Swaziland UPDATE

I've been terrible at keeping up this blog while here in Africa - for that I apologize. We run all our video updates and blogs through facebook, or The Sound of Hope website. However, I do realize there are a some of you out there who only follow our work through this blog. So, for you special few - I am posting this blog. In the future, I would encourage you to click on this link and enter in your email address so that you'll get updates through our SOH website. Ericka's much better at keeping that page up to date with the all the latest.

In the meantime, I want to share a some videos we put together over the last few weeks. The first two have to do with our Children's Library project. As some of you may know - our goal is to start a children's library in every home we serve. So that's two homes in Thailand, three in India, and our carepoint here in Swaziland.

Thanks to our generous donors - we were able to establish our first library here in Nsoko, Swaziland.

Nsoko Children's Library - Part 1 from The Sound of Hope on Vimeo.


Nsoko Children's Library - Part 2 from The Sound of Hope on Vimeo.

To invest in this project and help us establish libraries in India and Thailand - give HERE.

During our time in Nsoko we also checked on two other projects we heavily invested in this past year, the community garden, and school fees.  

Last summer we made a rather large investment into a community garden project here at the carepoint. The vision for this garden is two-fold, we want families from the community to have an opportunity to grow their own vegetables to eat, AND sell the surplus in the market. So not only will this project provide food during a time when prices are high, BUT it will provide a source of income for families living in a community with 70% unemployment.

The second half of this vision involves the hundreds of kids who eat at the carepoint each day. Mostly all they get is maize meal, and beans. The garden will be a source of fresh vegetables, which is a big deal because a lot the children are HIV positive. So it's very important that they have a diet high in nutrition.

The field has been plowed, the irrigation system is in place and the seedlings will be planted soon. We got a ton of video and pictures and we'll be bring you an update soon. 

In the meantime, I want you all to see how excited the kids are to get fresh fruits and vegetables. One day we picked up some apples and brought them to the carepoint. It's crazy to see how excited the kids get over one apple.

an apple a day... from The Sound of Hope on Vimeo.

This garden project is a hand UP, not a hand OUT. To be a part of empowering people in Nsoko, Swaziland click HERE and give toward our garden project.

Moving on to school fees... 

During the first few weeks of this year we were fortunate enough to give a large donation toward school fees. In Swaziland, school is VERY expensive, and many kids and their families are not able to afford them. 

This year, thanks to a large year-end gift, we put 112 kids in school! It was amazing to spend time in the community and talk with several families and students who were impacted by this donation. We spent hours filming and documenting this story. Our goal is to set up a continuous fundraiser for school fees. As excited as we are to help so many go to school, we know that next year this need will still exist.

As you can see, we've had an extremely busy few weeks. The last couple days we have been taking it easy in Nelspruit, South Africa. We leave Africa Thursday and land in Atlanta Friday.

Again, I'm sorry for the lack of blogging, but I do encourage you to click this link and sign up for blog updates directly from our Sound of Hope website. If you have any problems doing this - simply send me an email and I'll get you set up!