Nutrition Program for Our Friends with HIV/AIDS in Kenya

Posted by christine, July 31, 2009
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Mother in the HEKO program

We are now helping fund a Nutrition Program for our friends with HIV/AIDS in the Kibera slums of Nairobi, Kenya.  Many of these people we have met and visited personally.  We have heard their stories, danced with them, held their hands.  And we will continue to do what we can to help extend their lives.

Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya is one of the largest slums in Africa, with over a million people living in an area just over 1 square mile.  HIV/AIDS has become a major health and development problem there, with almost 10% of the population infected with the disease.

We have several projects in Kibera, one of them being our partnership with HEKO (the Heritage Kenya Organization) which focuses on helping the HIV/AIDS community there through health education, job training, and assistance with starting small businesses.

It makes sense that people infected with HIV are at a greater risk of malnutrition than those who are not infected.  Not only are their immune systems compromised, but HIV interferes with their desire and ability to eat, reducing dietary intake causing malabsorption of nutrients.

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Kibera slums

Through the HEKO program, we are specifically working on improving the nutrition of people living with HIV/AIDS (”PLWHA”) in 480 families in Kibera slums. The majority of these family members are between the ages of 6 months and 30 years.  Out of the adults, the majority of them are women of reproductive age whose demands are high.  The low or lack of income of these people which makes it difficult for them to access food.  With worsening poverty, these families have lost their ability to acquire food and meet their basic needs.

The Nutrition Program includes:

  • Community health and training
    • Health education
    • Sanitation
    • Food demonstrations
  • Nutrition support and care
    • Counseling on feeding habits
    • Home visits/follow-ups
    • Spiritual counseling
  • Food & micronutrient supplementation
  • Malaria control

Thank you so much for helping us provide for them!

GUEST BLOG: “Love Across Oceans” by Brittany Pollard

Posted by christine,

When I think about writing this blog for you, I want you to catch a glimpse of what we saw in Ethiopia. I want you to feel an ounce of what we felt. I want you to skim that which we touched. This is Africa: not a place to visit once and forget, but a place that, even when you’ve ceased to stand on the soil, is a part of you forever. At least that’s my hope and prayer.

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Brittany with one of the women and her two daughters

For many of us on Ethiopia Team #1, the “Women At Risk” project in Nazaret, Ethiopia was a special and beautiful place. We spent just over three days with the women, their children, and the staff, but the relationships we built and the things we took away from that experience go so far beyond that. These women – who are all former prostitutes or “sex workers” – have been given a second chance. They have been forgiven by a great God, and they have been reached by those so willing and so passionate about giving them an opportunity to truly live. It’s so easy to look away, so easy to think that some people are just too far from saving. The staff at Women At Risk have looked beyond that lie and stepped out into a world that is in so much need. They reached out their hands, and these women reached back.

A few of them shared their stories with us. They were stories of darkness and pain and brokenness, but now there is hope and joy and singing. Women At Risk is a place where hope is found for so many women and their children. It’s a place of transformation, of growth, and it builds for these women a future they probably never thought they’d see.

During our time there, we gave the women manicures and pedicures. It was one of those things that seemed fun and lighthearted and yet still a way to show these women love. What we took away from that experience, however, was bigger than I think we’d even hoped. We had three guys on our team: Geoffrey (or as the kids in Ambo say it: “Jo-free!”), Justin and Mark. Someone suggested that they wash the women’s feet before we gave them pedicures. You’d expect a bit of kicking and screaming from a group of 20-something guys. What we saw instead was a willingness to serve these women in that way, without hesitation. The men showed those women respect in such a powerful way, and probably a way they had never experienced before, given their past. It was the ultimate display of humility. We, as a team, were moved. The women were moved. It was the most beautiful picture of a servant’s heart I have ever seen.

I think we were all touched that beyond borders and across oceans we could connect and relate and love. It goes so far beyond the money that we give. The common thread that ran through every person on the team and within every ministry was the desire to love and be loved. We didn’t have to give them material things. We just had to be there.

I’d read and seen pictures and thought I understood Mocha Club’s phrase, “I need Africa more than Africa needs me.” But now I’ve seen it, I’ve tasted it, I’ve touched it, and I’ve felt it more deeply than I realized I could.

