CHIPS - Progress!

Sikhumbuzo is a little boy who is part of CHIPS. He is 7 years old, and still very sick. He was born with HIV and His mother is HIV+. He has been treated for TB in the past, but we are not sure whether he completed the treatment. He was started on ARV’s a couple of weeks ago while he was hospitalized. The first time I saw him, his stomach was very swollen and his breathing was very rapid. He was a very sick little boy. Each time I see him he seems a little stronger! I first saw him in church after he was discharged from the hospital. When he saw me, he gave me a big smile, which melted my heart. We visited him this past week at his homestead. He has a runny nose and a cough, and some sores around his mouth that may be herpes. I instructed Jabulani to keep a close watch, and if he was unable to eat or the cough was worse take him in to be checked again by the doctor. It is very important to watch these little ones closely. They seem to get sick so quickly!


Praise God, we were able to bless them with some clothes that visitors from Australia brought for them. Sikhumbuzo's mother was so happy. She also has a daughter who is younger than Sikhumbuzo who is not HIV+. The Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) program seems to be working!



Baby Joshua is another little one in our program. He is 9 months old and his mother is the sister of Sikumbuzo’s mother. He was in the hospital after Sikumbuzo. His mother is also HIV+. We are not yet sure if Joshua is positive or not. He will be tested again in a few weeks. He was hospitalized for dehydration, diarrhea, and malnutrition. When we visited him in the hospital, he was having horrible diarrhea, and his mother had no more diapers for him. While I was standing there, he had diarrhea all over his mother and my feet. As she was trying to clean him, he was continuing to have diarrhea. We asked the nurses for towels to clean him, but they had none. The nurse brought a diaper that was big enough to fit an adult and it covered his whole body up to his neck. We ran to town to get diapers, towels, and blankets so the mother could keep him clean. When we returned, she was crying. The baby was so lifeless and weak. I think she thought he was going to die. We prayed with her and told her to keep her eyes on Jesus, He will not leave us! Joshua is now out of the hospital as well. We visited him also this week. He was smiling and looked like a different baby! Praise God for answering prayer!
He is still very small and thin, but starting to pick up weight. I instructed his mother to work on his motor skills, crawling, sitting, and standing. She said that he was crawling before he got sick, but has now stopped. This is very common with sick babies and most of the time can be recovered.


And here is the CHIPS Khombi with Jabulani, Lori, Teresa & Daran. Thanks to Claypotts Trust and all our collective supporters that make this possible.

Money Follows Wisdom (and not vice versa)

Daran has started teaching the Money Matters class (God's Answer to Poverty) that Peter Kopp with African Leadership Partners originally began here in Swaziland. The class is set up help people identify and confront cultural and learned behavior towards money and wealth that is counter Biblical. The first day long class was at Christian Family Church in Tambankulu. He is teaching a six-week version of the class at the United Pentecostal Church of Mbabane. We had over thirty in attendance in Tambankulu and are averaging twenty at the UPC.
The first step in addressing poverty is to teach a Biblical perspective on the responsibilities, uses, and accumulation of wealth. But also to show that poverty is a multifaceted problem that has to be addressed as a connected system: material poverty, physical weakness, isolation, spiritual poverty, powerlessness, and vulnerability.
Maybe a key point of the first half of the class is that even our natural talents, abilities, and dreams are resources that God has given us to use and are a starting point for working out of poverty. It was great to see the proverbial light bulb go of in some of their heads that the cultural and learned response to managing resources (or not) was flawed and the Bible offers concrete principles for managing same. The class ends with a look at the family and finances and teaches about budgeting, planning, saving, investing and borrowing.
Daran has started researching a "Money Matters II" class that will begin where this one left off in teaching business and entrepreneurial skills, business ethics and morality (with the Bible as the moral compass), critical thinking, and problem solving.

