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

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.

Hope in a bag? Seriously.

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I can’t believe it’s October already!  And living in Africa that means that spring is in the air, the blossoms are starting to bloom and the trees are flowering.  But Christmas still comes on December 25^th (even if it’s 110F) and so my Christmas shopping has begun.

Has yours?  If not, maybe today is the day to start.

I am THRILLED to be able officially launch the 2016 Heart for Africa Christmas tree ornament made by the talented Khutsala Artisans on Project Canaan in Swaziland, Africa.  You will see that it is a stunning “Classic” ornament shape made with “oilslick purple” glass beads.  Each one is carefully handmade and each person trained and employed to make them cares for an average of 13 people back at home. 

2016 Classic Christmas tree ornament

100% of the profit goes directly back to helping us care for the 139 babies who call Project Canaan home. The profit allows us to buy diapers, pay for caregivers, medical care, food and everything else that goes in to raising these precious children.

This is baby Michelle in a costume made by Gwyn Puckett and the hat knit by Becky Fern. The image is one of the inserts in each of the Christmas ornament packs that tells the Heart for Africa story and who made the ornament.

Today I am asking you to think beyond your own tree decorating and to think about buying a “Bag of Hope” that includes 26 assorted ornaments that you can give to your friends, family, teachers, small group, baby sitters etc. OR you can buy a bag and then sell them for us!   The profit generated by buying one bag of 26 ornaments for $312 US allows us to provide care for one of our babies for whole month!  Almost everyone reading this blog will buy Christmas gifts for loved ones – why not start shopping today and crossing many people off your list at the same time by giving a gift with a purpose. https://heartforafrica.myshopify.com/collections/christmas/products/bag-of-hope-26-christmas-ornaments

Of course if you only want to buy a few, you can do that at https://heartforafrica.myshopify.com/collections/christmas.

A Bag of Hope - 26 assorted ornaments.

Our goal is to sell 40,000 ornaments in 2016! And I know we can do it!

I am proud to announce that we have a brand new Khutsala Artisans website and it is BEA-UTIFUL!  www.khutsala.com It is also FILLED with new items including fabulous new beaded zebras, and very soon Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer and a stunning angel tree topper/mantel decoration.  We will even have wooden ornaments

We have not received a baby in the past two weeks, leaving us with 139 lives that we are caring for “in sickness and in health” (like my husband of almost 25 years :).  The babies have had bouts of Rotavirus, many rounds of vomiting and diarrhea and too many babies rushed to hospital for IV antibiotics.  But isn’t it encouraging to know that by shopping at the new Khutsala Artisans website you are directly helping us to care for these children?

As you may know we needed to cancel our 25^th wedding anniversary trip to the US and Canada due to Ian’s dislocated/broken knee.  We are taking a few days in Durban to look at the Indian Ocean and give thanks for all that the Lord has given to us in these past 25 years, including YOU, our friends and family who support us “in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health”.  We give thanks for you each of you.

Live from South Africa … hoping you will start shopping today at www.khutsala.com  (and yes, Canadians can now shop on this new site!).

Janine

This is easy.

My last few blogs have been pretty heavy so today I am going to be short and sweet with hopes that every single person who read this will share this blog with friends and family.  Here are a few key facts:

1. Raising 101 children is expensive. 
2. I hate putting my hand out and asking for money/donations.
3. Most of you will buy Christmas gifts for friends and family this year. 

I am asking you to buy Christmas gifts from Heart for Africa where 100% of the profit goes back to buying diapers, formula, food, and paying for caregivers, nurses, doctors and education. It’s not a donation, it’s Christmas shopping made easy.

We have 54 full time employees at the Khutsala Artisans shop on Project Canaan in Swaziland, Africa.  They have been working since January to make Christmas tree ornaments to help with our goal of becoming self-sustainable.  We have 12,000 ornaments made, they are in the US now and ready to ship to you!

They are flat, they fit easily in a Christmas card, they can be used as a decoration on the top of a gift, they are the perfect teacher gift and they are only $10 each.

Will you go on line and buy one (or MANY) today?  Everyone can help us provide for our babies by simply shopping.  Just go to https://squareup.com/market/heart-for-africa

Enoch our Christmas Elf.

Fun facts:

Each Star has 790 beads, and uses 12.5 feet of wire.

Each Tree has 460 beads and uses 12.8 feet of wire.

Each Angel has 560 beads and uses 23.3 feet of wire. 

Each ornament takes approximately 4 hours to make.

Thank you for reading, thank you for shopping and thank you for sharing.

Live from South Africa … celebrating Ian’s 50^th birthday this weekend.

Janine