my own Supervisors as they wondered if they too had contracted this deadly disease.  Some people have active TB (obvious with coughing, weight loss and night sweats), but some have inactive TB.  A sputum test and/or chest X-Ray is how diagnosis is done here, but to make things worse, if a person is HIV positive, it is quite possible for them to have a negative sputum test (even when they have active TB) because their immune system is masking the TB.  A nightmare situation.

On Monday we will start testing the women and children who were most exposed to the infected Aunties.  Because it is impossible to get sputum from an infant, we will do an expensive blood test on everyone (including me) to see what our infection level is.  We pray that we have caught this beast before it has unleashed hell on our Children’s Campus, but even if we have, the battle is not over. 

Meanwhile we are taking further action in the three Chiefdoms surrounding us o see how we can help those in desperate need.  We have assigned a full time Community Support person to go out in the community and assess the situation, starting with the elderly and the orphan headed households.  We will start delivering food and helping where we can, as we can, next week, and this will be in partnership with the local Chiefs and the Community Health Motivators (see last week’s blog).

We have set up an account for Community Support.  If you would like to help us help those in need, please give generously today at this link.  If you would like to help us with the cost of the TB GOLD tests (approximately $36 US each) please click here. 

Links for Canadian donors are:  Community Support  and Emergency Medical Fund.

Thanks for your prayers for all concerned. I will provide an update on the test results in next week’s blog.

Live from Swaziland … praying for health and strength and His provision.

Janine

The most difficult ten years of my life.

Photo credit - Chris Cheek

These have been the most difficult ten years of my life. 

Total surrender to God comes at a very high price and it not without pain, suffering, judgement and loss.  Our family has felt all of those things over the past decade, but we try to remember to give thanks in all things, we are human and suffer like anyone else.

Since Heart for Africa was founded in 2006, our family has moved to two different countries and lived on two different continents (three if you include Chloe’s High School years in Taiwan).  We have said goodbye to old friends, and worked hard to meet new ones.  We have made life-long friends, and have some broken relationships that need forgiveness and repair.

We have served in four countries (South Africa, Malawi, Kenya and Swaziland) and Spencer and Chloe have lived in hotel rooms for more than a year of their lives, while helping lead people on 11-day service trips.

The work does not get easier as the days pass, and it seems like the learning curve is still vertical, with no sign of a curve (even after ten years). 

We have learned about things we never even had interest in and have become well versed in many critical areas reaching from Swazi culture to HIV/AIDS, from dairy farming to multiple drug-resistant Tuberculosis, from currency exchange to construction with concrete, from malnutrition to aquaponics, from bore holes and dams to the impact of drought.

Yesterday we called a meeting of the Community Health Motivators from the four Chiefdoms that surround us.  These women are paid E350 ($24.00US) each month to work full time to closely monitor the people in their community who are on treatment for HIV, Tuberculosis, asthma, diabetes, or who are pregnant, orphaned or vulnerable children and the elderly.  They are paid to “motivate” people to maintain proper hygiene (to reduce disease), eat proper meals when taking HIV or TB medication (especially eat meat protein) and they personally provide hospice service to the elderly including bathing them, feeding them and praying with them.  

We called the meeting because Chris Cheek (one of our long term volunteers who spends a lot of time out in the local homesteads) came to me and said that she was feeling a shift in the community. The people are starting to panic.  There is no food.  What can Project Canaan do to help (in a country of less than a million people, most in the same situation). 

And so we sat for two hours and listened to the women share from the depth of their beings, what they are seeing in the community and how they are affected.  Here are the highlights (or low lights) of the meeting.

One lady said, “People are starving everywhere.  Swaziland has always been a poor country, but we could always go to our fields and turn the land to plant maize.  Now that there is no water, we couldn't even turn the ground.  We didn’t plant in November and now there is no food.  There is nothing at all to eat.  Some people are even grinding up left over corncobs (left after the maize kernels are removed) and trying to cook them in to porridge.  And we can’t plant again until the next rainy season comes, which we hope is in November”. 