A Grieving Father

Sorry, this is a father's reflection. When our children were younger, we set boundaries and basic "game rules" to make sure nobody got hurt. And when they did have the cuts and scrapes, the hurt was short lived. But we still wanted to take on their pain and "make it better". As they grow older, into young adulthood, they must learn to set their own boundaries. Hopefully we did a good job of instilling a knowledge of right & wrong, a correct and valid moral compass to gauge their world, but ultimately, they set the boundaries. Or push the boundaries. So now when they get hurt, as much as we want to come along side and "make it better", we can't. Pretty much all we can do is stand and watch. And grieve.
It struck me that is what God does with us. The Bible speaks about God's heart being broken because of our own obstinance and pride. In Luke, Jesus is quoted saying: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, .... how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!.." Jesus knew full well what was in store for Jerusalem. But because of their embrace of religions form and function and their rejection of the heart and spirit of God's plan, they doomed themselves to banishment and destruction. And all Jesus could/would do was stand to the side and watch. Grieving.
How often do we turn from what we know, from God's desire, to go and do what we want. Obstinance and pride. How often do I break God's heart by my actions, choices, inaction, thoughts, words, and deeds? And while we continue to love our children, God even continues to love us; while we wait and hope for our children to make right choices, God waits and I dare say hopes we do as well.
I'm looking to the day of no more broken hearts. I'm sure God is too.

They are all No Codes!

As an oncology(cancer)nurse in the states, if a patient or family agreed that they didn't want to be resuscitated, they signed a paper saying that they were "no code" status. Which means that if they stop breathing and their heart stops, no CPR, or resuscitation measures would be taken.

Most patients in the states want all measures taken to resuscitate them. When a patient that is not a "no code" stops breathing, and/or their heart stops; a code is called. A team of nurses and doctors rush to the scene and do everything possible to bring this person back.

I was on the ward today at the Government Hospital, visiting a couple of our breast cancer patients. One of them had a mastectomy a couple of weeks ago, the other one was getting ready to go to (theater)surgery, to have her mastectomy today.

While we were visiting, I heard a lady crying out "MaMa!","MaMa!". I thought that it was someone having a nightmare or talking out of their head! Then I saw a woman standing by the bedside of an older woman. She was shaking the woman and crying out for her to wake up. The older woman was limp and not breathing. She had a large bandage on her neck. I realized that the older woman had just passed away and her daughter was calling for her in a panic! Finally, the nurses made their way, casually, not hurriedly, to the patient and pulled her daughter away. They layed
the patient down flat and covered her head with the sheet, and closed the curtain around her bed.

"I thought, is that all, is that it, you are not going to do anything else?" I wanted to run and get the crash cart, call a code, and try to save her. I looked around the room full of patients. The wards here just have bed after bed, no individual rooms. None of the other patients were reacting at all. Their faces were blank, no emotion! I was amazed! It was as if nothing was happening!

I asked the nurse that was visiting the patients with me if they ever try to resuscitate patients when they stop breathing, intubate them,or try to do CPR? She said, no usually they can't even get a doctor to come and they don't have the proper equipment to intubate them.

This was a HUGE REALITY CHECK as to where I am working! I realized that they are all No Codes here! How very sad! I also realized that they see death so much that it doesn't affect them unless it is their own family. I was able to go back to the ward later and I saw the daughter sitting in the hall on the floor. I told her I was so sorry for her loss and asked her if I could pray with her. She said yes and I prayed and gave her a big hug! I asked her if she knows Jesus and she said yes.

Zodwa

Zodwa Hlope is a 45 year old woman who had a cervical biopsy in March of 2008. She only received the report from the biopsy in February 2009. The Central Laboratory in Manzini had difficulty finding her report. She now has stage IIIB cervical cancer, which is an advanced stage, after waiting so long for a diagnosis. She is having severe pain all around her waist, difficulty urinating, bleeding from her vagina, and is feeling very weak. This lady is a single mom with 4 children at home, 2 in primary school, and 2 in secondary school. The oldest is 16 years of age. Zodwa is no longer a candidate for a hysterectomy since the cancer is so advanced and is now growing outside of her cervix. She has great difficulty sitting and walking because of the pressure of the tumour. She needs to go to South Africa for chemotherapy and radiation to shrink the tumour before anything else can be done.
While I was visiting her in the hospital, her 14 year old daughter came to visit. The girl had been beaten by an older male relative, who thought that since Zodwa was being sent to South Africa for treatment for cancer (and would surely die), he could kick the kids out of the house and take over the house. She also received a letter from her son’s school that she must pay E2, 500 in order for him to stay in school. She is asking for assistance with school fees for her son. This is just one more issue for this sick mother to worry about while going to South Africa for treatment.
She received word from the SMO’s office that she should be going to South Africa this week, if can get all medical visa issues completed. Her children will be left alone, except for her sister and mother who live nearby and check in on them from time to time.
It was such a blessing to be able to visit Zodwa in the hospital. I was able to minister to her and pray with her about her needs . She was so grateful every time that I was able to go by and see her. I gave her a devotional book that has scriptures for circumstances that we go through in life. When I came to see her the next time, she was so glad that she had the book to encourage her in the Lord. Her family was supposed to bring her Bible to her from home, but they forgot, so she was thankful that she had the devotional book.
In the picture is her mother, her sister, and a friend. A friend of mine and I were able to pray with all of them as well! She has started her treatments in South Africa by now. I will give a follow up as soon as I hear from her again! Please keep this precious sister and her family in your prayers. Let’s pray especially for the protection of her children and that her treatments go well with good response!

