Hope Heals HIV/Aids Program in Swaziland – Helping to save lives and restore hope in times of severe drought and illness, Swaziland, South East Africa. Sylvia Khuzwayo (centre, above) of Hope Heals in Swaziland is a survivor of HIV, and one of South East Africa’s answers to Mother Theresa. Through her positivity, powerful nutritional healing capabilities and community building expertise, Ms. Khuzwayo is keeping those affected by the HIV virus alive and educated about their condition. But the current severe drought in Southern Africa has severely affected her team’s ability to grow food, leading to lost lives due to hunger.
Here is what has been going on, in Sylvia's
own words...
The Background Story
"We are still facing the serious drought situation and sadly we have lost lives already because of hunger. The water pumps in the communities have run dry, rivers are dry and water is so scarce now. The tankers that were selling water have been stopped. It is a real disaster and we lost 6 of our members recently through kidney problems and malnutrition. “I [Sylvia] am busy pushing messages of hope for people to hang in there, although I have run out of survival recipes for meals during difficult times that I usually share with the most vulnerable groups. The reason being that there is absolutely no food that can keep them going at the moment. “ 
The Dietary Needs “Maize is not a solution now as the people are severely malnourished and maize is too hard for their stomachs to digest. Experts now suggest that peanuts and sorghum are better as these have a much higher nutritional value than maize." "But yes, we as Hope Heals continue to give hope in these difficult times…”
The Drought
“Southern Africa is feeling the impact of an intense El Niño that began last year. According to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, continued below-average rainfall and high temperatures are likely to persist in 2016, with the food crisis lasting into 2017. As subsistence crops fail, and food prices increase, there will be a dramatic increase in malnutrition with the poor suffering the most. Direct effects such as marasmus and kwashiorkor in children will be exacerbated by indirect effect in terms of increased susceptibility to disease, especially for immune-compromised patients such as people living with HIV/AIDS.” http://allafrica.com/ - 14 Jan 2016 
The Hope “So it is Hope Heals’ wish and priority to revive the soup kitchen as it can save lots of lives in this situation. Even if the soup is provided once a day it can still save lots of lives, especially for the people on ARVs and TB medications. Whilst at the same time the soup kitchen will give us an opportunity to provide our health education covering life skills, positive living, adherence to care and treatment, and consistent condom usage to name a few.” 
The Soup “Our wish is to provide rehabilitating highly nutritious soup in our kitchen as the people are severely under-nourished. We intend to cook Bean & Peanut Butter Soup and Soya Mince & Veggie Soup. We will serve the soup with dried bread (croutons), as fresh bread can be a challenge for us to buy on daily basis and to keep fresh.” 
And so here is what we need to kick start this project... 1 X 25kg three-legged pot (serves 50 ppl) 50kg Beans 50kg Soya Mince 25kg Dried vegetables 25kg Peanut butter 20 litres Cooking oil 5kg Salt Bread Can YOU help us make soup and save lives? Sylvia needs only $5 Canadian Dollars per month to cover the cost of all the above in order for her to to feed life saving, nutritious food to 1 person.
Please donate below to help Sylvia save lives now...
Click here to donate using your PayPal account
No PayPal account? Click here to make a donation through CanadaHelps...
Thank you!
... and "Khotso Pula Nala" A Sesotho blessing meaning “Peace, Rain, Prosperity”
Report by Sylvia Khuzwayo and Mwana Bermudes
Blog post designed by Maria Lua
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