‘To provide spiritual, emotional and practical assistance to families affected by HIV & AIDS in the Mpophomeni area through the provision of home based care, family support with a focus on vulnerable children and residential care for terminally ill people.’
Ethembeni has four specific programmes at present, a residential care unit, a family support programme, the Mpophomeni Family Centre working with orphans and vulnerable children and the mentoring of community based organisations. Today our family support program provides a holistic intervention incorporating not only home based care for the sick but also food security, income generation and psychosocial support. On average, we visit 45 - 50 families a month totalling over 200 adults and children.
The residential care centre is notable because it is community based, unlike most other institutions providing similar services in the area. Four people can be accommodated and cared for at any one time. Average monthly occupancy rates sit above 90% - indeed an essential service to the community.
The Mpophomeni Family Centre, a drop-in facility, cares for 70 orphans and vulnerable children a day by providing meals, psycho-social support and structured play activities. The core values of these three programmes are simple, God’s love and hope. Since the inception of these ministries, we have worked with over 500 HIV infected families, directly benefiting more than 2000 people.
We believe in developing sustainable community based organisations (CBO’s), so we are intentionally mentoring two CBO’s. Our shared goal is sustainable resources which glorify God.
Breaking the silence – living hope
Dudu Zulu (pictured) discovered she was HIV positive in 2000 when she became gravely ill with meningitis. She was sad and angry with God. While sitting on her bed one day, she had a vision of a man with white trousers coming into her room, sitting on her bed, holding her hand and promising: “If you go out and talk about the black spots that dirty your body, then you will be healed.” Dudu had the same vision twice more in a week and this prompted her to ask her pastor if she could share the vision and her status with her church fellowship. She was afraid of being rejected yet the man in the vision stated: “Don’t look at the big crowd. Focus on the small group who are encouraging you.” Faithfully she shared for HIV positive status and her church responded with unconditional love. Today she is regularly challenged by the Holy Spirit to share her testimony. God has given her peace in her soul but not in her body as she expected. Dudu says: “It is amazing. God has a purpose for my life.”
Ethembeni volunteers cared for Dudu through our home based care visits in 2001. When she became well enough she attended Ethembeni sewing classes and completed a home based carer course in 2002. In 2003 Ethembeni employed her because Dudu was transformed into living hope – sharing and caring for all those suffering in the same position as her. Today, she is a faithful servant of Jesus and a dedicated Ethembeni Ministry champion!
A merely religious person, who believes God will favour him because of his morality and respectability, will usually have contempt for the outcast, “I worked hard to get where I am, and so can everyone else!” That is the language of the moralist’s heart. “I am only where I am by the sheer and unmerited mercy of God. I am completely equal with all other people.” That is the language of the Christian’s heart. When we see the HIV positive sick, the homeless, prostitutes, alcoholics, etc. we know that we are seeing ourselves. We may have lived respectable middle class lives, however we realise that spiritually we were just like these people. Physically and socially we may never have been where they are now, but spiritually we were outcasts just as they are, but by God’s grace we have been saved. A sensitive social conscience and a life poured out in deeds of mercy to the needy is the inevitable sign of a person who has grasped the doctrine of God’s grace. (Excerpts from Ministries of Mercy by Timothy J. Keller, 1997, PR Publishing, USA)
It is this new heart I pray for; Lord, that I would be so overcome with a deep understanding of your love for us that I would be set free to “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others” Phil 2:3-4.
We are family, my brother and sister and me!
These are the words of a popular pop song and yet unite us all at the Ethembeni Family Centre. Since 1st of July 2008, over 70 children, ranging from 6 months old to 19 years gather each day to share in family stories at the home of love in Mpophomeni. There is Jabu*, a little girl of 4, who loves to sing and dance (see picture of joyous celebrations). And she loves giving hugs to all visitors! Then there is Zimele*, a passionate 15 year old footballer who earned his “cromes” (soccer boots) by sanding down the windows and doors of the centre. There is Zama*, who writes poetry and whose only family is all of us at the centre. Many tears were shed when Sindi*, who came to the centre after it was discovered she was suffering abuse at her home, was placed in a foster home. Prayer is a part of our everyday activity and we celebrate each meal by saying grace and giving thanks to God for all He provides. (*All names changed.)Together, we share in life each day. The key value connecting us is family. Please pray for love to be shared amongst our family. That grace and joy would fill the family centre and all of its’ people.
Will you join us today and become a “family builder?”
Choose from the following options:
- Pray for Ethembeni’s ministry
- Join us as a volunteer for a period of time: come and serve for a month or a year.
- Hold a fundraiser in aid of Ethembeni
- Donate once off and regularly e.g.
o R100/$10/€10 buys 3 food packs for a family each month
o R10 000/$1000/€1000 supports 5 care workers and their families for a month
For more information please contact:
Ministry Director: Grant Edkins email: director@ethembeni.co.za
Mother Theresa volunteer inspiration:
Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.
We must find each other!
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