Note to Susan

Teresa. Remember where you are. I know that you want the patients to receive the same care as they do in the states. But, is that realistic? I think that you should pray and ask the Lord to direct you. You know that nothing happens in God's world by mistake.....Everything, if it is supposed to, will work out just fine. It is NOT up to YOU but to him all things are well done....You are not alone. He called you there. He will help you, believe in him....
Love you! Susan

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I would rather have the calculators, I think they would be more accurate, but whatever you can find will be fine. I just wanted to throw in the towel and quit on Thursday. I get so frustrated, the surgeon won't answer his phone and won't return my calls. We have several very difficult cases that I need to discuss with him and my oncologist is leaving on Monday to go back to Cuba for 6 weeks. I really feel like it is all on my shoulders. One lady had a lumpectomy which came back as ductal carcinoma, the oncologist said that he could only get part of the tumor. He knows there was still disease there, as well as positive lymph nodes. Her mastectomy specimen got sent to the government lab instead of the private lab where we send breast specimens. The report came back that it was fibrocystic disease and no lymph nodes reported on. The oncologist says this report does not belong to this patient. I can't fight with the pathologist, I need the surgeon to call and take care of this. Another case, the surgeon says the tumor is too big to do a lumpectomy. Her FNA came back as hyperplastic ductal cells, which my oncologist thinks is probably cancer. He wanted the surgeon to do a lumpectomy for a definitive diagnosis. The surgeon says he needs to do a core biopsy, but doesn't' have the needle to do it. So I am checking with the private hospital to see if they have it. This patient needs chemo and RTX before mastectomy, but we can't send her to south Africa for chemo without a definitive diagnosis. I just feel so helpless sometimes! Thanks for trying to get these for me! Keep me in your prayers, please!
Teresa

Moringa

On Friday, we went to Tambankulu for the day. Teresa went with Jabulani into Maphiveni to visit CHIPS children and caregivers. Jabulani wanted to visit those who are getting ready to start ARV's and those who have just started to encourage them, and one more time, talk to them about adherence (taking the meds at the prescribed times every day (at least until there is a cure for HIV). Teresa really enjoys getting to visit at the homesteads and meet with the families one on one. It is a good chance to minister and pray with them.
An ongoing problem is improving nutrition for those who are HIV+ and starting on ARV's as well as the whole community in general. We have been asked if we will provide food to those in the CHIPS program. Besides not having the resources to give out food, this is really a non-sustainable and counter productive effort to promote nutrition. While a help in the short term, handing out food will never be a long term solution to the needs here.
We've come across another organization here (SwaziAid) that is introducing another approach in Swaziland. A multipurpose tree called Moringa is being introduced in several areas here. The leaves of the tree are highly nutritious and when used as a food supplement, can greatly help the nutrition value of the staple diet (a fine ground corm meal called pap).
The country rep for SwaziAid (Thokozane) accompanied us on Friday from Mbabane. We planted a "high density" 5mx5m plot of the seeds at Pastor Duarte's garden in Tambankulu on Friday. Hoping all the seeds germinate, in three months we should have meter tall trees that we can start harvesting the leaves from. Once dried and powdered, we'll introduce the powder as a food supplement in the communities CHIPS is working in. In time and as demand increases, we hope to be able to introduce the trees into the community so they can grow them themselves. As another positive by-product, this could also be a means to generate income for the homesteads as they can sell surplus powdered leaves and seeds (which are also a good source for cooking oil).

