A New Command

Saturday, 5th of May:  We found an old man in Section 19 lying in his own urine, sick and dying alone.  We recognized this man, Babe Shongwe, from community meetings that were held in 2009 when CHIPS first moved into Section 19.  No one should have to suffer like this.  We asked if anyone is cleaning him or feeding him.  One of the guys standing nearby said, I don’t have any gloves.  Then another man came with a small bowl of soft porridge, he said that he tried to clean him even with putting a plastic bag over his hands.  I went inside the man’s hut that was falling apart, stood by his bed and cried.  He was trying to talk to me but of course I couldn’t understand what he was saying.  When I was inside, there was someone yelling, which I found out later that he was saying, “Tell the white people the truth, these ladies (one of our ladies in our sewing project was with us and he was speaking of them), they don’t do anything to help this man!”  Then someone came with a list of names and numbers that were the man’s children. They said they had tried to call them to come and take care of their father, but they have not come.

We were also told of an old lady that has advanced cervical cancer, who is living alone in a lot of pain.  Again, there is no one taking care of her.  She has a huge tumor on one side of her abdomen that makes it difficult for her to get around and causes the severe pain.  She has been to many doctors and clinics and she even has an order to go to South Africa to receive radiotherapy to shrink the tumor.  This will not cure her, only reduce her pain.  However, she has no way to get to South Africa to receive this treatment.  The government used to send patients over to receive treatment but the fund is no longer functioning because of misuse and corruption.  She has no pain medication, no food, and no family. 

Both of these people are living in one of the areas that we do our HIV program and sewing project.  The ladies in the sewing project live in the same area as these two people and they do nothing to help them.  This is very disappointing as we offer so much assistance to them and they don’t think to help their neighbors.  As I was stewing over this, Daran reminded me that if no one has ever taught them to love and help their neighbor, how would they think to do this?  After all,the world that they live in is survival of the fittest.  They live one day at a time, sometimes one meal at a time.  Also, the ladies told us that the landlord does not want sick, old people living there because if they die and have no family, the landlord will be responsible to take care of their burial.  These people live in fear of so many things, so I think that maybe they would be fearful to help them because it would displease their landlord?  So I decided to try to teach them to think of what Jesus would do.  I asked them to pray this week for the Lord to break their hearts over the things that break His heart.  They agreed to do this.  I also asked them if Jesus lives in their hearts and they all said yes.  Then I said if Jesus lives in your heart, you will love your neighbor and want to help them.  Daran brought up the scripture in John 13: 34-35.

³⁴ “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
³⁵  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

So we told them that others will know that they love Jesus if they love their neighbors.  I told them that if we all do our part to help others, we will please the Lord.  I know that they don’t have much and probably can’t share their food, but they can offer themselves, and their time.  I told them to just visit them sit and hold their hand so that they know they are loved.  Build a fire for the old lady so she can cook, help her clean her house, clean the old man.  I can bring gloves, food and pain medicine for them. So if we work together, we can help to meet their basic needs of comfort, love, and food.  We can also pray with them and for them. 
  
 Sunday, 6th of May:   We received a call that Babe Shongwe has passed on.

Section 19 is the end of the road for many who live there.  There is no parental home to return to.  As a fledgling organization, Kudvumisa Foundation is doing what it can in these areas: given our constraints on budget and manpower. 

Please join us in pray for Section 19, these ones that are sick and in need.  Pray for those we work with and minister to that they will learn to pour back out to those around them.  Pray for us as we work in this area, that we would be pleasing to God and lead these precious ones to Him!  Pray for workers who can teach, disciple, train and as Paul wrote in 2nd Timothy of his life, pour out their lives as a drink offering in service to the only one who matters.

Clean Water

The ladies in the sewing project at Section 19 in Vuvulane have been complaining about being sick and having diarrhea, nausea, etc.  Numerous days have been spent taking the ladies to the clinic at Emkusweni.  The clinic is at such a distance that it literally takes the whole day to drive there and back as well as waiting in the que to be helped.  So Corine, who is helping to manage the sewing project, came to us and asked what we thought about getting containers for them so they could have clean water, instead of the dirty water that they use from the irrigation ditches surrounding the sugar cane fields.  So I went to the market in Mbabane and bought four 20 liter containers, one for each of our ladies.  You should have seen them when they saw the containers!  They were so happy!  Now Corine takes the containers to her house and fills them with clean fresh water and brings them back to the ladies.  They are feeling much healthier and stronger already!  Now they are ready to learn and be productive, so they can make some money sewing to support their families.  This was a very small thing, but has already produced a really good result, praise the Lord!

Vitamins a Blessing!

