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We received this story from Persecution Project Foundation (PPF), our partners in the village of Jach, Sudan. Mocha Club and African Leadership have provided funding for 16 of the 36 clean water wells that are currently operating in Jach.
In spring of this year, Joshua MacLeod {longtime Mocha Club and African Leadership partner} went with Brad Phillips {President of Persecution Project} and the PPF team to Jach, a community of more than 90,000 Darfur refugees in Sudan.
Joshua is a photographer, so most of the time, his eyes were glued to the viewfinders of assorted cameras. But on Sunday morning, he set aside his photographic gear, picked up his guitar and led worship.
The next day, the team traveled deeper into Darfur and visited a small village. The poverty and need were as oppressive as the heat. People had nothing but muddy water to drink, which was infested with deadly parasites.
Again, Joshua took out his guitar and began to sing songs of hope to break the spell of despair.
For about 20 minutes he sang to the children who had gathered to see the strangers. Then he asked one by to sing him one of their songs.
“We don’t have any songs,” the child told him.
Joshua couldn’t believe it. He already knew that music is a big part of Sudanese culture.
He asked the child again. But the boy only replied, “We’ve forgotten all our songs.”
This is the boy James who said “We don’t have any songs.”
Years of war and mind-numbing violence had left those children without a song.
Before he left, Joshua gave his guitar to a young man named Deng, who is the son of a pastor in Jach.
When Joshua returned home, he began using the talents he has to help PPF tell the story of the children of Darfur.
All photos courtesy of Persecution Project Foundation.
We recently introduced you to our first Mocha Club project in Ethiopia: Women At Risk. Through this project, you are helping female commercial sex workers in Nazaret, Ethiopia get out of the poverty trap in which they are caught, enabling them to start a new life. Soon, we’ll have more personal stories about individual women, but until then, we wanted to give you more background info on how life was for these women and how Women At Risk is helping…
The project was initially set up in 2003 to reach young women working in the bars that are all over the town of Nazaret.
To recruit a new cycle of group of women, “night visits” of bars and nightclubs were begun in mid January 2009. During this recruitment period of 2 months, initial contacts and relationships were built, which would help in the selection of women that would be in the 7 month long rehabilitation program.
For the selection process two criteria were in place:
Each women that came to the program was actively working in prostitution.
Each woman had to show some level of commitment in wanting a change of lifestyle.
If our efforts of rehabilitation are not strongly backed with a deep desire of lifestyle change by the women and from that specific target group, the outcome is questionable.
Night visits began in mid-January 2009. As a start, the counselors began to visit the girls in the bars at night, but also during the day in what is called ‘women’s house’.
“Women’s house” is usually one large room in the back of the bars that the women sleep/live in during the day, but owned by the bar owners. This is the bar owner’s way of controlling the women who work in their bars. Facilities in this one big room which usually would house as many as 10 women, is very minimal, mats on the floor, a tap outside and a drop-toilet shared with the bar patrons.
Though visiting the women in the daytime proved to be very fruitful and less dangerous for our team in terms of building good relationships and actually able to have useful conversations, opposition from the bar owners was very strong. Even to a point where couple of women who talked to us were fired from the bars.
Night visits in the bars became more and more difficult for the two-woman team of counselors. Bar owners could spot them. The women also became more suspicious; therefore making reasonable contacts became difficult.
But even through this, good contacts were made with about 21 women, and 16 of them showed some level of interest. During this final interview to select 10 out of 16 the criterion ‘Each woman has to show some level of commitment in wanting change of life style’ is very closely followed. An interview with each woman was conducted, and only 7 women showed a deeper level of commitment in wanting lifestyle change, despite the struggles ahead.
Based on our experience, we continued with the recruitment searching for 3 -5 more committed women within the next 6 weeks.
In the meantime, Nazareth Project has had a man, Abebe, who was the guard from 2003 – mid 2008 and who worked for a local church. He had already gained so much trust and credibility in the community. So Abebe became the new male counselor for Women At Risk, and together with the two female counselors, they continued with their night visits to select 5 more women. They already have established relationships with 12 women who went through formal interviews.
Here’s a report from our partners in Gulu, Uganda at Village of Hope, specifically about the Primary School you helped build! The school has 148 kids in Primary 1-4 with 6 teachers.
These photos show the ceremony they had for the children elected into offices…they repeated a vow and prayed for each other. It was a special event. Now they have their own “badge” which is quite an achievement. Our partners there in Gulu reported that they “felt like proud mom and dad” to see the children achieve this success!