Mother Bear

We had the privilege of taking Connie Parker, the wife of the American Ambassador to Swaziland, and Vanessa from the American Embassy to the Vuvulane area in eastrern side of Swaziland. The two areas that we visited are both squatter camps fit between breaks in trhe sugar cane fields here. Both are full of extremely impoverished people. Connie and Vanessa both said that these were the poorest areas that they had seen since being here in Swaziland. These are the areas that we will take the CHIPS program into next.
Connie and Vanessa are working with the Mother Bear project which provides beautiful hand made bears for children either affected or effected by HIV. These bears are all made using the same pattern, but all have the unique touch of their own individual makers. The bears are sent from the United States with love to bring comfort to these children.
We got many smiles and giggles from the children blessed by these bears. They were all very happy to receive the bears and we are very grateful to the women (and men) who made these bears and sent them to be a blessing to the children of Swaziland!
Accompanying us on the visit were Pastor La'Salette Duarte from Christian Family Church in Swaziland who works in this area, Lori (who took these wonderful pictures), and Jabulani, the CHIPS driver.
Thank you Connie and Vanessa, and the US Embassy for making this possible, as well as all of the people in the U.S. who made the bears! May God richly bless you all!

January Update

CHIPS

The CHIPS (Children’s HIV Intervention Program in Swaziland) is envisioned to be a way to help the 15,000 children in Swaziland who are HIV+ (age 0-14, 2005 estimate). A number we can assume has only increased since then. The goal of the program is to make the available health care accessible to these children and their caregivers.

Jabulani was hired and sent to training for HIV counseling last year. He began working in the Maphiveni community mid-December to generate awareness and help the community to start identifying children who would be candidates for testing. Through the end of January, 141 children and caregivers were transported to the Good Shepherd VCT Clinic in Siteki (84 children, 57 caregivers). Of these, 9 children and 28 caregivers tested positive. Two things to note: as our pre-screening of children improves, the percentage of HIV+ children taken for testing should improve; the second thing is the high percentage of caregivers that are positive. The percentages for adult HIV infection in Swaziland range from the mid twenties to the low forties, depending on whose numbers you choose to use. These high percentages are reflected in the high number of caregivers we are seeing that are positive. It also shows that PMCT (Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission) programs are showing some effectiveness in stopping HIV from being passed to more children (GOOD NEWS). We have chosen to continue to keep these caregivers in the program even though the children they are responsible for are not HIV+. It is essential to keep these caregivers healthy so they can actually care for these children. Swaziland does not need any more orphans!

Kudvumisa Glass Youth Skills Program

Few jobs, poor education, no dreams and nothing to look forward to are a potent mix for promiscuity, sex-for-food, HIV infection and a whole host of other destructive attitudes and behaviors. This is what a large segment of the youth in Swaziland (and for that matter southern Africa) have to look forward to.

We are continuing to develop the skills training program. The goal of the program is to help the youth develop healthy attitudes, uncover their God given talents, abilities and dreams, and develop business and entrepreneurial skills based on Biblical principles of management and finances. We are working with one young woman from Manzini now. She has spent almost a year working with glass etching and has developed a reasonable level of skill and technique. We hope to be able to expand the program to include more youth, classroom space and a computer lab this year.

With that in mind, we will need a teacher who can who can work in the classroom to teach the business and computer skills. So if you would want to invest some time in a project that can truly change lives and you have teaching skills, please pray about this! Of utmost importance is to disciple, teach and nurture a Swazi who can perform these tasks as well.

Family

Teresa is working with the Swaziland Breast Cancer Network (SBCN) to develop a treatment program for breast cancer in Swaziland from scratch (i.e., there is nothing here now). They are also hoping to start a cervical cancer program, again nothing exists here now for treatment (and very little in diagnosis). There is believed to be a high correlation between cervical cancer and HIV. Daran continues to preach at the Christian Family Church in Tambankulu under Pastor La’Salette Duarte. He has also received an invitation from a local church in Nkoyoyo. All the children are back in school, starting the new year. Gabby has started year one of the International Baccalaureate program while Danielle and Nathanael begin Form 3 (grade 9) at Waterford. Joelle begins grade 5 at Sifundzani Primary. They are all involved in church, soccer and various other sports at school.

