We all have gifts to share

One thing our travelers notice when we visit our partners in Tungamalenga and Makifu is how different our family structures can be.  American homes typically house a nuclear family – parents and children – while in Tanzania, living with extended family is the norm. A household of parents and children often includes a grandparent, several orphaned cousins, perhaps an aunt.  Malaria, tuberculosis, AIDS and other diseases leave many children orphaned, and for the most part, traditional Tanzanian culture cares for orphans within the extended family structure.

For those children who truly have no relatives in this world, the Iringa Diocese owns and operates Huruma [Mercy] Center. Matron Mama Chilewa and her small staff care for 45 - 60 children ages 5 - 16. Often the children are brought to the center by social workers who find the children living on the streets. Staff care for the children while searching for relatives willing to take in the child. We met an eight year old girl who, when her last living relative died, gathered her belongings, paid the bus fare from her village to the city, and began to look for work washing dishes, before she was brought to the center.

SOTV travelers visit the center every year. We play with the children, jump rope, push swings, and get trounced at soccer. The youngest children often find a lap and snuggle. We communicate through interpreters or with our rudimentary Swahili. The children sing for us. Mama Chilewa tells us this is what the children need most, our time and attention and love.

We take tangible gifts as well – t-shirts, toys, soccer balls.  One year we asked Mama what the children needed most for Christmas, and she promptly said, “School shoes.” There is always a need for basic, practical items like underwear and socks, nutritious food, and money for school fees and supplies. Earlier this year, we paid $151.25 so that an eight year old girl could have surgery to repair an umbilical hernia that caused her pain and kept her from active play. In the Tanzanian economy, a few dollars can make a big difference.

We generally visit our partners during their harvest season, when congregation members bring harvest gifts – corn, rice, peanuts, eggs and chickens – as thank offerings. The harvest gifts are sold by the congregation and the money funds parish projects like constructing a new chapel or a home for the evangelist. A few years ago, we began buying rice and maize from the congregations, and giving the food to Huruma Center for the children.

That’s when something really beautiful happened.  The people of Tungamalenga and Makifu have often given our travelers gifts of appreciation – a length of beautiful batik fabric, a basket, tasty bananas and papaya. As our partners learned of our interest in Huruma Center, and learned for the first time of its good work, they began to give us gifts for the children.  We purchased a large bag of corn, and families brought us an extra bucket besides. The next village gave us ground nuts and bananas. The next, a chicken.

The circles of love and care ripple out. A brother and sister from Eagan gave the money that bought the rice and corn. Other families gave money to the scholarship fund. A Tanzanian father whose child attends school because of an SOTV scholarship gave corn and ground nuts for the children at Huruma Center. And we realize we all have gifts to share.  

Please consider a monetary donation to our Tanzania Fund before our travelers leave in early July. Your gifts will enable us to respond to needs we encounter during our travels. Our travelers are packing light this year – just one suitcase each – and we plan to purchase items once in Tanzania instead. Contribute at www.sotv.org/give.