The Bana Blog
December 30, 2007
Logos Global Ministries is facing the end of another excellent year caring for AIDS ORPHANS in Lesotho, Africa. It may not be altogether correct to say "excellent" when there are hundreds of thousands of other orphans living withing walking distance to our headquarters who are without any assistance or care. However, God has certainly smiled upon LGM and created many more supporters and given us many more friends who are burdened for the little children.
LGM has sponsored an organization in Lesotho, Africa as The Bana Project of Lesotho. (Bana means child in the Sesotho language.) We have a national director who has worked along side of us for 17 years and is a worthy and trusted leader, minister, school teacher, and friend. He has chosen a group from 28 villages that acts as the Central Steering Committee for the project. They feed and care for 1,100 orphans every week making sure the children are cared for and treated with respect. School uniforms are provided to the orphans so that they can get their basic education. Warm Angora wool blankets made in the local market are also provided to them, which is more necessary than food, if you can believe it.
The spin-off that comes from the project is almost beyond our imagination. The entire region has seen that The Bana Project of Lesotho is there to stay and has responded in helping us, protecting us, and providing to us an opportunity much greater than orphan care. One challenge is that not one church of any kind exists in that region and we are taking that opportunity as an open door to the Gospel. We have partnered in the planting of four thriving churches in that region in the last year, and there are at least 40 more possible. Many are coming to Christ and the need for discipleship is very demanding.
In the past year, we have also been able to purchase land near Mazenod, Lesotho, and erect a large building for a warehouse, church, and living quarters. We have plans in the future to hopefully build a multi-purpose building for housing a missionary and work teams who will come to spend 1 to 4 weeks helping with the projects. A large church and multi-purpose structure is also needed to act as a Conference Center and meeting place for the 28 Village Fathers and house any special programs like classes for the orphans to learn and make crafts to be sold in the market. A shop is also in the making to house equipment that has been given to The Bana Project of Lesotho for making cabinets and furniture, welding and machine shop for maintenance on the building and grounds plus a possible school to teach older orphans a trade.
We anticipate that early in 2008 Ladell & Bettie Patterson, 68 and 66 years of age, will be moving to Lesotho to live out their retiring years among the Basotho Tribe. Their goal is to be friends and partners to walk along side of the Director, Steering Committee, and the orphans. As many of you know, Ladell and Bettie lived among the Basotho once before in 1990-1993. Bettie was Director over the Matukeng Health Center, a country clinic caring for more than 40,000 people a year.
We deeply appreciate all those who are already giving regularly. You are participating with God as we care for these vulnerable Basotho children. LGM is structured in a trust and can provide receipts for any of your donations. One time or year-end gifts are also greatly appreciated and a monthly commitment is greatly needed. Donations will be received through the end of January of 2008 at Logos Global Ministries, 7620 NW 16th St, Oklahoma City OK 73127. After January, please watch our developing website for mailing address and contact information for donations. And if you would like to become a volunteer with a work team from the USA to Lesotho please correspond with us at the above addresses.
We look forward to hearing from all of you who have become a part of an ever-growing awareness of God's Word to care for the orphans in Lesotho, Africa. It helps us greatly when we hear back from each of you. Thanks so much for all you do to make this ministry possible.
May the Peace and Joy of Christmas be yours!
Allen & Canda Patterson, Roger & Faith Patterson, Chris & Jennifer Roe, Loy Mershimer, Ladell & Bettie Patterson
November 2007
We just wanted to share with you a recent report on orphans and hunger from Lesotho. Let me share with you from an IRIN ReliefWeb dated November 20, 2007:
"Schools in Lesotho, Africa, are reporting evidence that hunger is affecting the children's concentration and stamina, although they seem bright and smiling and well groomed first thing of a morning. "They are not bad students; they are bright, but they are hungry," says one school teacher."
"The children are of all ages and are happy to pursue their education. They look forward going to school every day to a class room that is far below standards found in many other countries. There are not enough desks and books, there is no electricity, but the children are eager to study. Many schools have no electricity, but educators say their greatest obstacle to learning is hunger."
"Mountainous Lesotho, surrounded entirely by South Africa, is experiencing one of its worst droughts in three decades: just under a quarter of the population, or 400,000 people, are food insecure. Drought has robbed the children's families of their crops this year. They come to school on empty stomachs. It is not known where or when they are fed. These are the ones who nod off during class; they have no energy."
One community recently built a new school for their students. However, another obstacle to the children's education is that most of them have to commute up to 18 miles a day just to get there.