We would ask that you pray for two things for us here (if God puts more on your heart, please be obedient): protection: physical and spiritual; and wisdom and discernment for the effective implementation of the programs we’ve started here.

Daran’s trip back to the States last year was a great success and we are grateful for everyone who helped make it one. He met many new friends who made him feel like family. As we look forward to funding requirements through the remainder of this year and into the next and we look at support from all sources (one-time and annual gifts, monthly support, stipend from SBCN), we still have a monthly shortfall of approximately $1000USD. We would ask that you share our ministry work and vision within your circle of friends and associates.

Blessings & Peace!

Daran & Teresa

Gabby, Danielle, Nate, & Joelle

www.AfricanLeadershipPartners.org

African Leadership Partners, Inc.

PO Box 994044

Redding, CA 96099-4044

"New" Bike for Banele

We gave Joelle’s old bike to the orphanage where Pepe and Banele are living now. Sandra, a friend of mine from Children's Cup, took the bike and had the brakes fixed, air in the tires, etc, to get it into good working condition. Banele has been asking for a bike for a while. We took it to him this past Sunday. It was a delight to watch all of the kids attempt to ride the bike. Sandra and I did not think about them never having the opportunity to learn to ride a bike before. They enjoyed chasing after each other on the bike, fighting over whose turn it was to ride, and posing for pictures with the bike. They sang for us, gave of lots of hugs, and smiles, and taught us how to play hand-clapping games. It was a pleasure to see them enjoying themselves with their new gift!

Pepe is going into grade 4. She did well the last term of grade 3, when she returned to school after being out for several years while she was fighting multiple pneumonias and TB. She is now healthy and strong, and happy! It was so comforting to see her smiling, talking, and playing! A year ago, she was not able to do any of these things. Banele has also improved greatly in this past year! He is healthy, strong, and happy, as well!

Children's HIV Intervention Program in Swaziland

Sorry I have not put anything out for a while. The holidays are over and we are back in full swing! The CHIPS program has started and is going well. We are concentrating now in the community of Maphiveni. As we work out all the procedures and protocols. we'll begin expanding into neighboring communities. Since our start up in December, we have taken 141 people, (children and caregivers) to be tested for HIV. Eighty-four of the 141 are children; the remaining are caregivers. Twenty-eight of the caregivers tested positive and nine of the children tested positive. We have been pleasantly surprised at the low number of positive children so far. The highest percentage of HIV+ people here in Swaziland are between the ages of 25-45. We believe it is very important to make HIV treatment for these caregivers accessible so that they live healthy and productive lives to be able to take care of the children under their care.

There is one little boy that touched my heart last week with his big swollen belly (ascites). He is very sick and his CD4 count is very low, which means that his immune system is very weak and he needs to start on treatment as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the machine to check the chemistries (blood work that shows kidney and liver function) has been broken for a month now. They are very hesitant to start them on treatment without this blood work. We have been transporting blood samples back to the city of Mbabane, where the blood can be tested.

I brought some samples in on Friday afternoon, to find out that they did not accept samples after noon on Fridays. I thought, oh, no, we do not need any delays for this little one. We had already drawn his blood the week before and the results got lost in the system, so we had to re-draw them and we had to stick him twice this time. All I could think was, surely we will not have to do it again! I took the blood to the private clinic lab and spoke to the manager, who I know from my work with the Breast Cancer Network. It just so happened that her husband is the one that is working on the machine in the hospital where we take them for treatment. She said he should have it working by next week. She also said that she would run the tests for us without charge and the results would be ready in one hour! I wanted to shout, “Praise the Lord!” God is good and He is in control, even when we feel very out of control!

I sent the results back down over the weekend and the boy, along with several others, should be starting on treatment soon! Please keep this program in your prayers, as we move forward. We are praying for God’s divine wisdom and guidance!

A Cruel Net

Ecclesiastes 9:12 (NIV)

12 Moreover, no man knows when his hour will come:
As fish are caught in a cruel net,
or birds are taken in a snare,
so men are trapped by evil times
that fall unexpectedly upon them.

