updates and prayers for a family...

Just a note to say I am leaving for malawi tomorrow…malawi is a small, landlocked country that borders South Afirca. It is rumored to have the most beautiful and friendly people in all of Africa…
It is about a 2 hour flight from Johannesburg for me. I am going there to assess the project, and to help with computer training for the volunteers, and to look into possible income generation programs for the future. If you are the praying type, please pray for safety as we travel, and that I can go in totally open and vulnerable and available to what God has for me there. The situation is supposed to be quite desparate – the country has a 33% infection rate and over 10% of the population is made up of orphaned children.
The woman I am going to work with is one of the coolest cats I have ever known. She is a Malawian chief, which is incredibly rare, and she is passionate about the rights of the African woman, and about protecting the rights of children. She works tirelessly to advocate for the girls in her small rural communities to receive free schooling and to be protected from situations of sexual abuse and violence.
In terms of the programs in South Africa, things are going well and I am learning a lot. We just received funds from the US government to provide schooling for 200 orphaned girls in the Masoyi community. I have been given the role of project manager, which is a bit daunting, but exciting….there is an incredible need for these young orphaned girls to stay in school, and to have supplies and mentoring to help them learn how to live life! We were able to select 2 volunteers from the community who are going to work alongside of me for the remainder of this year, and then if I leave in October, they will be able to stand alone and run the projects so the funds and the benefits can continue to come.
Another need for prayer comes from a family that I knew last summer while working in Uganda. If any of you spoke to me about my work last summer, you probably heard about joyce. She was my friend, a beautiful woman with a big smile and a deep love for the colour yellow. I was working in a fishing village outside of katebo, Uganda, with a support groups for HIV/AIDS widows, and she and I would sit together at the back of the meetings weaving baskets and learning to count to 10. I was awful at the local language, lugandan.
But back to the prayer needs….joyce is the 6th of 7 children in her family. 5 have already died of AIDS, leaving 16 orphans in the care of her brother Godfrey, herself and her mother susan. Godfrey was able to go to school this last year, and joyce left the village to work in kampala, the large city nearby. Susan has been on her own, caring for 16 orphans from the age 17 to 6 monthes. This past week, susan passed away, which means that these kids have been on their own. They are beautiful. The oldest, damian, has deep brown eyes that mirror the pain in his life..his younger brother eric is lighter skinned, with this incredible smile and hope. When I visited their home last summer, these two boys would go to school from 6 am until 2 pm, and then they would work digging ditches to make money for their family for 6 hours, return home, sleep, wake at 4 am to do homework, and begin the whole cycle again…
So please pray for the family. I don’t get very clear messages from Godfrey, who I am still in touch with because of the language barrier, but I know the family is in trouble.
May God bless you all…much love. I will write you more when I return from Malawi.
Grace and peace,
maeghan