Camp out, Christ in

By: Keith Brown, Friends of Mukhanyo Chairman

April 2013: I have just had the wonderful privilege of taking a group of Boy Scouts from Durham, North Carolina, to Mukhanyo Christian Academy (MCA) in rural South Africa to run a camp for our students there. The boys stayed for a week, leading the 40 pupils in play and worship, organizing activities, solo time, cabin time, and bed time routines for the children. We also took them swimming, which the students had never done before.

My son Seth, who was part of the troop, became very emotional upon his return. “We didn’t have enough time with them. We didn’t get to explain the gospel well enough for them to really understand,” he said, almost crying. That next week, he reflected often on the students there and his hopes that he and the other Scouts had made a lasting impression on them.

I experience this feeling, too, and am always amazed at how much the students do retain from our visits there. I stayed an extra week for meetings. And the next Friday when I returned to MCA, the kids were busy learning math with the new books and abacus wooden counting systems the Scouts had brought. In another classroom, the students were reading Little House in the Big Woods, each with a new book on his or her desk. Our group – 13 Scouts and leaders – had each brought a 50-pound box of items, toting some 650 pounds of books and educational supplies across the world for the school.

The students liked their new books and abaci but what they mostly talked about was camp. “When can we go back to camp, Mr. Brown? When can we see the scouts again, Mr. Brown? Where is Sean? Where is Sam? David?” The children kept listing off the names of the Scouts. I told them that the boys were all back home now. “But you will see them again,” I said. “When?” they asked again.

Merriam, our headmistress, said, “Keith, the kids that came were examples of true leadership. The MCA kids looked up to each of your Scouts and started realizing that they, too, could become leaders. They also realized that the American kids were not much older than them.” The children called Seth who is 1 and the other Scouts, who were older, “teacher,” honoring them for their role in opening their eyes to new experiences. Merriam added that if we can continue this program, bringing children as Christian mentors to South Africa regularly, we could help change the course of the country.

We traveled to South Africa to be with the students, to show them we cared for them, and to share the word of God. Yet we brought so much more. The Scouts showed the students love and kindness, serving the MCA kids in a Christ-like way. How could you be a better witness for Christ? Perhaps it’s not that surprising that the students were always asking, “When is chapel?” They loved singing and praising God as a group twice a day.

The Scouts put on a wonderful camp, drawing on their past experiences running Camp Living Water in North Carolina. The camp had action, worship, excitement, fun activities, and togetherness, all jam-packed in one week, with an amazing team working together seamlessly. I loved seeing my Scouts at their best, serving others. I am so proud of each and every one of them.

So when are we coming back? We need to answer that question because we can make a difference in these children’s lives. Each young student who learns about Christ at MCA and camp can become a strong advocate for the gospel with their family, friends, and larger community. And when they grow up, they can carry the gospel throughout the nation, sharing the message that Christ saves, gives hope, and restores futures.

This week was a beacon of hope for our students at MCA. It was an expression of love and service they will always treasure. And hopefully, it is just the first of many such experiences where children from two continents come together to share and experience the love of Christ. We camped out with MCA students – so that we could bring Christ in.

Want to learn more about how the AIDS crisis is affecting South Africa? Interested in seeing MCA’s students at work and play? Watch our short photo montage video. We are currently seeking sponsorships for our students; click here to learn more about how you can help.

Through Annual Fundraisers, North Carolina Citizens Provide a Future and a Hope – Through Free Schooling – to South African AIDS Orphans Half a World Away
(Mukhanyo Christian Academy, Durham, NC, October 15, 2010) – Mukhanyo Christian Academy (MCA), a free private school for South African AIDS orphans and vulnerable children, owes its start to the generosity of North Carolina and other U.S. donors who provided enough support to launch the school with two grades of students in January 2010. Now volunteers are hoping for a repeat performance, at fundraisers to be held Friday, October 22, 2010, through Monday, October 25, 2010, in private homes and other venues in Raleigh, Chapel Hill, and Durham, North Carolina. Funds from the four weekend events, which are open to the public, will be used to expand the school to a K-2 operation and begin a capital campaign to build a permanent facility.

