The Future Looks Brighter!

"A wise man is full of strength, and a man of knowledge enhances his might." Proverbs 24:5

I am so excited about these fourteen 5 year olds from Mangwaneni CarePoint showing family and friends all that they learned this year and enhancing their might to change their world!

Teachers Dorah and Njabu "En-jah-boo" work hard but their caring heart for these children is what shows through at graduation. These graduates now know their alphabet, can count to 20, know their shapes and colors, and the days of the week! They know the pledges to the Bible, the Christian flag and to Swaziland. They can recite Psalms 100 and sing a variety of Siswati and English songs.

Impressively these children have learned to speak boldly and with confidence as displayed when they shared who they were and what they wanted to be when they grow

up! (Nurses, doctors, teachers, police, soldiers and even a pilot!)

You would have no indication from the celebration the tough backgrounds many of these children have and what a difference being able to come to the CarePoint

has made in their young lives.

Let me share part of Thubelihle Matsebula's "Two-bay-lea-sleigh Maht-say-boo-lah's" story. She is the 5 year old little girl standing with me in the picture above holding her graduation certificate. She is also the one in the group picture at the top of this blog, on the front row, two in from the left with her hand playfully on her hip.

Thube as she is called, would often be locked out of the house early in the morning when her mother went to try to sell bags of chips at the bus rank and the other children would go to school. Alcohol is another ingredient in her home life. Thube was a very lonely and neglected child. When she was almost 4 the teacher spoke with Thube’s mother about getting her on medication and letting her come to the free preschool. She was able to attend the preschool class after that but teacher Dorah says that often she would hide in the cemetery and not come to class. The other kids did not like Thube because she was dirty and sickly and angry. After a couple of months, with the patient, consistent work of the teachers, Thubelihle started attending class regularly. She started playing with other children and going to medical clinic monthly and taking medication consistently.

By looking at Thubelihle at the Mangwaneni CarePoint preschool graduation, confident and happy, you would not be able to tell that when she started coming to the CarePoint, 3 years ago, that she was often found sleeping out by the road, hungry, sickly and alone. When she was almost 3 years old she started showing up at the CarePoint with her young aunts (school age) when they would attend, mainly during school break. Back then she would come mainly to eat.

If she stayed longer, you would find her just sitting on her own while other children were playing and having fun. She, along with most of her family, chronically suffer from not having a strong immune system, currently effecting at least a third of Swaziland. During this period she was not taking any consistent medication and was sick a lot of the time.

Thubelihle is like a butterfly that has come out of her cocoon. She has emerged as a strong and healthy girl. She is smart and loves to write (or copy) words. She has dreams to become a police woman. She has learned many Bible verses and knows that God loves her. She has confidence, joy and an eagerness to learn. She has hope. She has a brighter future!

Thank all of you who support Children's Cup!

The preschool is just one area of our ministries but it is making such a huge impact on not only Thubelihle, not only the children at Mangwaneni CarePoint but hundreds of children that graduated from our numerous CarePoints across Swaziland!

Giving Hope! Inspiring Dreams! Changing Worlds!