IF the rains come again in November, those who have lived a year with little or no food, will turn the land, but without assistance, they will have no seed to plant. 

Another lady said, “There is no water to drink, to cook the little food we scavenge for or to wash ourselves with.  The elderly people we are supposed to care for smell very bad because they are so dirty and we have no water to clean them with.  We also don’t have masks to wear when we visit patients who have Tuberculosis.  That makes us very worried that we will also get the disease.”

Several women chatted in unison explaining that the acts of violent crime are escalating as teenagers are breaking in to homes, attacking the elderly, just to steal something that they can sell – an old shirt, a broken dish, an empty water tank. The community is becoming increasingly dangerous as people become more desperate.

They told the story of an old Gogo who was beaten, robbed and raped by some teenagers and left to die.  She found the woman and now cares for her.

Many of them underscored to us that this year is different. Even in dry years in the past, they have never suffered the way that they are suffering now. When I asked them what they are most afraid of now, each and every one of them said, “Hunger. I have nothing to feed my own family and nothing to give those who I am supposed to “motivate” to eat well and take their medication”.

At the end of the meeting we prayed together and the ladies were fed a home cooked meal and driven back to their community with a TB mask and four trays of eggs each (120 fresh eggs) – one tray for their family and three to be distributed to people in need, as they saw fit.

One of the Community Health Motivators went with Chris, Ned Lehman and Kathy Ott (two of our US board members) to visit the mother of our babies Princess and Anthony.  She has been sick with HIV and TB for a long time, which is why both of the children have been placed with us.  Chris called me to say that the young woman is near the end of life (in fact, thought she had passed while they were there), but then she breathed again.  They called a private ambulance and she was taken to the hospital, to die. 

Yesterday was a typical day, but then again, there is no such thing as “typical” here. They are all hard days and we learn so much each and every day from our Swazi brothers and sisters. 

Some (many) days the pain and suffering we see is just too much and I find myself unable to hold back the tears on a daily basis.  But we do what we can with what we have and we pray for continued strength for the days and months ahead. This is going to get much worse before it gets better. 

Please join me in praying for Swaziland, for the funds to bring water from the top of our mountain to fill our dams and boreholes, for guidance on how we are to address the needs of the people in need in our surrounding communities and for unity, peace and restored joy for all of us.

Thank you for your support over the past ten years.  We simple can NOT do this without you, nor do we want to. As I reflect back over the decade it is abundantly clear that the Lord has guided and directed us, as well as provided and protected us.  Despite our own inadequacies and failures, He is sovereign and faithful always.

Live from Swaziland … giving thanks for 10 years of HIS provision and love.

Janine

Water crisis causes us to close down our vegetable production

This week tough decisions had to be made.  Ian and I are not afraid of making tough decisions, but that doesn’t make them any easier.

On Tuesday, Ian sent this letter out to our US and Canadian Boards of Directors.  It read,

“Dear Boards Members,

Due to the current drought that southern Africa is suffering through right now we have had to prayerfully make the decision to stop all vegetable growing on Project Canaan, effective immediately.

There have been a few days of light rain, for which we give thanks, but it is not nearly enough to moisten the land or fill our dams. 

We stretched the water as far as we felt reasonable, without jeopardizing the domestic use from the borehole (dam #2 is an indicator of the water in the domestic use borehole), and we now know that we must stop growing vegetables.  The dairy and egg laying projects will continue.

This decision has not been made lightly as it will not only impact 40 employees (and their 13+ each dependents), but it impacts our income projections for 2016 and beyond.  

Living on a farm with nothing growing in the fields is discouraging to all and hard on morale, but it is a direct reflection of what the whole country (region) is going through.  Our people are suffering, food prices are escalating (the maize staple have increased by 66% this year!), and there is still no food in the school system.  

There is no doubt that our focus now must be raising the funds to bring the water from the springs at the top of the mountain in order for us to become “water secure”.  There is no guarantee that the rains will fall in the next rainy season (which starts in November) so we must direct the water that the Lord has provided on this land for His work.

Please keep us all in your prayers. This is a tough week at Project Canaan and surrounding communities.