Yesterday evening, our daughter and a friend were assaulted by two men wielding knifes as they walked to our house on a well traveled road. They demanded money and whatever they were carrying. Which amounted to about 10 Emalangeni, 2 cell phones, a pair of soccer boots and shin guards, and a back pack. Cars were driving by, unaware what was happening. They let them go and disappeared into the bush.

Gabby came to me later in evening distressed that if they had killed her, would she have gone to heaven. Now that's a very personal question (with history behind it that is not appropriate here), but it gave us a good opportunity to talk about God's love, grace, forgiveness, and faithfulness. That in spite of our weakness's and failures, God is still patient with us. And you haven't reached the "point of no return" if you still care if God loves you or not; or you are standing in front of Him in judgment.

So I ask for prayers for our family and especially our kids, that the attacks (spiritual & physical) we come under here will serve to grow us in faith and maturity and reliance on the one who is eternally faithful.

Merry Christmas from Swaziland

Daran is back in Swaziland after a fund raising trip for several weeks in the States. Many thanks to everyone in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Louisiana, North Carolina, Missouri, Illinois, and Arizona who helped make the trip a success. We couldn’t have done it with out your prayers, organizing meetings and invitations. Thanks again for all your help!

As we approach our fourth Christmas here in Swaziland, we also want to express our deep gratitude for the thoughts, prayers and support from everyone back in the States. A peaceful and joyous Christmas to everyone.

We are also celebrating our 20^th wedding anniversary on the 23^rd. As an old friend of ours used to quip “We’ve enjoyed every second of it.” Honestly, as anyone knows, marriage is hard work. We’ve both had a lot of growing up to do over the years. We’ve been blessed with four wonderful children who despite our best efforts, have still turned out to be pretty neat, and committed to Jesus.

We are blessed!

With wishes for a wonderful New Year, God Bless!

Daran, Teresa, Gabrielle, Danielle, Nathanael, & Joelle

Thobile - December 2008

I saw Thobile just a couple of weeks ago. She is looking good, even though she is still very thin. The daily injections that she receives for TB must be extremely uncomfortable, however, she doesn’t complain. When I asked her if they were painful, she said no, amazingly! She will be finished with injections in February. At that time, she can return to school. Her care giver is already asking about school fees and transport fees for her when she is able to start back to school. We continue to help her with transport fees on a monthly basis for going to the TB clinic for her injections. Her mother has stopped taking her ARV’s for herself. She was not keeping up with the doses, that is the reason we got someone else to help with Thobile to make sure she receives all of her meds correctly.

Thobile is growing taller, so all of her trousers are too short. Her care giver has been asking for clothes for her for a while. Nathan and Joelle both went thru their clothes and pulled out the ones that they could no longer wear and we gave 2 big bags of clothes, shoes, and some toys and stuffed animals to her for Christmas. It is a blessing to be able to bless someone else who is in need!

Please pray about helping us this next year with Thobile’s school and transport fees. A donation of $30 a month would help a great deal for us to be able to provide these things for this precious little girl!

Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report

This article spells out some of the current HIV problems in Swaziland. Our response to these problems will help mitigate their impact on children, the most vulnerable segment of the population. CHIPS - a pediatric HIV care management system and Kudvumisa Glass both target vulnerable groups in Swaziland.

Updates

Thobile is still getting daily injections (7 days a week)at the TB clinic and also taking a myriad of other tablets as well, which they give her at the TB clinic, since her mother can't be trusted to give them to her consistently. It costs R20 per day for transport to get her and her mother to the TB clinic. This ends up being at least R600 per month. She is also struggling to have enough food. She is too weak and the care point is too far for her to go there every day for food. So her mother goes to get food for her at the care point. I'm not really sure what they do on week ends when the care point is not open. She is also in need of some clothes. She is no longer going to school, because she is not strong enough. This TB treatment will have to continue for 6 to 9 months at the very least. This is a very difficult life that this young one lives, but she is just happy to be alive! Please continue to keep her in your prayers!

