Living Hope has launched its Worker Readiness School! In their effort to help those living with HIV/AIDS find jobs, they researched what South African employers are looking for.  Surprisingly, the employers’ greatest need is not that workers have the hard skills, but rather soft skills like emotional readiness and a positive mindset.  This prompted Living Hope to start the Living Way Worker Readiness School.   The course began in April 2010 with 10 participants, and Living Hope has already seen a lot of fruit from the program!
The training is a mixture of personal development, interpersonal growth, and fundamental job skills.  Specific topics include:

• Work Ethics
• Values
• Time management
• Communication
• Conflict resolution
• Interviewing
• Resume writing

The course is 9 full days of training spread over a three-week period. With homework and tests, the teachers ensure that all students are engaging with the material.

When asked what they had gained, some participants responded…

“I gained hope, forgiveness and taking initiative at a workplace as well as communicating with your colleagues.”

“How to manage my time and money… and how to be resilient.”

“To be on time, honest, forgiving, handling money God’s way, to communicate well.”

Thank you for your contributions that help provide job training to our friends affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Volunteers work together to unload a cargo plane full of medical supplies. This delivery will provide multiple clinics with what they need to care for many patients.

This is simply one example of the power of $7/month supporting our HIV/AIDS + Healthcare project.

Or maybe you have seen it on our Facebook page.

Now a bit of an explanation.

Each of our members, like you, pick one of our five projects to support (Education, Clean Water, Child Mothers + Women at Risk, HIV/AIDS + Healthcare, Orphan Care + Vulnerable Children). And though you do get monthly updates, we wanted to give you a bit more.

We realized that sitting right here under our very noses were piles and piles of video tape from each of those projects. (Okay, not really piles. But files. Files and files.)

So we wanted to start showing you those files and files. From every project. From seven different countries in Africa. From summer and winter. Families. Kids. Schools. Wells. Clinics. Women. Men. All of it.

Every day, Monday through Friday, you can expect a ten second video from the Mocha Club vault. Watch it. Share it. Show the world where your $7 is going every month.

Here is Today’s 10 Seconds. Hope you enjoy these short clips of the projects that you are making possible.

Have you missed some of the videos from the last few months? Just check our Today’s 10 Seconds section of the blog.

Boys warm up for a soccer practice outside of one of our Healthcare facilities. We are able to use your $7 each month to keep these guys healthy and on the pitch.

Support our HIV/AIDS + Healthcare project to continue the growth and stability of these healthcare programs.

We wanted to share their feedback with you so you can better understand the lives of those we seek to serve.  We have kept their answers anonymous to protect the identities of the patients.  (See Part 1.)

Michele conducting a focus group with some of the patients

• The focus group discussion was with a group of women who did not mind if Michele took photos.
• Most of them were subsistence farmers. One had skills in baking and another had sewing skills. One woman sold packets of water for a living.
• Most of them were doing much better on the anti-retroviral drugs (ARV’s). They still had low energy levels, though, and heavy farm work was difficult.
• They experience equality of care in the Sunyani HIV/AIDS clinic compared to other clinics.
• They would prefer not to have the medical staff/community health workers visit them at their homes as this would raise questions and suspicions in the community as to their HIV status. Stigmatization is huge and some have even lost spouses in the process of disclosure of their HIV-positive status.
  
• The continued education of their children is a very big concern for these women, particularly for those who have lost their husbands.
• Those with sewing and baking skills would like to be assisted with an income-generating grant so as to become self-sufficient.
• Some of the women whose children are HIV-positive also receive drugs from the clinic.  One woman who had an 18-month-old child asked if there was hope for her child to grow to be like herself. The child was neither walking nor talking, and she was wondering if she was wasting the money on the child.
• On nutrition, the women are encouraged to eat fruits and cut down on sweet and oily foods. Fruits are expensive and so they may afford to eat it only once a week. They eat bananas three times a week.

Thank you for helping improve the lives of our friends in Ghana.  Your support makes a huge difference!

We wanted to share their feedback with you so you can better understand the lives of those we seek to serve.  We have kept their answers anonymous to protect the identities of the patients.

Michele conducting a focus group with some of the patients

1. How long does it take to get here to the clinic?

• 5-6 hours – 50%
• less than 1 hour – 30%
• more than 6 hours – 10%
• 2-4 hours – 10%

2. How do you get here? Walk? Mini-Bus?  Other?

• Answers were mixed, but mostly public transportation was used

3. What services do you receive from the clinic?

• Counseling/health talks
• Free anti-retroviral drugs
• Word of God

4. Are you happy with the services at the HIV/AIDS clinic? What can be improved or done better?

• 85% stated that the clinic was very slow and that the staff should be more time conscious. Some also mentioned that the drugs were not always available.

5. How long do you spend at the clinic on each visit every month?

• 6-7 hours was the most reported – i.e. the whole day

6. How often do visit the clinic? When was your last visit?

• Either once or twice a month – many reported every week

7. Which person in your life/community is the most helpful to you? Who offers you the best quality of help in your life?

• Many reported no one – 40%
• Some reported a spouse, child or direct relative – 50% (the quality of support was not always good)
• Some reported a nurse or church leader – 5%
• Other – 5%

8. Do you have any physical problems at the moment?

• The most common was vomiting, waist pains, loss of weight and a few TB cases

9. How are you feeling emotionally today?

• 50% – good
• 50% – very poorly (many mentioned thinking a lot about things)

It only costs $5 a month in Ghana for the ARV’s necessary to keep a person with HIV alive – but some of the poorest people cannot even afford these inexpensive and life-giving treatments.

