Engage Magazine Article

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Swaziland: A Faithful Task Force

By Africa Region on Oct 7, 2010

When you spend a day making home visits with the HIV/AIDS Task Force, you never know what you are going to encounter. This organization provides home health care for individuals who are homebound due to their medical condition.
Around eight years ago, Cariot Shongwe had a vision for the people of the church. Because the hospitals were full and sick people could not travel to them, he dreamed that individuals could take care of the sick in their own communities. Two very special women -- Evelyn Shongwe (Cariot’s wife) and Mary Magagula (a retired nurse) -- responded.
At first, Mary and Evelyn went into the towns on their own. Many times they would sit in their car and cry because of what they had seen. They had had no idea there were such enormous needs surrounding them. Today the task force employs about 100 care supporters who check in on patients three times a week.

On this particular morning we started the journey with four in the car; soon 10 people were piled in the truck. I was in the back with three care supporters and Evelyn Shongwe, as well as clothing and food to feed a dozen families.
As the day came to a close, the shuffle of people, food and clothing in the car calmed down. Arriving at our last house, and not being able to drive the truck up the hill to the home, we parked at the bottom of the hill. As we hiked up the steep hill, the sunset cast an orange glow on the hill and sky. We passed a few one-room homes. Nothing representing growth was around, except a few weeds and a dog too weak to stand.

Soon we heard a baby’s cry. The cry was coming from our final destination. Out of the home came a mother so weak she had to sit. She was holding her sweet, helpless, crying baby girl. The closer we got, the easier it was to see the malnutrition of the baby and the mother (we will call her Nomsa). We would soon realize that simply touching the baby made her cry. Applying pressure to the skin moved fluid around the ripples of skin hanging from her body. As she cried you could hear wheezing and liquid in her lungs. She was hungry. Yet her mother was unable to feed her the way God intended, because she had no food for herself or her five other children.
As the mother spoke she rested her head in her hands, feeling hopeless. At the same time she tried to comfort the baby. Nomsa explained that the baby’s father had left her with their six children. He left her for another woman. He is HIV positive. As Nomsa attempted to breastfeed and comfort her baby, she said that the baby was a product of rape. She had been refusing sex from her husband because her status was negative and she did not want to chance bringing a sick child into the world.
Now he is gone, leaving Nomsa hungry and HIV positive. As Mary and Evelyn learned this information you could sense their compassion and empathy. In this case, as in many other cases, they advocate for their clients. Anxious to call, they obtained the father's phone number.

Before we prepared to leave, Mary called on my husband to pray over the situation. We showered our prayers of hope over God’s children, but I couldn’t help wondering if I was the only one at a loss of what to pray. Feeling stuck, I took in the surroundings. When I looked around, I was reminded of God’s faithfulness. I was surrounded by His faithfulness in the shape of these task force workers. God uses His children to be the hands and feet of Christ to others. What an honor to be alongside the task force as they extend Christ's love and compassion. I was suddenly overwhelmed with the beauty of the situation. Great is Thy faithfulness. Even in dark times.

After we said our goodbyes we walked back to the car in silence. Not one person in our group had seen a child in such a condition, including Mary and Evelyn. Getting in the car, I pushed aside the heads of lettuce that were given to us as gifts and smiled. In the midst of the task force attempting to meet needs of others, others were giving from their gardens to help meet our needs.

Day after day, Mary and Evelyn, along with the care supporters of the HIV/AIDS Task Force, travel across Swaziland -- mainly by foot -- to love those who are homebound. The care supporters are typically neighbors with their patients. Truly the task force is living out the commandment of loving their neighbor as themselves.