Lomansontfu went to south Africa last week. She had more scans done, and the doctor thinks that he may be able to remove the cyst soon. It seems that it is not as vascular as it was, and he was going to do a biopsy to confirm that it is ok to go ahead with surgery. He is waiting on a prosthesis for her jaw bone,which has been eaten away by the cyst. While they were waiting, she contracted a mild case of the measles, so he decided to wait to do the biopsy when she returns for surgery. She is now at home waiting. After the surgery is done, her jaw will be wired shut for a few weeks. Our daughter, Gabby is about to have some orthodonic surgery where her jaw will be shut with bands for 6 weeks. I would like to take her to see Lomansontfu so she will see and understand what it will be like with her jaw being wired shut, and that she isn't the only one!

Support Raising II

Daran is in the States now for four more weeks. He will be in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, St. Louis, Phoenix, Baton Rouge, Raleigh, Birmingham, and in between. Please contact us if it would be possible for him to meet & share our ministry vision under African Leadership Partners! We know that given the current financial situation in the US that most would say this is the wrong time to be asking for support, but we know the God we serve and that He is able!

Swaziland Breast Cancer Network

I have been extremely busy this past month with the Swaziland Breast Cancer Network. We saw over 600 patients for breast exams in the month of October. We will do over 80 fine needle biopsies on Thursday this week 13th November. We will not know for a couple of weeks how many may be malignant. A pathologist from a South African private lab will come to do the biopsies. We are able to do lumpectomies and mastectomies here in Swaziland. One of the ladies that we got results back on this month is 29 years old and has a very large tumor. She was told that she would need a mastectomy. She is single with no children, I thought we would never see her again after telling her that news. I attempted to call her for about 2 weeks with no success. She is a student and has been busy with classes and also avoiding my phone calls. When I finally reached her I asked her to return to the next clinic so we could discuss her situation. She still didn't come for another week, so I was rather disappointed. Finally she called me back and said she would come to the clinic. That day I saw her sitting in the waiting area outside of the clinic, looking very worried and anxious. We called one of our counselors who is also a breast cancer survivor to come and speak with her. After talking with the counselor, who is also a Christian, and who also had breast cancer the first time at very young age, this young lady had a different outlook on her situation. She was now ready to go forward with the surgery. It was decided that she would be admitted as soon as her classes were finished in about a week. Once she was admitted and it was time to sign the consent for the surgery, we realized that she would not sign consent to have a blood transfusion, because she is Jehovah's Witness. I thought, what will we do with this? The doctors spoke with her about this and tried to convince her to sign for the possible transfusion. Finally, after another week, they decided to go ahead with the surgery, since her labs were OK and the risk was higher to leave her with this large tumor which was already spreading to her lymph nodes.
I received a missed call from her last Tuesday night, and I was unable to return her call until the next morning. When I heard her voice I knew everything was OK. She told me that she had her surgery the day before and she was doing well, and that God was with her because she didn't need the transfusion. I went to visit her the following day and she looked great! She was already doing her physical therapy exercises for her arm and she was still in good spirits. I told her that once she had healed some, we would give her a prosthesis. She said, "What" "What is that." I explained that it is a fake breast that she would wear in her bra. The only problem is that she never wore a bra before. I told her that she would have to get used to them. Praise God that He worked in this situation!
I hope to continue a relationship with her and encourage her along on her journey with breast cancer. Her next step will be to go to South Africa to receive chemotherapy, that is, if there is still money in the government fund to send her. Usually by this time of year, the government starts to run out of money for this fund. My hope is that we can start giving the chemo here in Swaziland soon enough that she can receive it here. We are now looking at our fund raising for this year to see if we have enough to purchase the biological safety cabinet needed to mix the chemotherapy drugs. Please pray for me that God will direct me and use me however He sees fit and that He will give me the wisdom necessary to see this project succeed!

Support Raising!!

We want to thank everyone who has supported us in the past for the work here in Swaziland. Our vision still remains the same: to help the hurting and to show them Jesus; Short Term Relief - Long Term Change. We especially want to thank everyone who has supported us in our transition from 'Cup to African Leadership Partners. The transition in ministry has been smooth; we have been able to begin ministering to children, women and youth through CHIPS pediatric HIV intervention, Swaziland Breast Cancer Network’s breast cancer clinics, and Kudvumisa Glass skills program.

Daran will be coming to the states from November 8th through December 10th to re-raise our support for personal needs as well as ministry projects. We need you to contact us and set up a time that he can meet with you while he is there. He would like to share our ministry goals, vision, and plan with as many small groups as possible, over coffee or tea - nothing fancy or pretentious: Please try to think of those that would be interested in coming and hearing about the ministry God has set before us here in Swaziland. If you are interested in helping us in this way, please email us and let us know. His tentative schedule is attached. It can be modified to accommodate your schedules, but we need to hear from you!

