Hands at Work Update
In 2018, the last Commons team in Kalende worked alongside the Care Workers to put up foundational posts and basic frame for a new shelter area at the Care Point. This shelter is specifically needed to host weekly meetings, known as relationship groups, of care workers and care givers. It is centrally located in this community-close to where the kids congregate to play, attend elementary school and receive food from the Hands feeding program. Shortly after the team from Commons left, Hands at work assisted the community to complete the roof for the structure but there were still no walls.
At the start of 2020, there were plans to help the Care Workers complete this structure and build the walls. However, the crisis of COVID-19 required other more essential projects be completed first. Since relationship groups were not allowed to meet at that time it seemed that this building project would just have to wait!
Then recently, on one of the routine community visits from the local Hands at Work Service Centre, the Hands team saw that the Care Workers had started to construct the walls on their own! They had been busy making their own bricks and laying them with a mud compound. I’m not sure how to accurately describe how miraculous this was! First, they have no financial excess for these kind of resources, yet they somehow pooled funds earned from selling charcoal to get the needed supplies. They also chose to find a way to work together despite the fear of COVID and being advised to stay distanced. They committed time to a community project when they could have been working in their own field or for their own family. These are no small sacrifices!
What a beautiful example of local community ownership and unity. The Care Workers saw the need to complete this project and the value in having a meeting place to build relationships within their community. Rather than waiting until they had funding from Hands at Work, they found a way to build the shelter with their own resources! This has been a challenging year for the Care Workers in Kalende. They have struggled with integrity in leadership and lost some Care Workers in the process. COVID has made it more difficult for care givers to support each other and the children. It has added economical and social stressors to a community already so vulnerable. And yet, love for each other and their community triumphs...the walls are going up! How beautiful an image this is and what a testament to God’s faithfulness and goodness!
