We have been called as Area Welfare Specialist. Which means, there are 8 Humanitarian Couples who are working in various countries in South Africa, who are doing what we did in Ukraine. It is their responsibility to find projects and partner organizations and then send proposals to the Area Welfare Specialist in Johannesburg. (Elder and Sister Kinghorn). Our job is to review the projects that come in from Uganda, Ethiopia, Burundi, Tanzania, Gabon, Lubumbashi, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda. Once we review the projects we send them to our Area Welfare Manager for approval. The Major Initiatives, which include, Water Projects, Neonatal Resuscitation, Wheelchair Projects, Immunizations, and Vision Projects all require a 9 step approval process, finally ending up in Salt Lake for approval. The smaller projects which are called Area Initiatives, are approved at the Area Office. The Area Initiatives here in South Africa are projects that help non-governmental agencies such as schools, orphanages, or hospitals. We recently built a bread oven in a refugee camp.
Once a week we have a meeting with our Area Welfare Manager and discuss some of the proposed projects that have come into our office during the past week and review the progress of ongoing projects. What I have learned, is that the church is very involved in providing relief all over South Africa. One of the major projects has been providing clean water. Not only is it crucial to have clean water to prevent disease, but the village wells provide safety for the women. We have discovered that women and young girls walk up to 6 miles one way two or three times a day to get water for their families. In some instances young girls are sent alone and have been assaulted along the path. So building the wells in the villages has not only provided clean water but safety for the villagers as well.
There are orphaned children all over Africa as a result of the Aids epidemic and the turbulence between countries. I learned about a young newlywed couple who have taken in over 60 orphaned children. I have learned about places where children live without parents and sleep on dirt floors with no mattresses We have developed projects in schools to not only provide clean water and latrines but to teach hygiene as well. I have learned that children in many schools sit on dirt floors and attend school in shifts because there are not enough classrooms for all the children to attend at the same time. We have purchased desk or chairs for classrooms or other needed supplies. We have built hand washing stations and latrines in schools.
On a more personal level I have seen the effects of poverty in my own ward (congregation) and neighborhood here in South Africa. In my ward, one young man walked to church last week in his socks because he had no shoes. One mother in our ward has seven children but she has had to send some to live with relatives because she can't afford to feed them all. This past week my ward had to cancel their trip to the Temple because they couldn't afford the transportation cost, which is the equivalent of $60.00, to rent the mini van for a group of members to travel approximately 35 miles. Each day when we return home from the Area Offices we are approached by beggars on the street who tie a black garbage bag around their necks and offer to take the trash from your car in exchange for a rand or two, which is the equivalent of ten or twenty cents.
This mission is different for us because we have daily contact with other couples who are serving missions, whereas in Ukraine we only had contact with the Mission President and his wife or the office couple. This mission as Area Welfare Specialist is similar to our mission in Ukraine in that we have the same goal, "to relieve the suffering of the poor and needy" just as we did in Ukraine. I love this quote from our Prophet, Thomas S. Monson.
"Not only by precept did Jesus teach, but also by example. . . He stretched forth his hand that others might be lifted. . . Unaltered is the divine command to succor the weak and lift up the hands which hang down and strengthen the feeble knees. Each of us has the charge to be. . . a doer. . . lifter. . . There are those within the sphere of our own influence who, with outstretched hands, cry out: ‘Is there no balm in Gilead…?’ Each of us must answer" (Thomas S. Monson, "With Hand and Heart," Ensign, Jan 1995, 2)"
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