Hope for Tomorrow

HFT - Past, present & the hope for tomorrow!

Thank you for continuing to support this program. Your contributions have made it so that these fourteen people have life again! I enjoy seeing them and we have some good discussions together. They have really bonded as a group.

Alice and Lemmy recently shared with me details of their stories that I didn’t know before. When the nurses first found Lemmy, AIDS had progressed to the stage where he could no longer walk. The before and after photos of Alice shown below say more than these typed words can!
















On Thursday I met with the patients that live near Katungu: Lemmy, Alice, Stella, Lucia and Kelvin’s mother. I was able to purchase seed and fertilizer for all of the patients. The season for planting maize is now and the Canadian fund-raising projects have yielded sufficient funds. By March or April 2008 these patients will have maize to eat—providing the rains are sufficient! A new development in the program is that most of the patients will be weaned off the program because they are now healthy!

I’ve been working with the local nurses to create individual development plans for each patient that will result in the patient being able to generate their own income therefore being able to feed and educate their own families.

These are the plans so far:

• Lemmy and Alice were both accepted to Chodort Trade School in Choma. Lemmy will be learning carpentry, and Alice, tailoring. The $35.00 monthly sponsorship money will pay the tuition for the one-year course. Food and accommodation will be paid by Canadian fundraising money. Lemmy and Alice must show their reports at the end of each term to the nurses Tebia and Fortune.
• Lucia will be going for an interview to Chodort next week when we go back to Choma for other business. Payment for this will be the same as for Lemmy and Alice.
• Florence, Caral, Agness, Jelina, Joyce and Stella are all to create their own income generating plans with the help of the nurses. They will not be given their monthly groceries like they have been up until now. Instead the nurses are saving the January through April sponsorships and will give each of them K500, 000 in May, providing their business plans are realistic. Agness plans to sell chitenges and will be monitored by her elder sister who is a business lady in Choma. Joyce and Florence want to set up small shops.
  
• Elizabeth has a large garden near a river. The problem is for her to get the water from the river. I have purchased a treadle pump that Elizabeth can use to increase her business of growing vegetables. She will be expected to pay back approximately half of the loan through the sale of vegetables. The money will be returned to the nurses so they can assist any of these patients as they see necessary.
• Muna is only about eleven years old, so we will keep him on the program if his sponsors can continue.
• Sibeso is the daughter of Florence. With Florence being able to set up a small shop, she will now be able to provide for all of her children, including Sibeso.
• Kelvin suffered a stroke a year ago. His speech and right side are affected. He lives at Kalowa village near Katungu in a small open hut and his family have been finding it difficult to care for him. I visited him a month ago and he was not being well cared for. It was a difficult visit; there is no home care in this rural village. This village is small and everyone lives in mud huts. There are no trained nurses in the area and very little understanding of what to do with a stroke patient. Yesterday, I visited a very well run hospice in Choma where only HIV positive patients go. I will work with our local nurses to facilitate Kelvin's transfer to the hospice, where there is running water, plenty of food, and trained staff! Kelvin will then receive physiotherapy a few times a week. It is so clean and uncrowded. I visited with a few of the clients that are in the final stages—they were very well cared for and felt quite comfortable. If I had funds I would set up a similar hospice in this area! It is so needed!
  

I hope this information has been helpful to inform you where your dollars have been going. As well, to let you know that your prayers have been heard!

Please pass this information to anyone else that may have attended one of our fund-raisers or is just interested! There is always room for more donations as each day the nurses are confronted with issues related to HIV/AIDS and do not know what to do! If anyone knows a philanthropist looking for somewhere to spend money—please send him/her my way!!

May you continue to be people who share the blessings that our God has shared with you!