The Shoebox Village

The Shoebox Village

Nestled in the central highlands of Swaziland is the ‘shoebox village’ of Kaphunga, which today plays host to the first distribution of shoeboxes ever to be streamed live on the web.

This event is actually a celebration of what has happened in Kaphunga over the past 2 years – a period which has changed the lives of the area’s 3,000 inhabitants for the better. In fact, many of the children walking home with shoeboxes in hand will have already received an even greater gift through the work of Samaritan’s Purse – the gift of hope for the future.

A community in crisis

In a country with the highest rate of HIV/AIDS in the world, it was no surprise for Samaritan’s Purse to find that many of Kaphunga’s problems stemmed from this massive issue: Children forced to care for dying parents, children too busy working the land to attend school, children left to care for siblings on their own.

Mothers were also struggling to find ways of supporting themselves and their families – especially pressing when the father has died or abandoned them. With most families living below the poverty line, answers were not easy and solutions far from simple.

That was the situation when Samaritan’s Purse first arrived in Kaphunga back in 2010. It was heartbreaking, but hope was on its way…

What’s already in your hand?

Instead of focusing our efforts on giving handouts to these poor families, Samaritan’s Purse took a different approach. We identified 6 local churches in the area and asked them two important questions:

1)    “What should you be doing for those in need on your doorstep?”
2)    “What do you already have in your hand to help them?”
 
From these two questions – part of a powerful 18-month training programme - a group of six local churches has sprung up, inspired to care for the poor and vulnerable in their community and to do it using the local resources they already have.

One group of church volunteers raised funds to buy chickens and build a chicken coup. The result? An egg selling business that supports widowed mothers so they can send their children to school. Another woman, Jane, set up a beekeeping project with the help of the local church. She now sells honey and provides income for orphaned children who are looking after siblings.

“Even if you have just the clothes on your back you can keep bees” Jane says. “Every time I get stung, I let that remind me of the pain of poverty that our children suffer daily in our community.”

As a result of the efforts of these local churches – and inspirational women like Jane – the lives of around 120 families in Kaphunga have been changed for the better. That’s almost 1 in 3 families in that area who’ve been touched by our work.

Reaching a nation

At Samaritan’s Purse, we have an ambitious vision for Swaziland – we want to bring hope to a nation. Over the next 3 years, we want to reach 121,000 hurting people across Swaziland through the local Church – meeting their physical, emotional and spiritual needs.

In the coming years, we want there to be lots of other ‘shoeboxes villages’ – places that can celebrate the life-changing work we’ve done with the arrival of shoeboxes. But right now they are just ‘villages’ – villages with people who are hungry, who are suffering, who need hope.

Will you join with us to spread hope to other parts of Swaziland? Just £8 could help us ensure the children in a child-headed home are cared for by the local church.

Please consider being part of this exciting work by giving to our HOPE Swaziland programme today.