Merry Christmas from Swaziland

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World AIDS Day in Swaziland

Today Swaziland celebrated World AIDS Day. There were festivities in all four regions with the national commemoration here in Lubombo. There were speeches. I'm sure a lot of very important people had a lot of very important things to say. With the highest official HIV prevalence in the world, there was much to commemorate.

With the promise of food to follow, a large number came out in Siteki to patiently listen to the important speeches. Our staff was there as well: to offer HIV services to anyone who might be interested.

Back in the impoverished and isolated communities Kudvumisa Foundation usually works in, life went on as usual. For most people it was a day like any other; trying to scratch together enough for today's meal, sometimes in whatever way is necessary.  Important speeches don't mean much here.

Kudvumisa means to praise in siSwati.  For the several hundred men, women, and children who rely on Kudvumisa Foundation's services and transport, there is reason to praise.  Hope takes the form of a mobile clinic and a 17-seater van.  Without these community based services, most of these people would have few to no options for accessing the life saving antiretrovirals (ARV's) that keep the virus in their body at bay.

Nonhlanhla today

Nonhlanhla in the throes of TB

Nonhlanhla and her husband are both HIV positive.  They live in one of the small informal/cane cutter settlements in Vuvulane.  Both rely on Kudvumisa for their ARV's.  Several years ago, she battled TB on top of HIV.  She lost so much weight and was a shadow of her old self.  Today she has won her battle against TB and is a vocal spokesman for people in her community to test and start treatment for HIV as soon as possible.

Hers is a speech worth hearing!

Swaziland Update: Expansion of HIV Project

CHIPS Expansion & Section 19 in Vuvulane CHIPS Expansion We have expanded into several new communities recently and our medical outreach staff of HIV counselors and nurse is working hard to test and help everyone. We found them last week on the side of the road testing the road workers in the area.  The next day we went with them to a cattle dip tank where the farmers bring their cattle to run them through the water that is treated with tick, fly and parasite medicine.  It is mostly men that gather at the dip tank before the sun even rises.  So our staff go and set up the mobile clinic and gazebos and the men line up to test.  Where the ladies are present in the communities, the men will not test.  So we thought it was pretty clever of them to go to the dip tank to get the men to test! Section 19 Sewing Group & Bible Study Teresa's Bible study with the ladies at Section 19 is going well! She is enjoying teaching them and getting to know them!  They sit on the porch of one of the cement block one-room flats and sing, worship and pray together!  They are a special blessing to her!  Our staff is also growing in the Lord.  A few months back, we had a ministry team come from Kentucky that really spoke into their lives and encouraged them!  We have seen some growth in them spiritually since then.   The sewing with the ladies in 19 is an on-going project.  They are still making the bags that our Australian volunteer taught them to do.  She had to leave because she became ill.  Through this journey of her illness, God brought her to Him.  She has accepted the Lord and is now making preparations to come back on her own to work with us again in February!  Now she will come back not only to work with the women to sew, but to grow in the Lord with them!  She was diagnosed with an illness while she was here.  It was God ordained that she was diagnosed here and found Him through these terrible circumstances!  She has now gone home, gotten the medical, emotional and spiritual help that she needed and is ready to come back and be an advocate for women!  She wants to share her story and start support groups!  We believe that she will make an awesome impact on our projects here! Thanksgiving in Swaziland We will be hosting the third annual American Thanksgiving in Swaziland again here at our house in Mbabane.  It is a great time of sharing and fellowship for us as we get to share a wonderful American tradition of showing thanks with a lot of wonderful people, who just like us, will be far away from their families in the US. We are searching for turkeys even now!   Prayer and Specific Need Requests Ever thought of serving on the mission field?  We need help in a multitude of areas: HIV outreach, economic development, medical, admin, business as ministry, training....... Pray for the CHIPS staff: to be a light and a true witness to Christ's compassion to the poor and helpless: Jabulani, Mary, Hlobsile, Sabelo, Mduduzi, Lungile, Joyleen, and Norman. a 1000L fuel trailer (the van that Rotary donated requires low sulfur diesel which is only available an hour away from our office) for $2000. the HIV program funding covers operations through March 2015.  We are seeking God's direction and provision for April and beyond.  With current staffing, the annual budget is $100,000 we are at almost 20% of the funds needed for purchasing the property we've earmarked for a clinic, business and ministry center!    follow on Twitter | friend on Facebook | forward to a friend  Donate directly at www.KudvumisaFoundation.org  or use the link below Or simply mail your gift to: Kudvumisa Foundation USA, Inc. 709 Highspire Road Glenmoore, PA  19343 Copyright © 2014 Kudvumisa Foundation USA Inc., All rights reserved.