Thank you for helping improve the lives of our friends in Ghana.  Your support makes a huge difference!

Some of the women served through HEKO (photo by Natalina Marlow)

The HEKO Project in Kenya is one of Mocha Club’s HIV/AIDS + Health Care projects.  Thank you for your heart to help these women!

Now, please meet…

Eunice…

I am a widow due to HIV/AIDS and a mother of two and have suffered a lot of discrimination and stigma.  But I am grateful for constant support through the HEKO program. I am still faced with the challenge of how to support my two children aged 4 & 7 but my life has been greatly helped by HEKO.

* * *

Everline…

My family and I are grateful to HEKO for reaching out to us when we were desperate for attention.  May the Almighty God give you grace and abundant long life.  Your regular social support is highly appreciated, especially food vouchers which arrived at the right time when we had nothing to put on the table for our family.  Thank you so much and God bless you!

* * *

Fortunata…

I am a widow due to HIV/AIDS but my life has changed for the better since I came into contact with HEKO and African Leadership.  Thank you for your financial assistance and other social support that has helped improve my life status and that of my children.

* * *

Peres…

When I tested HIV+, I broke down in distress and was frustrated.  My challenge was how to take care of myself and my 3 children, but I am grateful to the HEKO program for reaching out to us.  Thank you so much for your compassion.

* * *

and Rose…

I have every reason to thank God for African Leadership for their compassion towards families affected and infected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic.  May God continue to bless you all.

Meet Vida Yeboah…

“I am from Sunyani.  I am 36-years-old with three children ages 19, 13 and 8 years-old respectively. My husband died four years ago from AIDS.  I was admitted at the Sunyani Municipal Hospital and was confirmed HIV-positive. I have the virus and have received [anti-retroviral] drugs I need for free since then.  I am jobless. Had it not been for the help of African Leadership/Mocha Club, I would have been dead by now because I cannot afford the drugs. Thank you for the additional financial support which has helped me a lot.”

* * *

Meet Martha Nketiah…

“I am from Drobo-Bibianiha.  I am 35-years-old and a peasant farmer. My husband died four years ago as a result of HIV/AIDS.  He left behind three children 20, 15, and 10 years-old respectively. The firstborn is learning dressmaking after junior high school because I couldn’t afford for her to continue with her education. The rest of the two are in school. My husband was responsible for my infection with the virus. But I was relieved as soon as I met African leadership with the regular free provision of drugs and financial support. Now I can continue to do my farming activities. My children are also looking healthy all the time though I have not yet tested to see whether they are free from the virus or not.”

* * *

We hope for the continued funds to help people like these.  Says Sam Oppong, our African Leadership National Director in Ghana, “More requests for additional support for adults keep on coming in. We may have to increase that number to help more single women who have lost their husbands.”

Thank you for doing your part to help improve lives of those infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS in Ghana.

New Dawn Clinic

We wanted to officially introduce you to the New Dawn Medical Clinic, “The Chandaria Mji Wa Huruma Dispensary,” that Mocha Club helps support in Nairobi, Kenya.  The clinic is in partnership with New Dawn High School that we also help fund.  New Dawn serves the Huruma and Githogoro slums of Nairobi, Kenya.

background…

The people of Huruma village are largely descendants of farm hands who once worked the white-owned coffee farms that previously stood on this ground.  These same families are now essentially legal squatters on what is now government owned property.  Githogoro consists mainly of poor rural immigrants who came to Nairobi in search of a better future.  They settled in this government owned area, on which a highway bypass is now planned.  While the Kenyan government owns these properties and allows the poor people to live here, little has been done to provide basic human services such as a health center, a high school or roads.

Irene Tongoi, director of New Dawn, conducted a youth conference in these slums in 2004.  What she discovered was deep-seated hopelessness leading to high risk behaviors.  The root of this hopelessness is unemployment.  There were very few jobs in these communities, and the lack of basic education provided no hope of getting jobs elsewhere to provide a better life for these families.  Irene, a wife, mother, and former teacher, felt called to bring change and hope to this community.

Through New Dawn’s partnership with her church, African Leadership/Mocha Club, and others, Irene has worked to bring hope through annual medical camps, tailoring classes, tree seedling production, a youth sports ministry, and savings and loan initiatives.

the medical clinic…

New Dawn Clinic, which opened in late 2007, is the only provider of basic medical care services in these slums.  In addition to a City Council clinical officer, a volunteer medical director, and a volunteer nurse, New Dawn provides staffing of a nurse, an assistant nurse, a clerical assistant and a cleaner.  New Dawn is able to meet most of the needs in the community for basic health care services.  This work is done in conjunction with the Kenya government, who also provides many medicines to operate this clinic.

We are thankful to be able to help provide funds to operate the clinic, including the salaries of the nurse, an assistant nurse, a clerical assistant and a cleaner as well as medical supplies.  Thank you for doing your part!

New Dawn Clinic staff

The Mocha Club Experience: Starting November 1, 2009, Seattle Pacific University recent graduates Daniel “Skiff” Skiffington and Charlie “Char” Beck visit all of Mocha Club’s current projects in 7 countries and take Mocha Club supporters and friends on a three-month virtual adventure to experience real life in Africa. Stay tuned for regular updates!