Dateline ACT

South Africa 02/04

Neighbors put faith into action

by Stephen H. Padre, ACT International

South Africa, May 10, 2004--When offering humanitarian assistance in emergency situations, the global alliance Action by Churches Together (ACT) International uses a grassroots approach, responding through local members. ACT's members are churches, related agencies and organizations with offices, congregations and personal connections in cities, towns, villages and neighborhoods. In South Africa and neighboring Swaziland, as well as many other places, local networks and community connections are an important way for the ACT members in these countries to provide for the needs of families and individuals.

In a small clearing squeezed into fields of maize in the southeast lowland areas of Swaziland, Marah Mzileni makes her home. In December 2003, a sudden storm swept through the area and destroyed her house.

Mzileni was able to stay with neighbors until a tent made from tarpaulin stretched over a log frame could be set up for her to live in. As she cooked her lunch over a fire outside the temporary tent one day in late February, Mzileni waited for some young men who lived nearby to come and help her construct her new home with building materials supplied by Lutheran Development Service, an ACT member. Contributions from ACT members around the world enabled LDS to purchase materials and respond to the December storms through nearly US$47,000 in Rapid Response funds.

As she stood between two wooden posts that were soon to frame her new front door, with a volunteer worker looking on, Mzileni said, "I'll be happy when the house is rebuilt."

In northeastern South Africa, a couple hundred kilometers from Mzileni's home, in the village of Lulekani, which means "well-settled," the situation among many families is everything but settled. A group of pastors gathered one morning to talk about the serious challenges they and members of their parishes deal with.

The pastors all work for churches that are members of the South African Council of Churches (SACC), which is in turn a member of ACT. When the SACC responds to emergencies in South Africa, with support from and on behalf of ACT members, it utilizes parishes and their pastors on the local level as a key way of reaching individuals. Because churches are present in nearly every community, they have easy and direct access to people and know what their needs are. Churches are also motivated by their mission and faith to know their neighbors and care for them.

The pastors, who lead parishes which are all close to each other and which belong to various denominations, are on the front lines of dealing with the impact of HIV/AIDS in members' families and the community. Most funerals conducted these days are for people who have died of AIDS, they said.

"Ninety percent of the time [in families], the breadwinner gets sick," said Gee Mathebula of the Apostolic Faith Mission. The pastors said their parishes have a strategy of intervening in these situations to see that the children are cared for.

There are other challenges as well. "HIV, drought and poverty - these are interrelated," said Eric Ngobeni of the Worshippers Church. "When there is drought upon the land, those things are made worse." Across southern Africa, a prolonged drought has prevented small farmers from growing crops for nearly the past four years, which has resulted in food shortages in many areas. "For the poorest of the poor, it becomes worse," he said.

Mathebula described the situation of one family in his parish. The mother is HIV-positive and is so ill that she cannot walk - only crawl, he said. The youngest of her five children is also ill with the virus. Mathebula's parish provides funds to help two of the children with some living expenses. They visit his church regularly asking for help, he said. "We had to talk to the school principal to allow them to stay there without paying school fees," he said.

The pastors see the role of churches as central. "We are bound to help with everything from food to clothes to writing a letter to the principal to allow children to stay in school," said Ngobeni.

The members of the ACT alliance rely on neighborly networks like these in southern Africa and elsewhere for compassionate responses to the destruction disasters cause. This is the essence of the alliance - neighbors helping neighbors on a local level and, on a global level, action by churches together.

This Dateline is part of a series on the drought in southern Africa.

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