We were blessed to meet Babe Mndzebele with Community Connections in Mahlanya last week. Babe Mndzebele works with an organization in Canada called Partners for Others. He found us through our new website (www.KudvumisaFoundation.org) and contacted us here in Swaziland. He was able to immediately give us several cartons of adult multivitamins and children's vitamin C supplements. The communities we work in in the Lubombo Region here in Swaziland are extremely impoverished. With constantly increasing prices for everything from transport to food, the quantity and quality of food they area able to find has diminished tremendously. Our CHIPS staff comment that it is a visible problem and malnourishment is increasing. The vitamins will help for a short while to increase the nutritional health for those that received them. Jabulani and Mary distributed the adult multivitamins and children's supplements to the Children's Cup carepoint and the community preschool in Maphiveni and in the Vuvulane community of Macetuka. Jabulani relayed the demand was greater than the supply. Thanks to Babe Mndzebele for contacting us and making this possible. We look forward to working with him and his organization in the future.

Trip to Uganda

The 10 days that I (Teresa) spend in Uganda were awesome! I attended a training at Mildmay Centre just outside of Kampala. This centre is an HIV program for both adults and children. They have outpatient clinics for both adults and children and an inpatient ward for children. It is an amazing place. The care given to patients is comprehensive and caring. The training that I attended was Pediatric Palliative Care training. The instructors were doctors, nurses, health care workers, and pastors from the Centre. They were all extremely knowledgeable in this area and all seemed to have a lot of compassion for their patients.

The training covered the principles of pediatric palliative care and how pediatric palliative care is different from adult palliative care. The training was holistic, covering physical, spiritual, psychological, and social issues that patients receiving palliative care may be dealing with. I learned how to control pain with proper dosing of oral morphine, along with other tactics, like distraction. I learned how to break bad news to a patient or family. This is something that none of us like to do, but sometimes has to be done. I also learned that it takes a multidisciplinary team to help these patients. It can’t be done by one person, doctor or nurse. Counselors, social workers, dieticians, play therapist, pastors are all a part of this team, along with doctors and nurses.

On the second to last day of the training, we were separated into groups and given a patient to assess and discuss the problem list for the patient broken into physical, spiritual, psychological, and social issues. A management plan was then made utilizing all of the knowledge that we learned in the training. This was a very good experience, as I was in a group that had a 17 year old boy diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and disseminated Kaposi Sarcoma, which he had been treated for at least twice with chemotherapy, and he was also on ARV’s for his HIV. He was admitted to the inpatient clinic since January because the treatment is no longer working and he is no longer able to walk. The lesions are covering his legs and they are swollen at least twice the normal size, as well as his feet. The lesions look like blisters and are draining. He has to stay in bed and he has a cradle to keep the sheets and blankets from sticking to the lesions. He doesn’t want to go out of his room and visit with the other patients or staff, but still seems to be in good spirits! His uncle is staying there with him to help with his care. He carries him if he needs to get out of bed. His mother and father have both died of HIV/AIDS. He lives with his grandmother and has an aunt and cousins that help with him at home. He talked about school and his friends and said that they don’t treat him any differently because of his diagnosis. I am sure that was when he could still go to school and walk. He said that he sometimes hears from his friends from school through an sms. It is too far for them to come and visit him.

When we had our visit with this young man, he gave us the impression that he was receiving his first chemotherapy treatment and that he would walk again and go back to school. What we found out from the doctor in charge of his care, afterwards, is that this is his third chemotherapy treatment and that it is palliative and only to de-bulk the tumor burden; Which means that it not meant to cure the disease or make it go away, only to reduce the size and amount of lesions which will make him more comfortable. He will probably never walk or go to school again. He has been told this, but then he got very depressed and stopped eating. They have given him counseling and a pastor comes and visits and prays with him often and he has started eating again. He is also getting nutritional milk in between his meals to build him up. He says that he knows Jesus and talks to Him regularly on his own. He seems to be coping, but we thought he was in denial, which he may be, but the doctor says that they have decided not to discuss his prognosis with him in detail anymore so that he can hold on to some hope. Sometimes that is the best decision for the patient, and has to be discussed with the family or care-giver who knows the patient much better than we do as health care professionals. So I was very impressed with the care they are giving this young man and the way they are handling his case, with his best interest in mind. To me, this is what palliative care is all about, holistic patient centered care, with family involvement.

This is the kind of care that we want to do here in Swaziland for children that are battling a life threatening disease. We want to see them be cared for holistically and with respect. If there is no cure, or medical help, we want to see them die with dignity, comfort, and lack of pain, having all of their needs met, as well as the family. This is why we need a pediatric palliative care clinic here in Swaziland, so that children don’t have to die alone and in pain. I believe this is something that the Lord wants to see done here, because He loves these precious ones so much! Please pray for us as we attempt to be obedient and add this project to what we are already doing here in Swaziland. If this Hospice for children works, then we can use it as a model for others in the country. One day we would like to have one in Maphiveni along with an HIV clinic. That is in God’s hands and His timing!