Swaziland: Help 50 orphans become future leaders

Our big news for this report is that Ten Years ago in March 2004, New Hope Centre was born. New Hope Centre will celebrate our 10 year anniversary March 28^th-30^th.  We want this to be a time of joy, hope and celebration for all of the orphans we have been working with across Swaziland for the past several years. The weekend will begin on Friday with the arrival of 400 double orphans from around the country along with 40 youth leaders and 40 teachers who will accompany them.Saturday, March 29th at 2pm, the official event will take place with Deputy Prime Minister Chief Arliamentariana. The orphans (both mother and father have died) who will be attending will be camping in tents at NHC. They will leave with clothings and supplies they need for survival. The kids from NHC have been personally working with these orphans for several years now, so this will be a culmination of their efforts.

Your generosity continues to make an enormous impact on the lives of the kids of New Hope Centre. It has made dreams possible for education and even the normal activities of teenagers taking on the skills of adulthood such as driving. I'd like to tell you about Philippa. For several years now she has felt called to become a medical doctor. She was a double orphan when she came to us. From the beginning, she has demonstrated wisdom, courage and intelligence. She attended the South Africa All Africa School Convention for students from all over Africa. This year she was accepted tinto Penryn College, one of the top five colleges in South Africa. She has already started there. If it had not been for you and people like you she never could have gotten the foundation of the basics: nurturing, training, education, food, clothing and shelter. Her story is just one of many that should give you joy as you see that you can and did make a difference. Thank you.

Our teachers continue to attempt to keep the curriculum up to date and up to standards so that when our kids have completed their education at New Hope Centre they will be prepared to move seemlessly into other schools. One of our teachers, Tracie Hynd, has put together a very unique curriculum that focuses on integrating daily living skills with didacting learning. Since Swaziland is a desparately poor nation, many of the students will go on to rather primitive villages with few of the amenities with which you are familiar such as washing machines and electricity. So, in addition to preparing our youth for scholastic achievement that will equip them to moving into positions of leadership in the country, they will also have to be at home with washing clothes on a washboard. Ms. Hynd has been instrumental in helping these children to integrate high scholastic achievment with primitive living conditions in a way that will assist others in their communities to reach higher.

We want to acknowledge our debt of gratitude to you for making this past ten years possible and extend an invitation to come and visit us sometime to see firsthand the fruits of your investment in the lives of our beautiful children.

You are special to us,

Cherry Brandstater, Project Coordinator

Links:

• Official New Hope Centre Website

In a little over a year you have contributed more than $50,000 to New Hope Centre. Your contributions have been the life blood to this home of refuge for the fifty orphans of Swaziland sheltered within our walls. We are more than an orphanage; we are a family. Each child has been given a new name, a family name: Abraham. They have a sense of belonging and community and think of each other as brothers and sisters. Within this family they have developed an identity and have been given the hope for bright futures.

With your help we have provided the infrastructure for these children to pursue their individual gifting and dreams. Some are clearly equipped to go on to professional careers. One of our older kids has been accepted into a school where she will direct her education toward becoming a medical doctor. She has felt called toward this path for several years and now is on track to actually begin working toward a degree.

Within the past month one of our sponsors has given another student all of the fees necessary for him to begin training toward his commercial pilot’s license. He has already attained his civil aviation security pass. This was an incredible boost to his possibilities that would not have been possible without the support of people like you.

Some of our kids will take their places in the agricultural and farming industries within our country. One of our older students has attended a training center where he will learn how to manage chickens. He will be able to come back to New Hope Centre and apply those skills toward helping us to become more self-supporting as well. When he reaches adulthood he will be able to go out and run his own business. Along these same lines it is our goal to create a dairy industry here at New Hope Centre, both for the purpose of creating a stream of income and as a training tool for practical skills. You may hear from us regarding this project later.

We continue to educate the children in the history and culture of their surroundings. Recently, one of our students was able to travel to Table Mountain and Robyn Island where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated for 27 years of his life. When she returned we had the opportunity to discuss the implications of this powerful role model for our kids. One of our girls has a strong desire to work with the victims of human trafficking. She was given the marvelous opportunity to go to Cambodia and learn from a center that has been successful in retraining women into other skills.

The students continue to pursue sports and fine arts as they remain in training for swimming competitions, dance, piano and other instrumental lesions. We recently obtained the funds to get our own swimming pool functional and received a donation of Fast Track equipment that allows our swimmers to train right here at home. The skills they are learning in their chosen disciplines do not go to waste. All of our students have rich opportunities to share theses skills by performing for others and providing the inspiration that it is possible to overcome the adversity that has darkened this land. They have become beacons of light to hundreds of other kids throughout our nation that they, too, can be survivors, overcomers and conquerors.

Thank you, once again, for believing in New Hope Centre. Thank you for continuing to provide the sustenance that gives life to the goals we laid out to you in this project. Of course, this includes the basics of providing love, nurturing relationships, safety, on-site education, life-disciplines, food, clothing and shelter. These necessities of life provide the springboard for all of the enrichment we’ve shared with you in this update. Without this, without you, we could not continue. Our needs are on-going; we are so grateful that your generosity is as well.

We pray that you will receive a hundred fold blessing from what you have invested this year into the lives of these precious children.

With gratitude,

Cherry Brandstater

Project Coordinator

Links:

• New Hope Centre Website