One of the best projects in which to be involved yearly is spending time at Butterfly House. Butterfly House is a community center working to care for families with HIV/AIDS and other long term illness. More information about Butterfly House will be at the bottom of the post after pictures.
The team and I went on 8/12 and 8/19. We divided into groups so half could work with the adults while the other half played with the children with plans to switch the following week.
On the first day, I worked with the adults. I think the word that summed up the experience for us was "awkward." We felt like more of a nuisance because we couldn't speak the languages of the women we were working with. We were all a bit out of our comfort zones for sure and kept giving each other that "What do we do now?" look.
On the other day we played with the children and helped them with their school activities and eating lunch. A few experiences stick out the most when remembering our time at Butterfly House.
The first was a story of a precious child whose mother sold her for R400 for alcohol for the weekend. That is about $57 for us. When you meet her, your heart breaks more. She has the most outgoing personality and is one that everyone immediately gravitates to when they enter the room....a parent's dream for a child.
During my 3rd week, I spent one morning at Butterfly House. At lunch, the kids were given a different meal than they usually eat, as evidenced by the disgusted looks on their faces. I think most of them ate enough to kill the hunger but left some food on the plates. One child, however, ate his meal so quickly which really grabbed my attention compared to the other kids' paces. When he finished, he began eating what was left in other kids' bowls. With the "after lunch chaos" that ensued, some of the bowls were knocked over littering "samp & beans" all over the floor. Forget about the "5 second rule" we have, the "hungry boy" began eating what fell on the floor as well. At that moment, I almost lost it. I turned to the teacher and commented on the situation. She said that earlier when he got to school, he told her he was hungry and that they didn't have any food at home.
I couldn't shake that experience for a while and it still is fresh in my mind. Sometimes at work when I get hungry for a morning snack, I try to let the hunger go a little longer to really feel the hunger pangs as a reminder to think of and pray for all those people in the world who feel this the majority of the day or week. It is hard to relate because I know that I have a snack or meal within arm's distance or in the near future.
I used to think hunger sucked but didn't really realize the global ramifications from hunger beyond the nutritional standpoint. For me, I have low blood sugar so if I don't have snacks, you'll hear "timber!" I've got a few scars to show it. Think of how hard it is to concentrate when we are "starving" by middle class American standards. If I had been born in a different part of the world with little access to food and snacks at my disposal, I would not have been able to concentrate or make it through school thus reducing my ability to learn and later my earning potential.
Malnutrition compromises the body in so many ways. In an attempt to converse energy, the body compensates by slowing down physical and mental processes. A hungry mind cannot focus. A starving person does not have the strength to work. A child who hungers loses the ability to learn and the desire to play. Mothers who survive childbirth do not produce enough milk to sustain infants. Brain development in children is stunted, leaving mental impairments. The immune system becomes compromised leaving both children and adults vulnerable to a host of illnesses and diseases. (The Hole in Our Gospel, Richard Stearns)
A few statistics:
- 1 in 4 children in developing countries is underweight
- ~350-400 million children are hungry
- 1 in 7 people worldwide do not have enough food to sustain them
- a child dies every 4 seconds from hunger-related causes
- ~25000 people die yearly from hunger or hunger-related causes
The cycle is viscous -- the poor are hungry, and their hunger keeps them poor.
What is worse? The world can and does produce enough food to feed everyone.
What is something easy you can do that doesn't require money and requires very little time??
www.thehungersite.com
Open the link and click on "click here to give" and with each one click, you give 1.1 cup of food to the hungry. You can also shop here for Christmas gifts.
For those of you that donated Barbies and books, they went here. The books went in to the classroom to fill many empty shelves, and they got immediate use! The kids loved them and brought them to use to read. The Barbies and accessories went in the play room where they do therapy with the children.
Here are some pictures from Butterfly House:
he picked a book mid way through putting them on the shelves
filling up the bookshelves with your donations
sorting supplies
the smallest of helpers putting away the new books
Me + a volunteer's grandchild
A little more information about Butterfly House:
BUTTERFLY HOUSE MISSION STATEMENT
To manage a palliative community resource of mutual care and support, which focuses on ‘living’ with life-threatening and life-limiting illnesses.
VISION
Quality holistic care; for the community, in the community, with the community.
Butterfly House is the venue for the Drakenstein Palliative Hospice Day Care Programmes. It is situated in Fairyland, an informal (now becoming more formal) settlement between Paarl and Wellington.
Butterfly House was established in partnership with Ivar Koteng & Nina Glad from Trondheim in Norway (supported by friends, family & staff), Familievernkontoret i Sǿr-trǿndelag, Paarl Round Table, Drakenstein Palliative Hospice, Monte Christo Ministries, Dianna Princess of Wales Memorial Fund, HPCA, Pepfar and many other Private Individuals and Community Members and Businesses (see list under Funders).
Butterfly House aims to provide services, often in partnership with other organisations, which will add to the quality of life of patients, their families (infected and affected) and others made vulnerable through neglect, abuse, malnutrition, substance abuse, extreme poverty and illness.
Participation with the Butterfly House activities is guided by the following beneficiary priorities:
a) patients
b) family of patients and then
c) vulnerable community members
The groups are restricted to 20 in order to promote quality care
Butterfly House provides the following services:
Adult & Young Adult Care
a) Adult Day care programmes
Mondays: Craft Job Creation Group
Tuesdays: Carers Support Group
Wednesday: Medical Day Care
Thursday: Psycho-social Day Care
b) Young Adult Programmes
5 days a week: Young Men: The programme includes daily psycho-social support group, food provision, gardening and cleaning the community project, Butterfly United Soccer Team, Drama, A Healthy Living Education programme, including highlighting appropriate gender, ethics and justice attitudes and values. Job creation activities are attended by some of the group members.
1 day a week: Young Women: This programme is focussed of Healthy Living, Life Skills and empowerment of women through highlighting appropriate gender, ethics and justice attitudes and values.
Youth Day Care Programmes
a) After School Home-work club supervised by a teacher and Youth Workers
b) Individual Tuition: Teacher, maths teacher and other teacher volunteers
c) Life-skills programme: Presented by staff, peer educators and other partners
d) Job skills: Crafting, catering and computer skills
e) Recreational activities: Ballroom dancing, street dancing, drama, choir, poetry and youth clubs
f) Individual sessions: Provided by a psychologist, play therapist, play aunties, social worker & teachers
Pre-school (up to 9 years) Programmes
3 morning groups: School readiness, life skill and healthy living activities for infected and affected as well as other vulnerable children
3 afternoon groups: School readiness activities for infected and affected as well as other vulnerable children
Individual play sessions with play auntie
Individual play therapy sessions on referral
Recreational activities: choir, drama, games, crafts
Each week runs according to a holistic theme emphasizing either physical, social, emotional, cultural, spiritual and education aspects of care. Each programme aims to be conducted in a holistic manner with particular value attributed to gender, ethics and justice issues.