November 7 – 16 Maryland/Pennsylvania

November 17 – 23 Travel & visits between Maryland and Louisiana

November 24 – December 1 Louisiana

December 2 – 5 Travel & visits between LA and MD

December 6 – 10 Maryland

To paraphrase James: "you have not because you do not ask ..." So we are asking: we need your financial support!

The kids are still in school until the end of November. Gabby finishes exams and graduates before having an oral surgery November 27^th.

Again, we thank you for your ongoing prayers and support . We ask that you prayerfully consider joining us as we move forward. ALP's contact information is as follows:

African Leadership Partners, Inc.

P.O Box 994044

Redding, Ca 96099-4044

We look forward to hearing from you.

Best regards & God Bless!

Daran, Teresa, Gabrielle, Danielle, Nathanael, & Joelle

Breast Cancer Clinics

We are almost finished with the month of October. It seems like it flew by, while we were busy with breast cancer awareness campaigns, as well as breast cancer treatment campaigns. I am enjoying my work at the Swaziland Breast Cancer Network. I am coordinating our breast cancer clinics that are held two times weekly in two different locations on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. We have two doctors from Cuba who are working with us in these clinics. The challenge is that the Oncologist does not speak much English as all, and my Spanish is extremely poor. We spend a good deal of our time at the clinics trying to understand each other. The other day, he was trying to get me to tell the patient to eat more beef. He didn’t know the English word for cow and I didn’t know what vaca was until he put horns on his head and I said MOO! It was quite amusing!
We are seeing quite a few patients that have breast cancer, and amazingly, some of them are very young, late 20’s, early 30’s. One young 29 year old woman came in with a large lump on one of her breasts. She said that she came last October and was told that it was cancer, but she didn’t have money to go to South Africa for treatment and so she did nothing. She returned this year, 7 months pregnant, unable to walk, lots of swollen lymph nodes, and much pain. I just wanted to cry, she would not let us admit her to the hospital for the first couple of weeks. Now she is very sick and in the hospital with a pulmonary effusion and heart problems. They are trying to let her carry the baby to term and then see if there is anything we can do to help her.
Oncology care in a third world country is very complicated. We don’t have access to a mammogram machine, so we send them for ultrasound of the breast when we find lumps on breast exams. Today, we found out that the only guy that does the ultrasounds was in a horrible car accident over the week end and is now in the hospital. Now we have no way to do ultrasounds. So, we either wait to see if the government will try to find someone else to do them, or try to negotiate with a private radiology clinic to see if they can help us. The best thing to do is to pray for the speedy recovery of the ultrasound tech that is in the hospital!
We have been very successful with our breast cancer awareness campaign this month! We are even going to companies and doing health teaching and breast exams. Our clinics are over flowing with people! We are seeing 60-70 people in a day! We have been flooding the paper with articles on breast cancer, TV, radio, posters, etc. When we finally get all of the ultrasounds done, we then send for FNA (fine needle aspiration) those that the doctor thinks are suspicious on ultrasound. A pathologist comes in from South Africa when we have 20 or more FNA’s to be done. When we get results, if they think they are fibroadenoma’s, a lumpectomy is scheduled and done by the Cuban Oncologist here in Swaziland. If it is diagnosed to be cancer, either, a mastectomy is done here, or the patient is sent for chemo first in South Africa, then a mastectomy is done here.
Our goal is to administer chemotherapy here in Swaziland. We are fund raising to buy a biological safety cabinet to mix the chemo in. Breast Cancer Network will then buy the chemotherapy drugs from a local wholesale pharmaceutical company. We have already started training nurses on chemotherapy administration. This will save the government and the patients a lot of time, headache, and money if we are successful. We want to have a cancer treatment program with high standards and excellent outcomes. We hope to expand our diagnosis and treatment program to cervical cancer this next year. Cervical cancer is the number one cause of cancer deaths in women in Swaziland, with breast cancer at number two. We definitely have our work cut out for us! Please keep us in your prayers as we attempt to help the women in Swaziland!