Thanks for reading the following. I appreciate you taking the time and I’m not trying to be a pain! But, well, I want to build a school in Swaziland. Yeah, I know. I’m that person you think is a little crazy, and maybe I am come to think of it. So here goes!
Swaziland? What is that? Some kind of theme park?
It sounds like it doesn’t it? As most of you are aware, last January Ty and I had the privilege of taking a vision trip to the last true kingdom in Africa, the tiny nation of Swaziland. This country has the highest AIDS rate in the world and the orphan rate is staggering and only growing. If things don’t change, this country will be wiped out by 2050. Even if life there remains the same, the kids you see with us in the picture below have a general life expectancy of 15 years of age. This could get to be a long letter, so I’ll try to simply cover the basics.
Help Me Build a School and Maybe Together We Can Save Some Lives
In the village of Mangwaneni, stick and mud houses stack like shoeboxes up the hillside. The children came right up to us, took our hands and led us around. Really lovely children in this picture. I kept pointing to one boy’s smile and he smiled even more broadly. They trusted us right away and I felt undeserving.
We were invited into one lady’s house, consisting of two rooms, where she was cooking a mix of vegetables on a paraffin stove. She left the vegetables and showed us into the other room furnished with a bed slightly wider than a single bed. She stood there with us, chatted quietly, and never went back to her vegetables. They ended up burning, but she didn’t leave her guests, or act like she was worried about the food. That’s Swazi graciousness. In that home this woman, 24 years old, lives with her mother and five children. Only one was her child. She can barely feed them and school fees are impossible. By the way, our leaders took her some food. (I know I wouldn’t want to be left hanging, wondering what happened to the meal!)
Thankfully Pastor Sam has reached out to this village. He lives closeby and he does his best to educate the nearby children. He has three schools. Preschool: 3 – 4 year olds, primary: 5 – 12 year olds, and secondary: 13 – 21 years old. During our visit he showed us the old house where the secondary school was located. It had just been condemned and he was still trying to find a place to meet.
Finish What’s Begun
This type of structure is already standing atop the village hill. And it is in much the same, unfinished condition. I’ve already raised enough money ($12K) to put in a floor, walls, windows, doors. But more needs to be done. Not only can this place be used for school, but Pastor Sam’s church will make fine use of it in their ministry to feed orphans (150 a day) and provide for the needs of the village and the surrounding community where AIDS continues to ravage families. Here is the list of needs and the cost estimate:
60 chairs - $12 - $15 a chair
60 small tables - $15 - $20 a table
4 blackboards - $80 - $120 each
2 cooking pots - $150 each
cooking structure - $400
electrical work - $1500
well - $7500
This is roughly $13K.
So here’s where the begging comes in! During my morning in Mangwaneni, I left a piece of my heart with a little girl named Nothando Dlamini, pictured here. A bright, beautiful child who latched onto me right away and gave me a Swazi name that means “a woman among us.” When it comes down to it, I felt like I left behind somebody who belonged to me and I want to help her and her village, so this intelligent child who wants to be a police officer someday will be alive to be just that. And they all have dreams. Just like my kids.
I know you have other places to give your money. I really do, believe me. But helping me build this school building will save me from the next step in this process, holding a dinner or concert. And for those of you who know me well, that would be the nightmare of my life. I can barely find my keys! Even if you can just give enough to cover a chair or a table or a blackboard, that would be so helpful. If you can give enough to build a well (which will provide water for the entire village) or provide the electrical, I’d be grateful for that too.
So, how do you help out if you’d like?
Send a check to me made out to Children’s HopeChest. (www.hopechest.org) I’ll forward it on, but I want to keep an accounting here of how much I have left to raise when all is said and done, and I want to send you all a follow-up email telling you what we’ve managed to accomplish together!
Contact me by email for my address. lesamson@hotmail.com
Thanks for reading this. And if you can’t help financially, yes, I’m going to say it . . . please pray! That will be most appreciated. And if you know of others who are looking to help out with this kind of project, please feel free to forward this along.
Love,
Lisa (and Nothando!)