Thanks,

Ian”

The line from the natural, year-round springs and the dams that we need to fill.

That’s what is happening here.  Please pray for all involved and please pray for the funding needed to bring the water down from the top of the mountain so that we can become “water secure”. We need a total of $800,000 (yep, a BIG number) to install 8,000 yards of piping and it will take us 6-8 months to build the pipeline once we have the funding. In the meantime, we pray daily that our last borehole does not go dry.

Live from Swaziland … I will never take water for granted again.

Janine

PS  Update on last week's blog. We got all the funding needed for Isaiah and Seth's ear surgeries!  Here is a photo of them with their passports!  Their surgery is April 6th in South Africa.  Thank you Lord for your provision!

Isaiah and Seth

Everything is dying – we are in a crisis here!

Some of you know that we are praying for rain.  Two of our dams are dry and the Living Water dam is almost too low to pump water and irrigate our crops.  There is no way for us to know how much water is left in the wells that we get our drinking water from.

But our irrigated fields still look green, while the hills surrounding us remain brown, or on fire due to the dry grass and high winds.

The fire up behind the Emseni Children's home last night.  Photo Credit: Chris Cheek.

In June 2015 it was predicted that the drought that was ensuing would kill an estimated 200,000 cattle if there was not immediate government intervention.

See article:  http://www.observer.org.sz/news/73934-200-000-cattle-will-die-due-to-drought-govt.html.

Today I sat down with Anthony and got a report from our work in the surrounding community and with our 27 church partners and I was given a much deeper understanding of what  “drought” really means today in Swaziland.

The number of children seeking food in each of our church partners has increased by 25% in the past two months.

But I was confused.  I asked why the lack of water now would be cause more children to be hungry, when the food they are eating now would have been grown in last years crop?  Here is how it was explained to me.

The maize that is the staple to the Swazi diet is planted in October/November and harvested in March/April.  It is then dried and stored, to be eaten throughout the year.  The harvests in the past decade have decreased and so the maize has not lasted from one year to the next.  Swazi’s have used the “early rains” which typically start falling in mid-September through October to plant back yard gardens, which provides with healthy food quickly while they wait for their maize to be planted and harvested.  Also, they typically are required to sell a cow or some goats to pay for seeds, fertilizer and food to get the family through the gap.

The drought is killing the cattle and thereby leaving Swazi’s in an even more dire situation.  Even we at Project Canaan have lost 5 cows in the past month.  Sickness, heat, snakes and disease are hard to manage even when you have full-time dairy staff, outside expertise and veterinarian support.  The rural Swazi has none of these. 

So, here is what is happening.

There are no cows to sell because thousands have already died and the ones that are still alive are too thin and sickly to sell.  There have been no early rains so the ground is hard and dry and gardens cannot be prepared and planted.  Even many of our church partners who had access to year-around water no longer have it and their gardens have died. 

I also received more deadly news from Gebeni, the community beside us. I was told that there are many people there who are on ART (Anti-retroviral Treatment) for HIV/AIDS who are now stopping their treatment because they know that proper nutrition is a critical part of the efficacy of the medication that is so hard on their internal organs.  Going off treatment will make their infectiousness increase and death will come faster.  UGH!

I did receive some good news while I was in Taiwan, and that was that King Mswati III made a public declaration that the drought was officially over. We are thankful for that and look forward to the rain falling soon.

In the meantime, if you can contribute to our ongoing feeding program we would very much appreciate it.  Thanksgiving is right around the corner and maybe you would consider making one less pie or reduce the variety of wonderful treats and instead give to help us feed the orphans and vulnerable children of Swaziland?  A $50 donation will purchase 110 pounds of maize, which will feed up to 250 children.

Please donate today if you can https://heartforafrica.secure.force.com/pmtx/cmpgn__donations?id=701C0000000U6eS

In Canada please go to:  https://www.heartforafrica.ca/canaandonation.aspx

Live from Swaziland … please pray for rain!

Janine

Another interesting article: http://allafrica.com/stories/201510160752.html