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[Back to index of November 2007 articles] Reaching Out to Bala's Beautiful Children By Karen Chane
In October 2006, when I last traveled visited South Africa with a group from the Diocese of Washington, we visited was the Siyaphila township’s home-based care project. Siyaphila is a relocation settlement of approximately 3,000 homes outside Johannesburg in the Anglican Diocese of the Highveld. There is no school in the township, and although there is a building for a health clinic, it has no equipment and no doctor. The name of the project’s home-based care worker is Beauty Bala. Isn’t Beauty an incredible name for a person who cares for others? She is an outspoken advocate for the people she serves and has often taken the bus (not an easy feat in this area) to government offices to speak out about the needs of her community. The government considers her an activist. For this reason, she did not receive any government funding for her project for the year. Bala herself is HIV positive, but continues to work tirelessly for others, operating a daycare center in a donated shipping container. Last year, Bala cared for 32 children, 20 of whom are orphans and most of whom are HIV positive. This year, that number has increased to around 60. There was even a set of triplets when we were there. A large number of these children are under the age of 3. The day we visited, we spent some time holding and loving these babies. You looked into their eyes and could see the illness there, but they held on so tight. Holding and loving, that was the easy part. When it was time to go, the hard part was putting them down. I will never forget the little one the Rev. John Peterson, Canon for Global Justice and Reconciliation at Washington National Cathedral was holding. He cried so hard every time John tried to put him down that we kept delaying our departure. I have pictures that we took, but these children are so much a part of my memory that I would never forget them even without the pictures. They have so little, but they do have the hope of knowing that someone cares if we can help in some small ways. The most important thing we can do is to help to feed them. Ten dollars a month will feed a child, formula costs $11 a month and the cost of feeding a 6-month-old baby is $23 a month. In order to prepare food for the children, Bala needs a four-plate electric stove ($353), three large cooking pots ($211) and a stainless steel urn ($85). The project needs funding for toiletries which cost $50 a month. This includes toothbrushes, toothpaste, Vaseline, diapers and soap. Bala dreams of taking her orphans and vulnerable children on an outing to a place where they can escape their daily lives, maybe to the zoo. The cost for this would be about $400. But can you imagine the fun they would have and the memories they would bring back? She has many other needs – little plastic chairs, small mattresses, books, toys, paints, scissors – they go on and on. If the children of this diocese save a few of their nickels and dimes over the four weeks of Advent to donate to this year’s Children 2 Children diocesan Advent project, I know we could do a lot for Bala and her beautiful children. If you would like to support this project, send a check payable to "Diocese of Washington" and earmarked "Children's Advent Project" to Cheryl Daves Wilburn at Episcopal Church House, Mount Saint Alban, Washington, D.C., 20016. [Back to index of November 2007 articles]
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