Hearts and hands overseas

While on a monitoring visit to Bagong Silang Corps (church) in the Philippines this year, I met a 27-year-old, recently widowed mother of three.

When I asked why her six-year-old son wasn’t in school, I was told it was his job to look after his younger siblings while Mum tried to earn enough money to provide for them. I protested, saying I would pay for the boy to attend school, only to be asked, ‘But then what would happen to his siblings?’ One of the older women I met asked if it would be possible to receive adult sponsorship. Why? She simply wanted to be able to visit the doctor once a year!

My visit brought home to me just how difficult life is without social welfare. I wonder if we appreciate what it is like to live with no income whatsoever—and no welfare benefits? Do we realise what it means to be reliant on others’ good will, or to be forced to beg to survive?

Development aid is a small investment that generates huge returns. As part of The Salvation Army New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga, here are some ways that YOU and our various partners (including the New Zealand Government and overseas Salvationists) are fighting poverty, hunger and educational inequality in vulnerable communities around the world:

Mali: we provide food to a prison for women and young men, street children in three communities, a disabled women’s group, solo mums, and other vulnerable people living on the streets. This is a two-year programme. As a result of this food programme, the prison has asked us to informally visit as chaplains.

Guwahati, Northern India: we provide daily hot meals to 40 children from the Ghandi Bosti squatter’s community as they gather in a makeshift classroom. If these children were not in class, they would be scavenging for food or in danger from human trafficking predators active in the slums. We also provide nutrition training for these squatter families twice a year. The Indian Government does not recognise this community, so provides no sewerage or electricity.

Asingan School, the Philippines: we are funding six years of schooling for 10 children (increasing to 15 next year) whose parents live below the poverty line in slums. This is the first school scholarship programme in the Philippines.

Metro Manila, the Philippines: we are providing a hot meal at Bangong Silang Corps each week for a month (for three months) to 30 widows and elderly people. There are 90 people on the roll but with a lack of facilities, we can only cater for 30 at a time. The remaining 90 receive snacks when it is not their month for a meal

Tanzania and Malawi: we are providing bikes for new Salvation Army officers so they can visit their people and work in their communities. This saves hours of travel time and means the lieutenants can minister to more people. This year, we are planning on providing bikes for newly-commissioned officers in Kenya West.

In January, The Salvation Army received a grant from the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s International Development Fund to run a WORTH microfinance and empower-ment project, run in partnership with the Women’s Ministry Department in Kenya West. Because of this, we are now offering literacy, micro-credit and health training to 8000 women in rural villages around Kakamega, Kenya. They meet in groups of 25 to receive education and training so they can commence ‘village banks’ (micro-credit schemes). They are also able to take out loans to start small income-generating activities.   

Funding for the WORTH project continues until the end of this year. Already, women have been able to pay for some of their children to return to school, and they no longer have to beg from neighbours and friends for food to survive. Some of the older women have received literacy education for the first time, which is strengthening their self-esteem and future prospects. One woman says she has even saved enough to buy a dress for herself for the first time in her life.

Thank you for your support of The Salvation Army’s many overseas development projects. You are making a difference in many people’s lives!

For more information on these or other projects, please contact Overseas Development Officer Major Vyvyenne Noakes, e:vyvyenne_noakes@nzf.salvationarmy.org, p: (04) 528 8628