Many U.S. citizens are moved by the plight of South Africa, where 1.4 million children have been orphaned by AIDS, 43 percent of the nation’s citizens live below the poverty level, and 40 percent of the school-age youth still lack access to free education, according to the Christian Science Monitor and South African Government Website. Some 16 years after apartheid, its legacy still lingers, as South Africa’s black students are six times more likely than whites to repeat a grade and only 14 percent possess high school diplomas, state media sources AllAfrica.com and the Huffington Post. Even the lucky few who do graduate likely won’t qualify for college. An NPR article on the state of South African education found that 83 percent of all high school graduates can’t qualify for college, due to their inferior public school education.

Mukhanyo Christian Academy is uniquely designed to address the societal ills posed by hunger, poverty, AIDS, and an education system Newsweek recently ranked as the fourth worst in the world. The school offers AIDS orphans and other at-risk children free schooling, two daily meals, and healthcare. Children learn core subjects in English beginning in kindergarten, preparing them for the all-English curriculum that is used throughout the country in Grade 4 and is thought by educators to be a key reason so many students, plagued by illiteracy, drop out after Grade 9, when compulsory education ends. MCA’s pupils are taught by a South African headmistress and a U.S. teacher using Charlotte Mason teaching methods and a curriculum that has been localized to meet their needs. The daily feeding program ensures that children, who may not eat at home, are ready and able to learn, while field trips open their eyes to the world outside their village. Dr. Flip Buys, the school’s founder, and Isaac Maleke, the South African parent of an MCA student, will present at the events and speak on the moral and social crisis presented by the lost children of South Africa at the 11 AM services of Church of the Good Shepherd and Faith Community Church in Durham, North Carolina, on Sunday, October 24th.
To receive an invitation to one of the four fundraisers – Friday, October 22rd (Raleigh), Saturday, October 23th (Chapel Hill), Sunday, October 24th (Durham), and Monday, October 25th (Durham) – please call or e-mail the media contacts listed below. Donations to the school, which are tax-deductible, may be mailed to Friends of Mukhanyo, c/o Keith T. Brown, 129 Timberhill Place, Chapel Hill, NC 27514-1586.
Media Contacts:
Holly Larson, Communications, Mukhanyo Christian Academy, 919.259.8704 or holly@mcasa.net
Keith T. Brown, U.S. Project Lead, Mukhanyo Christian Academy, 919.933.7747 or keith@mcasa.net

About Mukhanyo Christian Academy
Mukhanyo Christian Academy (MCA) is a free, private, faith-based school for AIDS orphans and vulnerable children located in rural Mpumalanga, South Africa, an hour northeast of Pretoria. The school is a joint venture between South African and American educators and volunteers, who seek to provide South Africa’s neediest children with the first-class education, Christian training, and social services they would likely otherwise never receive in the overburdened, under-resourced South African public education system. The school serves children who have experienced firsthand the devastating effect of the AIDS crisis, including the loss of one or both parents, daily struggles with hunger, and grueling poverty.

If you live in the Durham area, please drop by Saladelia Café on Saturday, September 18th. A portion of all your purchases – whether you buy delicious gyros, souvlaki, salads, baklava – or more will be given to Mukhanyo Christian Academy, a school offering free education and social services to at-risk children in rural South Africa. Location: 4201 University Drive, Durham, NC. Date: Saturday, September 18th, from 8:30 AM to 9 PM. For more information, please check out our flyer, visit our Facebook page, or contact Holly Larson at 919.259.8704 or holly@mcasa.net.

We’ll also be hosting an informational meeting on Tuesday, September 21st at 6:30 PM. Location: Trinity School of Durham and Chapel Hill (The Great Room, Lower School Building). Address 4011 Pickett Road, Durham, NC 27705. We’d love for you to join us.

By Stacy Kolbe Dykins
March 2010 was difficult for the teachers at MCA. At the end of February, Meriam Mnguni’s husband entered hospice care and then passed away. He had been battling cancer for some time. Meriam, who is our principal and first grade teacher, took two and a half weeks off to be with her family and grieve her loss. In her absence, Tim Dykins (my husband) stepped up to lead her class. We greatly missed Meriam and were glad when she returned in the middle of the month.