July Lubisi

By Jabulani Maziya - Project Officer

July Lusibi, strong and healthy now!

Someone needed  to care for July Lubisi.  He needed to overcome a downward spiral journey with HIV/TB.  There was no hope, he had chronic diarrhea and vomiting, mouth sores, and he could barely walk nor stand. Residing in Macethuka, two HTC counselors from Kudvumisa Foundation met him at Good Shepherd Hospital with his granny, who was accompanying him for his HIV/TB Care and Treatment.

It was in 2009 during one of the Kudvumisa Foundation Service Referral visits to the Hospital. Already frail and sickly, the Kudvumisa counselors encouraged him to hang in there; it was not yet the end of his life. Affectionately known as Siza, named after the former Mbabane Swallows lanky striker, July was a shadow of his old self. His world was crumbling. He relied most on his granny and the Member of Parliament of that time for transport to the hospital.

The counsellors continuously counselled and encouraged him to keep up with his doctor’s appointments, adhere to treatment and that he would soon regain his physique. They started taking him to the hospital for his ARV’s and TB meds. Eight months after starting treatment, he grew stronger and put on weight.  Currently he is employed by Royal Swaziland Sugar Corporation (RSSC). An unimaginable success from where he was just a few years earlier.  In April of this year he was down-referred from Good Shepherd Hospital to Kudvumisa Foundation to continue his ARV refills in his community of Macethuka.  He no longer even needs to take trips to the ART Clinic at Good Shepherd

• Giving Hope in the face of HIV & Poverty

Distributing Sawyer Filters in Vuvulane

We'll be in Mambaweni on Saturday to participate in a community meeting to discuss problems caused by the lack of clean drinking water in this community. The Rotary Club of Dumbarton in the UK has donated 30 Sawyer Filter kits for distribution. The water for this and the surrounding communities comes from irrigation ditches. The water has tested positive for some mix of E.coli and coliform bacteria. There is no sanitation here. The current diarrhea outbreak has taken the lives of nearly 40 children from across Swaziland. We would need close to 700 filters to help every family in this area. Filters cost approximately $65 apiece, but last a lifetime with proper care. Please visit www.KudvumisaFoundation.org (or the donate button on the KudvumisaFoundation Facebook page) if you would like to help. Message us if you can help!

Swaziland: Poor Sanitation, Poverty Behind Swazi Diarrhoea Outbreak

Visiting Resident & USAID Grant Extension

Tsan spent her first week at Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative in Mbabane and the next two weeks with the Kudvumisa/CHIPS outreach team doing community HIV care and treatment.  She was a blessing to have with us and we wish her the best as she returns to Phoenix.


We just got word this week that USAID is willing to extend our grant to operate CHIPS through March of 2015.  There is a catch: we'll have to capture 3 quarters worth of results in 2.  But even this extension is a great opportunity to expand services, impact, and outreach. 
Prayer and Specific Need Requests

• Ever thought of serving on the mission field?  We need help in a multitude of areas: HIV outreach, crawfish, marula, sewing, moringa.....  medical, admin, business as ministry, training.......
• Pray for the CHIPS staff: to be a light and a true witness to Christ's compassion to the poor and helpless
• a 1000L fuel trailer (the van that Rotary donated requires low sulfur diesel which is only available an hour away from our office) for $2000.
• ongoing CHIPS operating expenses (for expenses beyond the scope of the USAID grant and to meet our obligation for 10% of the total grant funding) $6000
• start up expenses for the economic development projects (marula oil, nuts and fire logs and crawfish production) $5000

