Kutwanana

Kutwanana is a ministry in South Mozambique. We are going to work with them to build a home in March 2007 with a team of volunteers from the US. Grace and Patrick Mulenga are pastors of a church in Maputo and founders of Kutwanana, a home health care ministry.




We are excited to partner with them in this work. They have a school in their church of 60 students, 50 of which are orphans. There is a need to take many more children, but they need more teachers before they do. We will be helping them with crafts and games for the children the week we are there. Here is a look at the kind of house we will build.

Here is a brief overview of their orphan work:
"There are two people who head the orphan project, Mr. Domingo and I. Our joint responsibility is to look out to the needs of the orphans in our care. We work together with Kutwanana’s volunteers to make sure that the children:
Ø Have enough food in their homes and if not, making them part of the food distribution program.
Ø Giving uniforms at the beginning of a school year to those who can’t afford to buy.
Ø Taking those who are sick to the hospital, and monitoring those who have AIDS. For example making sure that those who are under ARVs are taking them correctly.
Ø Visiting the orphans at their homes so that they know that we are there for them when
they are in need.
Ø There are any orphans who could not get into school we make them a part of our community school.
Ø Making sure that they have the required documents to go to school and encouraging them to attend school


Here are some pictures of some of their orphans:

Many of the orphans they oversee live with grandmothers or neighbors or caregivers. They have 5 orphan headed households with no adults. They are looking for places to build more houses if donors will support this work. They are in contact with 268 orphans, but have enough to regualarly help only 60 with food, school uniforms and fees.

We just got this letter from Shula, the 21 year old daughter of the director:

"Hey
Its one in the morning, cant sleep. Figured I must write you an email and tell you how I really am doing. I don't know about you, but there is something soothing that I find in writing.
I am struggling, another one of my kids died about 10 days ago and it hurts, it hurts real bad. I wake up in the middle of the night and my heart wants to cry, needs to cry but I push everything in, I hate crying. I need your prayers cos sometimes the pain is more than I can bare…I loved her, she was positive and for a while I even thought that maybe I could adopt her and look after her myself. This year I knw I will meet even more kids like her, daily I have to face the fact that some of the kids I see all the time will die soon… I wish God would just for a moment give you my heart so that you could understand my pain. I love my kids. So in the moment of my weakness I am turning to you and imploring you to please remember me and pray for me. There are a lot of things I am involved in and I love them all, but sometimes I sit and think, Father I am only 21… this is too much, and yes his grace has always been enough. I have cried my way through writing this email, tomorrow I will wake up with a headache, but for now all that matters is I have healed a small part of my heart."

If you would like to help with these orphans - join the team going there in March, donate to them, send them letters of encouragement... write me at orphanhope@onlinemac.com God Bless. Dan