Local Church Helps Fight Aids In South Africa
WCPO News
May 24, 2007

A local church is teaming up with women from South Africa to help fight AIDS.Volunteers are launching a program called “Beaded Hope.”

Visitors from the country are in Cincinnati this week to help showcase the jewelry that will be sold to raise money for an holistic health center in Mamelodi, South Africa.

The health center was at first used as a hospice where people went to die, but now that medical supplies can be purchased with funds raised from “Beaded Hope,” people are getting well and going home.

“At the moment we don’t have resources. We don’t have funds from anywhere. So, the only way we can run the hospice is through donations and people buying the beads,” said Peggy Joloza of Mamelodi, South Africa.

The jewelry is being sold for $5 to $50. You can make a purchase by going online to the “Beaded Hope” website. Click the link on this page for more information.

Check out the online article here.

After my first trip to Mamelodi people always asked “what was the most significant thing that you experienced?” Certainly I could have answered: the devastation that AIDS has caused, the poverty, the hunger, the broken families. It’s true, these things did impact me but the answer I always gave was an unexpected one: “the music.”

For South Africans music is an integral part of their culture, their life and their soul. When South Africans gather in song it raises the roof; it is nothing short of inspirational.

You have the rare opportunity to experience the Sound and Songs from South Africa on Sunday, May 20th at 6:00 pm. Hospice of Cincinnati is hosting a free concert at Crossroads that will include the Charity and Faith Worship Team from Mamelodi, South Africa and the Christ Emmanuel Worship team from Cincinnati. All the profits from the event will benefit the Bophelong Hospice in Mamelodi.

Oh, one more thing. Beaded Hope will be a featured vendor at this event with 100% of the profits that we raise going to the Bophelong Hospice!

Not only do we get to dance with our friends from Mamelodi but we also get to welcome them into our homes!

On May 17th over 30 people from Mamelodi, South Africa will be arriving in Cincinnati as part of Host Cincinnati. THREE people from the Beaded Hope team (on the South Africa side) will be coming to Cincinnati and we couldn’t be more excited!

While here they will be serving in the community of Cincinnati (through GO Cincinnati), participating in many Crossroads events, performing at the hospice benefit (you just read about that!), having some fun, and living in community with us.

For the Beaded Hope team member we can’t wait to show them the new website, our retail spaces and even work on developing a few new products.

So, get ready to extend a welcome to our awesome partners from South Africa!

Jabulile, one of our beadwork artists, lost her mother to HIV last October. In April, she also lost her brother to the disease. It’s a part of life in South Africa. It’s also an opportunity for Beaded Hope to make a difference.

Beaded Hope made a donation to Jabulile and her family to help out with funeral expenses. It’s one small way that we can let Jabulile know that we care about her.

Beaded Hope will continue to make donations when any of our team members loses a loved-one to HIV. It’s policy now and you have helped us make this happen.

Thank you.

We need your help. Beaded Hope currently needs only $600 to completely cover the expenses to launch our new website. With your financial help we can successfully launch our new website and really begin blessing the community of Mamelodi!

We know we’ve asked before (and we thank everyone who has already donated!) but we really need to ask again. But raising the money to lauch the website (rather than taking it from sales) we are able to do things like bless Jabulile in her time of need.

Donations can be ANY size . And, like my husband always says, “every little bit helps, it all adds up!”

So, please, make a donation. Make a difference. Bless the community of Mamelodi.

Often times you hear people lament that one person just can’t make a difference. And, often times, you see people with this attitude resign themselves to this fact. I think they’re wrong. I believe one person can make a difference. And, to further this thought, I believe it’s my responsibility to seek out ways to make a difference.

On our last trip to South Africa Grace, one of our beadwork artists was excited to show us the new watch that she was purchasing for her son. I say purchasing because she was paying each month so that she could have the watch paid for in time to give it to her son for Christmas. She was so proud of him and how hard he was working that she wanted to reward him with this generous gift.

Over the course of the week we discovered that Grace did not have a watch herself. Her ARV regiment (the medications she takes to fight HIV) required that she take her medicine at precisely 9:00 am and 9:00 pm. If she didn’t take her medicine at exactly this time then the virus would have the opportunity to attack her system.

On our last day in South Africa Mark and I gave Grace our travel alarm clock. Mark patiently showed her how to set the alarm for 9:00 am and 9:00 pm so that Grace wouldn’t miss taking her ARVs. Tears streamed down her face as we gave her this simple $4 alarm clock that I impulsively picked up at Target before we left.

We made a difference.

I share this story with you not to boast about what we did but to illustrate the fact that whoever said one person can’t make a difference is absolutely, completely, totally wrong. We have been lulled into complacency by believing that our actions won’t make a difference. But I believe that we are called to do this very thing: make a difference one person at a time.