Lexington Leadership Foundation

We saw God doing many great things a week ago when we had the ministry team from Lexington Leadership Foundation, led by Miles Phelps.  This was a group of people who love the Lord and operate in the gifts of the Spirit.  They are a mixture of pastors, teachers, and nurses, all operating in the role of Evangelists, ministering the Love of Christ to hurting people.  Many came to know the Lord, many were healed, delivered from bondage of evil and oppression.  We actually saw the picture of Christ through Miles and the woman at the well.  He spoke to a lady about giving or selling herself to many men and he told her go and sin no more.  She accepted Christ and he told her how valuable she is in God’s eyes.  Many others were prayed for emotional hurts.  I watched as Rodney spoke to so many women of the hurts of their past and saw the tears roll down their faces as the Lord set them free from those hurts.  Michelle and Peggy prayed for one lady that had pneumonia.  As we prayed the fever broke, she was very sick and was sleeping when we left.  The next week Chips took her to GSH and she was admitted and treated and is now recovering.  One man that was prayed for by Alvin couldn’t lift his arms and by the time he was finished praying he was raising his arms in the air praising God!  There was one man that had been bound to a wheel chair for years.  God spoke to Miles to help him up out of the wheelchair and he took a few steps!  We prayed for a lady with severe Asthma and as we prayed we could hear her breathing improving.
 The team spoke to our CHIPS staff several mornings on integrity, forgiveness, offense, courage and pride.  We all learned a lot and were so encouraged!  They also spoke words of knowledge and prophesy over us, our ministry, as well as our staff.  God is so good to bless us with these ministers, pastors, teachers to encourage and strengthen us in Him!

Prayer and Specific Need Requests

• Pray for the CHIPS staff: to be a light and a true witness to Christ's compassion to the poor and helpless
• a 1000L fuel trailer (the van that Rotary donated requires low sulfur diesel which is only available an hour away from our office)
• ongoing CHIPS operating expenses (for expenses beyond the scope of the USAID grant and to meet our obligation for 10% of the total grant funding)
• start up expenses for the economic development projects (marula oil, nuts and fire logs and crawfish production)

Swazi Crawfish

Even though the temperature has dropped, we are still getting 20kg a week from Vuvulane (the crocodile proof traps are working!).  While we are enjoying eating them and introducing them to Swazi's, South Africans, and Portuguese alike, the real goal is to develop an export market.  Please help us pray about the next steps for this.  The proceeds are dedicated to the CHIPS program:  to ensure sustainability for the long term.

Partner Rewards Bonus Day - July 16th ONLY

If you were considering making a donation this month: donations made through GlobalGiving.org are matched today July 16th while funds last.

• Starting at  9 am EDT to 11:59 pm EDT on Wednesday, July 16th, GlobalGiving.org will be matching donations 30% for Partners!
• GlobalGiving will be matching donations up to $1,000 per donor per project.
• GlobalGiving is offering a $1,000 bonus award for the project that raises the most funds and a $500 bonus award for the project that comes in second. They are also offering another $1,000 bonus award for most individual donors and a $500 award for the project that comes in second.

Visiting Resident

We have a visiting Resident from Phoenix Children’s Hospital for the next few weeks working with our staff.  Tsan is doing a Global Health rotation and is attached to our CHIPS program here in Swaziland for the month of July.  She spent her first week at Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative in Mbabane.  She was able to shadow doctors there and gain pediatric HIV experience.  The next two weeks will be spent in Vuvulane with the Kudvumisa/CHIPS outreach team doing community HIV care and treatment with emphasis on children and adolescents.  She will be sharing her expertise with our nurse and HTC counselors as well as learning from them.  We are excited to have her working with us for these next few weeks!
Tsan was born in Taiwan and went to medical school in North Carolina.  Her family lives in Washington.   She is very interested in pediatric HIV and wishes to further her experience and knowledge so she can use it in her practice back in the States.

GlobalGiving Open Challenge Week 2

GlobalGiving Open Challenge Week 2

We are over 50% towards our 30 day goal! Thank you for your continued interest in Kudvumisa Foundation. We founded this organization to provide quality and compassionate health care for HIV+ children, their caregivers, and the community at large.  Last week we told you about our participation in GlobalGiving’s Global Open fundraising challenge. We are excited about this awesome opportunity to earn a permanent spot on GlobalGiving.com and a chance to access GlobalGiving’s international network of donors, foundation and corporate partners, and innovative fundraising tools. So far $2605 from 21 donors has been raised.  We are over half way there!  But we still need your help. Kudvumisa Foundation still needs to raise $2,395 from at least 19 donors by June 30. So, here’s what you can do right now: Donate now to Kudvumisa Foundation at http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/hiv-care-5000-children-caregivers-in-rural-swaziland/. Call or email at least five friends and ask them to donate Post a link to our project page your Facebook page asking your friends to donate Thank you for your continued support! God Bless! Daran & Teresa Rehmeyer

Hope in the face of HIV and Poverty

One Today is a mobile app that lets you change the world, one day and $1 at a time. Learn more.