Here are a few more photos of the children at school…
We recently told you about a new project that Mocha Club is helping with: Grace AIDS Project in Ghana. Through this project, we help provide monthly support for nursing mothers, those infected with HIV, and also Anti-retroviral drugs (ARV’s) for those with HIV, all in partnership with Sunyani, Ghana Regional Hospital. Shockingly, in Ghana, it only costs $5 a month for the ARV’s that will help keep someone alive, but some of the poorest people cannot even afford $5. This is where we come in!
Here are some testimonies we just received…
“African Leadership support has given me hope. I can now take care of my baby. Thank you.” -Amma Serwaa, Sunyani
“The support you have been giving me has changed my life. I am regular when it is time for me to go to the hospital because I am sure of getting the drugs I need. May God continue to help you to be able to continue supporting us.” -Mary Dufie, Wamfie
“Life was becoming unbearable, but the drugs have made things easier.” -Kwame Sefa, Techire
Here are some updates from the Grace Orphans in Sunyani, Ghana. Thank you for helping us provide schooling, food, and hope for these children!
“During break time I was not eating but now you give me food and books so it is helping me to study and get something to eat.” -Samuel Alambana, 8 years old, KG 3
“God bless you! I look happy, beautiful, and always ready to come to school to learn. I want to tell you that God will be with you every day.” -Mary Brenya, 7 yrs. KG2 Odumasi, Sunyani
“I like coming to school now a days, because of the food and books. I no longer worry my grandmother.” -Cecelia Adoma
“The textbooks and exercise books have been very helpful to both the children and teachers. The children are happy and it has made our teaching more effective.” -Mr. S. Baah, Assist. Headteacher.
Editor’s Note: Ernie Halter is one of our MC Artist Sponsors who traveled to Cape Town, South Africa in May/June 2009 to visit several Mocha Club projects, including the Job Creation center, Learn To Earn. Here are some of Ernie’s thoughts on the experience…
As a Mocha Club Artist Sponsor, I take a little time to talk about Mocha Club and the Job Creation project in Africa nightly at my performances on tour. Recently I finally got to visit the Learn to Earn (LtE) center in Khayelitsha, South Africa near Cape Town, and I can honestly say I’m more passionate now about the project than ever. Learn to Earn is actively addressing widespread unemployment in the area with programs that teach South Africans useful skills such as sewing, ceramics, woodworking, auto mechanic training, word processing, and graphic design. LtE then places students in jobs or helps them open their own businesses. The program has an 80% success rate for job placement, and those who do not immediately find employment are hired at the LtE center until they do. The center is extremely busy and full of life. We saw busy classrooms hard at work, prideful people given an opportunity to provide for their families and better themselves under less than ideal circumstances.
Having been there and witnessed this firsthand now, I can see that Learn to Earn isn’t so much about charity. It’s a partnership, creating with its students and its community the most empowering gift you can give…
Here’s a story from Make Way Partners, our partners on the ground in Sudan. Mocha Club helped build the girls’ orphanage in Nyamel, Sudan in 2007, and the boys’ orphanage was just completed! We are so thankful that children like Teresa can now live in love and safety!
Late one evening just before sunset, I sat in Sudan’s oppressive heat watching the fireball in the sky sink beneath the horizon with great anticipation for the immediate temperature drop this would bring.
In Sudan, everything seems to stop at this time each day. The harsh sand no longer stings your face as even the wind seems to wait in reverence for God’s great exhibition of sunset.
Just as the last breath of day was being drawn, hysterical screams pierced the rest. My head jerked around to see a young girl from our school running into the compound. James and I met her at the same time. It was Teresa Nyibol; she was about 10 years old. I wrapped my arms around Teresa Nyibol trying to calm her – and cover her at the same time for she was naked.
James went to collect a blanket to cover Teresa Nyibol. Her body was shaking, she was crying and trying to speak at the same time. Although her English was fairly fluent, her native tongue Dinka was what pushed forth her story.
Teresa Nyibol is one of the 400 orphans in our New Life school in Sudan. At this point, we did not have dormitories completed yet for the children to sleep in, so most of them sleep in the bush alone and unprotected. Some of the children, however, had been taken into community homes with the promise of having a roof over their heads at night.
The problem is that because even the community people are so poor, not just the orphans, everyone is desperate. So, most of our orphans who lived in a community home were made responsible for finding food for the family and forced into domestic or sexual slavery. The woman that Teresa Nyibol lived with was desperate. Her husband had been killed in the last attack upon her village; she had five children of her own. Teresa Nyibol became a commodity to this woman.
She was going to sell Teresa Nyibol to the slave traders from the North. She explained to Teresa Nyibol that at least Teresa Nyibol would have a roof over her head and would get good food everyday. Nyibol didn’t care; she refused to go. The woman had much riding on this transaction. Nyibol was only 10 and a virgin; she would bring enough money for the woman’s children to eat for many months to come.
