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Your stories: Jewels of Hope
Hi there,
My name is Anita Rushton, from Ladybrand, South Africa. HIV/AIDS hit our family personally when in May 2004, Tsidi, a long-term friend of ours, was diagnosed HIV positive. We fast realized that even though there are billboards and warnings all around us, we actually knew nothing about HIV/AIDS. In a quest to find out more, my husband, Ian, and I attended a life-changing workshop presented by CABSA [Christian AIDS Bureau for Southern Africa]. The dream of CABSA is to see the Church respond and become a caring and active community in the field of HIV/AIDS. We decided to be trained as facilitators for this specific workshop of church mobilization.
During this training, the Lord highlighted the plight of 'child-headed households' and in response he birthed the idea of Jewels of Hope, which trains orphaned children in jewelry making, markets the product, and thereby creates an income generation for them that is both safe and legitimate while they are able to continue their schooling. We like to see it as an 'urban food security' program as in the urban townships the children need capital to survive.
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15 million AIDS orphans in Africa. We must stop AIDS.
The HIV/AIDS pandemic is history's greatest humanitarian crisis. Stopping it has become a race against time. With a worldwide, grassroots network, the Church is critical to the mission of ending AIDS.
At the annual Global Summit on AIDS and the Church, Rick and Kay Warren, along with Wess Stafford, president, Compassion International; Dennis Rainey, president, FamilyLife and FamilyLife's Hope for Orphans; Bishop Charles E. Blake, founder of Save Africa's Children; and many other pastors, key leaders, and top experts, will equip and inspire your church for action. You will receive practical tools to help begin or strengthen your HIV/AIDS involvement, both at home and globally.
Get in the race today. Learn more >> | Complete speaker list >> |
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Jewels of Hope head office offers training and support to churches and organizations that are planning to or already caring for orphans. We see ourselves as being able to offer a tool to these folk to offer discipleship and income generation in their local area.
Our ideal scenario is to work within cell-based churches where the children can be absorbed into the life of the church but as we all know the 'ideal' is not always available. We know that ultimately the greatest difference we can make in the lives of these precious children is where they spend their eternity!
God has blessed the project way beyond our wildest expectations. There are now 10 different centers in the interior of South Africa and Lesotho that are now running Jewels of Hope projects with 180 children involved and benefiting from the projects. The children attend the projects weekly where they hear the Gospel, learn new skills, are fed a hearty meal, and are trained in basic life skills, and once the project is functioning well are able to earn an income to keep their households viable.
Together with Tsidi, we conduct HIV/AIDS workshops in our community, mobilizing Christians to make an active response to the HIV/AIDS crisis. Tsidi very bravely discloses her status and has a real heart to reach out with her story and save lives and bring comfort and courage to those already ill. She is a very brave lady who is a challenge to all who know her!
Our family is active in a local church called Christian Revival Church. We directly work with 31 children based within our church. Over the border in Lesotho, our sister church is working with another 40 children.
I am planning to come over to the USA toward the end of November, and I have every intention of attending your conference. Thank you for the great work you do; together we as the mighty Body of Christ can make an incredible difference.
For the children,
Anita
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