food need outweighs flashy headgear!

happy but hungry mentors

late last week i was able to bless two of our sports mentors with a wonderful gift that was donated from our latest team who visited us from the united states. the gift was a sports cap with built in flashlight which is not only a cool accessory, maz has one so as not to wake me when she is reading at night!, but will make such a difference for our two mentors as they struggle to complete their school homework in their dark and electricity free tin shack in the iraq informal settlement in grabouw.

delivering our life skills in iraq informal settlement today

the boys were very pleased to receive this gift but once i had presented them with their cool hats, see photo, they asked if there was any way that i could help them out as they didn't have any, yes any, food in their home for that evening meal..........it suddenly stuck me that although they received a $30 cap which would help them in the future their immediate need was to put some food on the table!

engaging with their peers, so cool!

as a charity thembalitsha don't encourage us to provide hand outs, we are seeking to provide new hope via empowering people to a place of self reliance but what could i do, what would you do?, leave the boys with a wonderful new cap but with empty stomachs?......no i took them into town and purchased a few tin cans of meat, some eggs, fresh milk, sugar and paraffin to lite the stove, God calls us to love our neighbours as ourselves and i couldn't face the thought of leaving them with nothing knowing that my cupboards were full of food and a nice cauliflower cheese bake that maz had made for me to microwave as she was out for the evening!

today those two same boys were back helping with our sports outreach, they told me that their hats were great and that they could now read some of the educational magazines i had left with them, and that their mother had received her pay cheque and they had some food for their family....at least for this week!