Swaziland: Help Educate 50 Orphans

New Hope Centre has become more than just an orphanage. It is a home for 50 extraordinary children who are making a difference in Swaziland. Your donations go toward the infrastructure of making it all possible: education, training, enrichment, clothing, caretaking, food and housing. But those serve as a secure foundation from which the leaders of our country are being formed. It is our desire to begin that leadership skill at a very young age. For that reason, we take even the youngest children out into the countryside to meet with other orphans who do not have the advantages our kids do.

Recently, on one of our forays we came across a heartbreaking family of six children. Their father died and their mother was overwhelmed with responsibility and left them to move away with a man who offered to take care of her. The children were left to fend for themselves in a falling-down mud structure with no running water and no way to provide food or clothing. Our children knew that many of them had come from the same circumstances and their hearts were touched. They took their own birthday and Christmas money and used it to buy clothing for the children. They shared food with them and have been giving them hope and encouragement.

In another activity to help develop our children’s’ leadership skills we helped them to train and prepare for this year’s All Africa student Convention held at Bloemfontein University. Fourteen students entered the competitions in the areas of drama, speech, music (both instrumental and vocal), chess, checkers, art and science projects as well as dress making (formal attire). They all did very well, earning honors in several categories. Three of the girls qualified to go to USA for the International Student Convention in Atlanta Georgia to compete with students from all over the world. These three are the first Swazi's ever to be nominated to attend and we are so proud of their accomplishment.

We hope these insights into the activities of the children of New Hope Centre will also give you pride since you are the ones making it all possible. We are humbled and grateful that we are just about to go over the $100,000 mark with your donations. We want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your support and wish you a bright and hopeful New Year.

Of course, our children are at the heart of our project. It is for them we expend our efforts and make our plans. We would like to share with you the story of three of our girls, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. They are triplets.

We met the girls when they were only 5 weeks old. Their mother came with these precious little bundles of life to New Hope Centre begging us to take them, as she could not care for them or feed them. We are a children’s home for those without parents or relatives so we make every effort to find a way to support the children in their families and with their own relatives. We had visitors at the time who offered to provide disposable diapers and baby formula for the next six months of their lives. So we visited them regularly and made sure they were progressing. A nursing team from Niagara, Canada came and helped us with provisions and corrections in care.

Later that year we had their first birthday celebration giving thanks to God finding provisions for them during the first year of their lives. The girls did well until they started crawling, when one of them, in their own home, mistakenly picked up a pot of boiling hot water that was left on the floor and poured it over her head and body as if she was bathing herself only to be scolded with the boiling water. She was severely burned and had to be hospitalized in Mankayane. This was the beginning of overwhelming circumstances for the mum and grandmother.

We approached the Social Welfare offices in Manzini for their assistance to process the children to be assigned to New Hope Centre until their 18^th birthdays. On the weekend of our national Independence celebrations Ms. Rachael and Sister Tandzi went to their home and collected the three darlings and all their earthly belongings. They have now started primary school in grade one and are learning the fundamentals in preparation for reading. They lead worship, are learning ballet and were so excited to be taken to town to buy school clothes, school bags and supplies with money they received from donors like you. In addition, your funds have helped to provide education for one of our teachers to receive special training to help them with the basics of their education. You can view a portion of the recent Spring Ballet Concert in which the triplets participated here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6HRUzdYmkI.

This is the story of three of our 52 children. Each one has a history of heartbreak and restoration that we love to share with you. This past three months since we last updated you our children continue to enjoy a secure home, food, clothing, education, nurturing and enrichment. This is possible thru your on-going gifts. They thank you continuously and are well aware of your contributions to their lives. We thank you because we now that without your support these stories would have been far different. We look forward to sharing more of the specific stories of the children of New Hope Centre. Along with their tragedies, they have also learned resilience that has brought them thru the storms and out into the light.

We would love to hear from you. What can we do in these reports to give you a better picture of what your donations are doing at New Hope Centre? Do you enjoy hearing the individual stories of our children? How can we reach out to more people with kind and generous hearts to assure the health, emotional stability and strong leadership and educational skills needed in the future leaders of Swaziland?

You give us the courage to continue.