After a sad start to March, we were encouraged to receive some new jungle gym equipment for the children, which was generously donated by the Moreletta Park Dutch Reformed Church in Johannesburg, South Africa. We also had three birthday parties and were fitted for uniforms. The kids were, and still are, incredibly excited about all three developments. (Please scroll through the newsletter to see some photos of the children playing on the new equipment.) It is tremendously inspiring to see such optimism and happiness in our children, who have suffered so much: parental death, poverty, and food scarcity, among other issues. Our first school term ended on March 26th, and we will be on a break until April 12th. Hopefully, we will all return refreshed and ready to learn in April!

Meet Pleasure

Last month we introduced you to our Grade R students: Atalia, Koketso, Sandra, Thokozani, Angy, Xoli, Kgothatso, Leboga, and Pleasure. However, we’ve realized that brief bios don’t do our kids justice, so we’re introducing a new format with this newsletter: one where we profile a single child in-depth. So without further ado, we’d like you to meet five-year-old Pleasure, who is one of our Grade R pupils. Pleasure is considered to be a vulnerable child: While he’s fortunate enough to have living relatives, he has already experienced poverty and hunger in his short life, due to his family’s desperate financial situation. Please consider sponsoring Pleasure. For an annual gift of $2,000 ($165/month), you can ensure that Pleasure has a future and a hope: one filled with the excitement of learning more about Christ, receiving a first-class education, and obtaining the meals and other support services he needs to flourish.

Pleasure is five years old. He lives in a tin shack with his grandmother, while five other members of his family reside in an adjacent brick house. Pleasure has two older sisters: Precious, 20 years old, is the mother of two small children, Bray and Sab and cooks for the whole family. Busi is 25 and has one small child, Angel. No one in this extended family has a job. The grandmother receives a small grant which is the only source of income for this family of seven. We do not know who Pleasure’s father is, only that he has been absent a very long time. His mother is deceased, but we are not sure if she passed away from AIDS. Pleasure has never been tested for HIV, so we are working on getting this done.

Pleasure’s family struggles greatly to meet their daily needs, but they pray for God’s provision and are grateful for his help. When we gave Pleasure his school clothes and his backpack, his grandmother sent the school two homemade grass mats to show her gratitude. While it may not seem like much, this gift was an act of incredible generosity. I believe that Pleasure’s grandmother makes the mats herself in an effort to bring a small amount of income into the home. She is sincerely grateful to the school and the wonderful opportunity it is providing her grandson.

Pleasure is an extremely sweet-natured child. He tries hard to master new concepts and do his schoolwork well. His caregivers are all illiterate, so Pleasure received almost no academic instruction before he came to MCA. While the other students were able to count to 10 or even 20, Pleasure didn’t know any of his numbers. To help him catch up, I (Stacy) have started tutoring him after school one day a week for an hour. Pleasure flourishes during this one-on-one time. Before the first session he could not count past two. After two sessions, he could count to ten and identify many of the numbers by sight. His improvement has been rapid and amazing. It is now obvious just how intelligent Pleasure is; he simply hadn’t had the opportunity to demonstrate it. Outside of the academic support Pleasure receives, we make sure he gets some much needed emotional care. A simple smile means so much to this child. Pleasure will do anything to please you. He seems a bit starved for love and affection, so we make sure to praise and hug him as often as possible. With our positive support system, Pleasure is developing into a beautiful, happy child.

Please consider sponsoring Pleasure or one of our other deserving students. A gift of $2,000 (or $165/month) will help ensure that he is able to attend MCA on an ongoing basis. We are seeking up to 20 sponsorships for our children – which would enable us to add a few more pupils to our Grade 1 class.

Child Sponsorships

We’re delighted that so many of you chose to give generously and help us launch our school this January. As you can see from our website we’ve been busy! Your contributions back in October helped us open our doors with two grades, hire a principal, purchase steel classrooms to shelter our children and host temporary classrooms, and obtain books and other resources.

We’re now seeking sponsorships for our children to help us finance the school on an ongoing basis. As many of you know, we have big dreams for Mukhanyo Christian Academy: We hope to expand our school and offer Grades R-12 to provide education for many more children in our community. To make this happen, we need to create a steady income stream to sustain our existing student body, as we pursue other revenue sources and work towards building a sustainable funding model. We’re currently working on a business plan to prepare for meetings with potential donors and submit for education grants from the South African government.