Thank you Mocha Club for the opportunity that you have given me to love across oceans. Thank you Africa for loving us so deeply in return.

Editor’s note: Brittany Pollard was on our Mocha Club Ethiopia trip #1 from June 26th-July 9th, 2009.

New preschool open in Cape Town, South Africa

Posted by marisa, July 30, 2009

books+2Our Mocha Club Cape Town team has been back for almost 2 months now.  One of the projects we helped with while in Cape Town was building a preschool in the Green Point area of the Khayelitsha township. {see the before and after pictures here!}  We got word from our partners in Cape Town that they had the grand opening of the preschool a couple weeks ago!

Trip member and MC sponsor Ernie Halter organized the book donations – he had fans bring books to shows and/or ship them to his record label in New York City before the team left!

Here are some photos of the preschool opening, with the kids enjoying those new books.  The woman in the blue hat is the “mama” of the school – the teacher and caretaker of the hundred or so kids who will come every day…

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Update from Ethiopia Trip Leader, Geoffrey

Posted by christine, July 29, 2009
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photo courtesy of MC member Brittany Pollard from Ethiopia trip #1

Quick update on our Mocha Club Ethiopia trip teams!

Ethiopia team #1 returned July 9th, and the last two groups are currently there, returning August 1st and 9th.  Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers as they serve our friends in Ethiopia – the street boys in Ambo, the Women At Risk in Nazaret, and all the other people they encounter.

We’re cooking up lots of updates and guest blogs as these tripgoers return to the U.S. and begin to process their thoughts.  In the meantime, here’s an update from Geoffrey Bertram, the trip leader for both Ethiopia teams who are currently there:

I’m actually typing this email to you right now from a hotel room in Nazareth [also spelled "Nazaret" and "Nazret"], Ethiopia where I spent two months last summer.   At this point, I am now leading my third team since arriving in late June.  Here in Nazareth, we are visiting a women’s rehabilitation ministry that rescues women from the prostitution industry.  The program involves rehabilitation in many different fields including spiritual, personal, social, and even vocational.  The women are in the program for a total of 9 months when they are then sent back out into society equipped to never turn back to prostitution.   These trips have been such an incredible opportunity to mobilize people from the all over the world (we actually have one team member from New Zealand) to go and witness first-hand the beauty and loving nature of the African people.  Those Ethiopians are just about as warm a people as you will ever find…I’m so stoked to be back. – Geoffrey

More to come soon!

100 Wells Campaign in Darfur, Sudan

Posted by christine, July 28, 2009

One of our partnering organizations on the ground in Sudan, Persecution Project Foundation (PPF), has recently launched the “100 Wells Campaign.” In just three years, Persecution Project has overcome hostile weather, poor security, difficult contractors, and busted equipment to complete 36 wells – 16 of which Mocha Club helped fund!

Our Mocha Club Director Barrett Ward, MC Sponsor Dave Barnes, and other friends went to Sudan this past December to see the people who desperately need clean water.  PPF’s goal is to finish the final 64 wells by Christmas 2010. We’re so proud to be a part of this and want to do everything we can to help them meet their goal!

36 wells already built is quite a feat when you consider that the annual rainy season makes it nearly impossible to drill from May through October.

Before the wells were drilled, women were forced to scoop muddy water

Before the wells were dug in 2006, everybody scooped drinking water out of holes, ditches, puddles, and rivers. Too many still do. (photo courtesy of Persecution Project Foundation)

Each well is designed to serve 500 people, but the experience on the ground in remote, insecure areas like the village of Jach, Sudan is that they end up serving more than 1,000 people.

As impressive as the accomplishments in Jach are, there are still tens of thousands of refugees without access to clean water.

So we need your help! Mocha Club wants to be a part in building more wells with Persecution Project in Sudan.  Here’s how you can help…

  • If you’re a Mocha Club member supporting the Clean Water project monthly, invite as many friends as you can to join you!   Just $7 can provide clean water for 7 Africans for a year!
  • Go to our Emergency Needs page and give a one-time donation to the Clean Water project.
  • Run a campaign at your school, church, among your friends, family, and neighbors to raise money for Clean Water in Sudan.

Let’s do this – together!

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