The woman became violent; she ripped Teresa Nyibol’s clothes from her back and burned them. She thought that if Teresa Nyibol was naked she would be too afraid to leave the tukel until the morning when the sale would be completed.
Teresa Nyibol knew her one hope was help from Pastor James at New Life Ministry. Naked, she ran to our compound. Of course, we took Teresa Nyibol in.
After a year and a half of consistent care and protection, Teresa Nyibol has not only begun to reveal much healing but a true leader has burst forth. Teresa Nyibol, now about 12 years old, leads daily liturgical dance on the compound. A choir of young girls and boys meets her each day after school where Teresa Nyibol leads in creating beautiful dances that honor God and tell, through dance, His unrelenting love for mankind.
Teresa Nyibol says that when she grows up, she wants to be the Director of New Life where she can lead others to protect the innocent and raise up the next generation of peacemakers in Sudan.
We updated you recently on a famine relief distribution that Mocha Club helped with in Kitui, Kenya, thanks to you. Here are some photos from our National Director in Kenya, Benson Mutisya, on the 3rd distribution which happened recently. Benson is pictured below in the straw hat. Here’s his report…
“Over 1,000 families turned up in the distribution centers. We originally planned to serve 1,000 families whom we had short listed, but many more got wind of it, so they also came. We had to buy extra food locally even though expensive, so as to serve at least 300 more. Those who came were ministered to with both the spiritual food as well as with physical one. We thank God for the many services we held with those who attended.”
The Kitui orphans got their share too, as you can see from the first photo below. They got a double portion of food, plus new school uniforms!
We are so excited to share this news with you: the Boys’ Orphanage in Nyamlel, Sudan is finally complete! Mocha Club helped build the Girls’ Orphanage in 2007, and the boys were waiting for their home. Our partners in Sudan faced many challenges in getting the materials to Sudan to complete the home for the boys, but now it’s done!
A note from Kimberly Smith of Make Way Partners, the organization in Sudan that we have partnered with…
It is hard for me to believe that six summers have passed since mine and Milton’s eyes were first opened to one of the harshest realities of life: billions of dollars in profit reaped each year from the enslavement, forced prostitution and pornography of children. Facing this evil shook us so deeply that we simply could not do nothing. We wanted to go to the worst places in the world, where no other help was available to protect the most vulnerable children.
Beginning with a modest food and medical program for 153 orphans, while building schools to offer hope in the future, we thought we were doing great. That is, until we learned that in one single ten month period, we lost 278 orphans in our small community from wild dog or hyena attack! We were saving the children from slave raiders only so they could be devoured by wildlife!
But the obstacles seemed too formidable and many to overcome. For starters, Make Way Partners was a fledging organization, our nearest supply chain for building materials was nearly 2,000 miles away with no roads or bridges to cover the terrain, bandits and militias would threaten us at every turn and most folks called us fools to attempt something that larger, older, more powerful organizations would not dare risk. Yet, there was God’s still small voice, “Move forward.”
We obeyed. You joined us. God honored our collective desire to be used. He provided protection even when our drivers were repeatedly held hostage. Never once did we pay a penny for ransom and never once did we lose so much as a nail to our captors. Prayer and standing firm, as He directed, released them every single time.
Now, we celebrate the miraculous deliverance of 500 orphans! Our 100 acres in Nyamlel is well developed with a church, medical clinic, security fence, schools and not one, but three safe homes for all the children.”
THANK YOU, MOCHA CLUB, FOR HELPING MAKE THIS POSSIBLE!
Editor’s note: Mocha Club member and volunteer, Annie, is blogging from Capetown, South Africa on the Mocha Club trip from May 28th-June 10th. This is our first official “trip blogger” so please help us spread the word and check back for updates!
By the time you read this blog, we will be somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean. The end of our trip will have come and gone and we will have our suitcases packed with souvenirs. Probably for you. You deserve it, after all.
Words can't fully express how we feel. In fact, we just met with an American who lives here in South Africa and she talked with us about how to come home to you and tell you about our trip. Because there aren't enough words, in English or in Xhosa, to explain it, but we're going to want to talk. Or maybe we won't. I don't know. I just know it may be hard and frustrating and a slow process. Sure, we've only been gone for 14 days, but it's felt a lot longer. And we are different. I am different.
So instead of words, we offer this parting gift...
Thank you, Mocha Club. Thank you for reading this blog - we always felt like you were right here with us. Thank you for supporting these projects and these people. Thank you for helping us to realize we need Africa more than Africa need us.
With sincere gratitude,
Annie
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