EM visited Thekerani, Africa, in September 2007.  On this trip we met with chiefs, headsmen and teachers of that village.  We found that the people are suffering greatly from the AIDS pandemic and malaria.  Many of their middle aged people have contracted HIV/AIDS and have died. AIDS is often contracted due to circumstances they have been forced to live in while trying to obtain resouces to suvive. So far, over 20,000,000 people have died from this global pandemic.  The surveys show that the death rate is the same as the number of people that can be carried on one 747 airplane dying every day. If a 747 were to crash everyday the world would take note, and we are getting this same number of casualties a day due to AIDS. 

 

10 ladies in Thekerani have started a community based organization, CBO, called Thandizo, meaning "Let's help" in their language. There were 150 orphaned children that Thandizo group is helping that EM met. These ladies also shared that there were a reported 7,000 orphans in their area that have been identified by headsmen.  Headsmen are part of the organized government of the village serving alongside the chiefs.

 

We visited huts that were orphan's homes.  Many had grandmothers in their late 60's and early 70's raising as many as 18 orphans left to them from the tragic death of their children from AIDS.  They call AIDS “the cough of death" there. They still have alot of ignorance as to what causes this disease, therefore, it continues to spread.  Thekerani also had people suffering from malaria. Some caregivers were so weak from these two diseases that they could hardly stand alone without others supporting them, much less care for the orphans that they were left with. 

 

There are water drill holes (wells) in Thekerani, but not enough water for crops to flourish.  Without water to irrigate crops, there was not enough food for the community. Thandizo's highest priority in September was to get goats for the orphans. In Africa, goats are a life sustaining asset and also status within the community. The goats raised provide you with milk, meat, and clothing. Kibble Ngalauka and Ephriam Likupha are the Trustees for EM and Thandizo CBO. They will teach caregivers and orphans agricultural skills and also how to care for goats.  EM and Thandizo also plan to help develop day care for orphans who are not school age and to supply funds for school fees for the other orphans. Additionaly, there are plans to get clothing and mats/blankets for the children. Our trustees Kibble Ngalauka has a PHD in Medicine and Business, and Ephriam Likupha has a PHD in Agricultural Engineering.

 

Upon our return to America, EM wired Thandizo enough funding to buy goats for 130 orphans. We had collected this funding as a goal before we left to investigate.  Kibble recently sent in a professional surveyor to Thekerani to make records and develop the plans for this year's endeavors and goals there. We now have verified and documented the need and numbers for goats, clothing, school fees, blankets, hut repair, a dam for creating a pond to water the crops and stock with fish, a maize mill, a day care, and trauma and crisis recovery counseling which also includes training teachers and the Thandizo CBO, and the materials required for that training.

 

EM's investigation team, Sue Gassler, President; Joyce, Haines , Secretary; Alex Laso, Cross Cultural Director; and Jeff Gassler, Technical Director were able to build a bridge of love, help, and hope for the future with the Thekerani people.  We met with the local school teachers who assured us that they also needed emotional recovery training for them to help the orphans. We will be assisting them with that training.  We are also creating emotional recovery coloring books to assist the African orphans and will train the teachers and Thandizo CBO with them to help restore the orphans to a state of good emotional health.  They have suffered so much tragedy and loss as a result of this AIDS pandemic and Malaria epidemic without counseling help in place for them.

 

Finally, EM will be a conduit to send college students from California to Malawi as interns to assist Kibble in physical therapy and recovery for malaria patients. These patients have Cerebral Palsy from the ravages of the Malaria epidemic. The patients in rehab are infants and young children. In addition, EM will also be seeking assistance from pharmaceutical companies in order to obtain drugs for other children in Malawi that are under treatment because they are suffering from Asthma and Epilepsy. They do not have avenues for obtaining them at this time. We will be appealing directly to companies who manufacture these drugs and give charitably to humanitarian relief.