Please consider making sponsoring one of our beautiful children. Your gift of $165 a month ($2,000 a year) enables us to help children like Pleasure and provide him with a different kind of life than he has known. As one of our donors, you will be in on the ground floor of this important new ministry – one that will provide a future and a hope for South Africa’s children affected by AIDS, poverty, and hunger.

In the spirit of transparency, we want you to know that 97% of your contributions to date have gone directly to supporting our school in South Africa. (The remaining three percent of funds were used to pay for website development and database support.) Any costs that we, your local project team, incur during our service to MCA, we pay for ourselves.

Birthday Fun

This month we had three birthdays: Sarah turned seven years old; Lucky Mhlongo, nine; and teacher Merriam had a birthday, too. At her party, she informed the children that she is now two years old. I don’t think they fell for it.

I have not done a lot of baking from scratch before, so my first attempt at cupcakes and frosting was a bit of an experiment. The kids devoured the cupcakes, so I am considering my endeavor a success. I then made a cake for Meriam, so I am considered quite the baker now. The kids love sweets so it is easy to win smiles and good behavior: All you have to do is walk in with a tray of goodies.

Uniforms and Donations

On the 20th of March, we received outdoor play equipment and toys – a generous donation from our friends at Moreletta. A group of parishioners delivered everything on a Saturday and even brought sweets and barbeque to celebrate. It was a fabulous day for the children. They played, ate ‘vors,’ and sang a song to say thank you. We greatly appreciate the church’s support and look forward to seeing our new friends again.

As mentioned last month, we have purchased uniforms and will distribute them to our children next month. The children are on holiday from March 29th through April 9th. Be sure to check back to see our kids in their new attire next month. We also had some friends from Tampa donate new backpacks for the kids. I know they will be a big hit. A big thank you to Karen, Melissa, and Michelle!

Our New Website

We’re proud to announce the launch of our brand-new website: mcasa.net. Many thanks to Nathan Clendenin, who did a spectacular job designing our site, and to Holly Larson, who wrote the content. Please visit our website to learn more about the school, our team, and how you can help. Site highlights include:
• Pictures and short bios of our Grade R and Grade 1 pupils
• Some awesome YouTube videos of the children singing and playing that will melt your heart!
• Bios of our South African team members, including our founder, principal, advisor, and teacher
• A description of our mission and vision, as well as information on how the AIDS crisis is orphaning generations of South Africa’s youngest
• Blog entries from Keith Brown, our U.S. Project Team Lead, who took a two-week trip in January to visit MCA and its sister ministries

We’ll be posting ongoing updates on our activities – including a trip we’re planning in August to visit the school and the other Mukhanyo ministries. MCA is the sister ministry of Mukhanyo Community Development Centre, an organization which operates five care centers that provide food and other services for 1,500 AIDS orphans; a seminary and teaching college; and as a hospice for AIDS patients.

How Can You Help?

MCA is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization and Christian ministry that is entirely supported by donations. Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to MCA. Your gifts enable us to:
• Provide AIDS orphans and vulnerable children with a first-class Christian education, two meals a day, and healthcare services
• Place AIDS orphans who need foster parents in a home, so that they can receive the care they need
• Purchase necessary resources, like the steel classrooms that house our pupils, books and other items
• Cover salaries for Meriam and Stacy, our teachers, both of whom have generously agreed to work for far less than they could make elsewhere
• Explore the possibility of expanding the school so that we can offer educational opportunities to more of the deserving children in our community
For more information, please contact: Keith T. Brown, Project Leader at 919.933.7747 or keith@mcasa.net; or Holly Larson, Communications at 919.259.8704 or holly@mcasa.net.

I let them vote on the second song they would sing for you. Months of the year beat out days of the week by 2.

Samukelisiwe is 7 and in Grade 1. She had fun building her kite.

Sandra just turned 6 and is the oldest of the grade R students. She is showing you her spider.

Both grade 1 and Grade R students of Mukhanyo Christian Acadamy singing Jesus loves me.