Hope in the face of HIV and Poverty

Swaziland has the highest percentage HIV+ population in the world at 26.5% in 2012 and two thirds of the population live on less than $1.50 per day.

$1 = 1 week of medical care for 1 HIV+ child or caregiver

 

Combine HIV with poverty and hopelessness rules. Kudvumisa provides comprehensive in-community HIV care for children and adults in the Lubombo Region of Swaziland. A healthy child can go to school. A healthy caregiver, whether a mother, father, auntie, or older sibling can work to care for the children under their care. Health without the burden of HIV/AIDS is a first step in combating poverty.

Kudvumisa Foundation USA Inc

Learn more at www.kudvumisafoundation.org
 
Two goals: Providing access to health care for HIV+ children and caregivers in rural Swaziland and developing economic opportunity for impoverished and isolated communities in Swaziland

A Permanent Swazi Home

URGENT
A Permanent Swazi Home

For the past five years we have worked out of first a rented small one room office in Tambankulu and now with our expanded staff and secure drug storage requirements a three room office in Vuvulane.  We were given another building in the compound to use for our economic development projects as well.  Yesterday Daran was approached by a man waiving a "court order" threatening to arrest him as "illegally occupying" the two buildings.  We are apparently stuck between two groups vying for control of the properties.  Which is right?  Don't know.  But this is the problem of not having a permanent home in this area where options for space are few.
Several years back we floated the idea and our dream of purchasing a partially developed property in Maphiveni. There was space for a clinic, class rooms for adult education, space for the economic development "incubators", commercially lease-able space for financial sustainability, a house for missionaries and visitors, and space to build staff housing.  A Rotary Donor Advised Fund was set up through the Rotary Foundation and is currently at $39,711 about 12% of the total funding needed to purchase this property.  With the current exchange rate, our dollars can go much farther than two years ago. We would ask you to prayerfully consider helping us reach this goal. 

Information and online donations to the DAF can be found at at this link.

New Mobile Clinic
Halleluiah!  Our staff are ecstatic over the new mobile clinic that was delivered this month.  Major funding for the clinic came from Divinity Lutheran Church in Towson, MD.  It has been a huge boost in effectiveness in serving the patients we see in each community.

We'll have more pictures of the clinic in action next time.

Sewing Bible Study

Sewing Bible Study
Teresa has started a Bible study with our ladies that are in the sewing program.  It is going well, one of them broke down crying in the middle of one of the recent Bible studies.  She said that she does want to follow Jesus, but it is so hard with her life circumstances.  She accepted Jesus into her heart and wants to do what is right but it is very difficult with a husband that gets drunk and beats her.  Some of her livelihood is brewing marula beer to sell to the neighbors as they try to do anything that they can to make money.  Hence why we are trying to get them to do the sewing instead.  This past week she broke down when she was asking for prayer that her eldest son who is working will come and get her and take her to their homestead and take care of her.  She is HIV positive, receiving her care with CHIPS.  She also asked for prayer for strength because she doesn't feel like God is with her or hears her when she prays.  Teresa: as I was encouraging her to read her Bible and claim the promises that are in God's word, one of the other ladies leaned over and said, she can't read her Bible because she doesn't know how to read.  At that point I felt really stupid and thought wow, that is really hard!  I told the ladies that can read to please read the Bible to her and encourage her in the Lord.  That made me think, boy I don't have any problems in comparison.  We really need an adult reading program as well for these ladies.

Other Requests

• a 1000L fuel trailer (the van that Rotary donated requires low sulfur diesel which is only available an hour away from our office)
• ongoing CHIPS operating expenses (for expenses beyond the scope of the USAID grant and to meet our obligation for 10% of the total grant funding)
• start up expenses for the economic development projects (marula oil, nuts and fire logs and crawfish production)

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Give our ministry a 10% raise, donate directly at www.KudvumisaFoundation.org  or use the link below



  Or simply mail your gift to:

 Kudvumisa Foundation USA, Inc.
709 Highspire Road
Glenmoore, PA  19343