The school allows a vendor to sell snacks, like sausage rolls, potato chips and hot cakes - some students pay up to R6 (US$0.95) a day, the ones who have money - but it's not nutritious. Also the school's water well dried up about two years ago.
This secondary school, on the arid plains of southwestern Lesotho, is a textbook example of the troubles besetting rural schools in the wake of the food scarcity crisis this year.
The Lesotho government has prioritized food assistance at primary school level with feeding programs for pupils studying in the southern lowlands, while the World Food Program (WFP) has initiated feeding programs for primary school students in the mountainous north of the country.
A WFP's officer has said, "We have experienced distributing food, and the north is a difficult place in terms of accessibility. We are there until government can also distribute food to the primary schools." Feeding programs for secondary students have not begun, although the need for food assistance among these students is recognized.
One girl answered a questionnaire regarding their greatest needs that food and shoes were on the top of her list. She also noted that both of her parents had died. "Food and transport," wrote one boy, "Food and clothing," answered another.
In all, 60 percent of the students cited food as their greatest need. "We have a lot of orphans in this school. In fact, half the student body are complete orphans - loosing both parents to AIDS," said one of the teachers.
According to UNAIDS, 23.2 percent of Lesotho's people aged between 15 and 49 are infected with HIV, and about 100,000 children under the age of 17 have been orphaned by the AIDS pandemic.
The orphans live with relatives, who don't give them food. Some of the children have been abandoned and they end up in foster care, and there, too, they are not given food. They go to school with empty stomachs, and they go home with empty stomachs. In one area, the orphans' school fees are paid by the education ministry from funding provided by a German faith-based organization, "We cannot provide meals for our pupils, but at least we are not one of those unhappy schools where the students go on strike to protest bad food," the headmaster said in an attempt to make light of their situation. "But, really, something has to be done."
Lesotho's declining food security has been linked to the country falling short of its education goals. According to the UNDP's recent development index for Lesotho, between 1991 and 2004, the enrolment of those eligible for primary school rose from 71 percent to 86 percent, while secondary school enrolment increased from 15 percent to 23 percent. However, the number of students remaining in school to age 11 showed no corresponding increase, but rather declined slightly, from 66 percent to 63 percent.
More than half of the population live on US$2 or less day and poverty feeds into the society's sense of despair. "The mothers are not working. The fathers aren't working. The men are back from the mines, from South Africa, where the Basotho men have always found jobs, but now they have been retrenched said one person, who lives in a basic mud hut close to the secondary school.
Someone has said that most men drink from morning 'til night. The local homebrew is very cheap. The men are not drunkards, they are just lost as to what else to do.
The village homesteads scattered across the wide valley advertise products and events by flying colored pennants: a white flag means the homestead is hosting a wedding, a green flag signals that vegetables can be bought there, while a yellow flag means home-brewed beer is for sale. A resident said green flags had not been seen in months, but yellow flags dot the valley like sunflowers.
Gloomy as it may seem, there is a brighter side to this article. The Bana Project of Lesotho has come onto the stage as a relief organization, strictly to give care to orphans, which so desperately need. Our existing project currently feeds some 2000 orphans in a 28 village circle surrounding the International Airport, just south of Maseru, every week. This is done through a community-based volunteer support system. They raise financial support from private funding and special projects. They are able to buy shoes for the most desperate, and clothes. They make sure that each child has a school uniform and gets periodic counseling to make sure they are being treated as they should. Proper education is given them regarding sex and AIDS. The children live in their own hut, or live with relatives or a guardian.
Every village has a Chief, and all 28 Chieftains support The Bana Project of Lesotho to make sure the orphans are cared for properly. The Chiefs also make sure each child is registered as a complete orphan.
The published numbers for Lesotho orphans range from 142,000 to 180,000, with a total national population of 1.8 million people. There is plenty of room for every organization to bring care to these little ones who have been deprived of their parents and normal life. In South Africa, there are many more hundreds of thousands of orphans and in sub-Saharan Africa it is said there are 1,100,000 children whose parents have been taken by AIDS or other causes.
I hope your heart is touched by this report and you too, will become a supporter of AIDS ORPHANS in Lesotho, Africa. You can join The Bana Project of Lesotho (bana means child in the Sesotho language) by going to www.logosglobal.com and becoming a financial partner, joining people from the USA, Nigeria, South Africa, and England.
Ladell & Bettie Patterson are preparing to relocate to Lesotho soon to over see the operation. They will be involved in building, teaching, preaching, and business development so that the operation will, hopefully, someday be self-sustaining. We are needing partners to give moral, spiritual, and financial support. Here are a number of prayer request from them personally: 1. The sale of their home in Oklahoma City, OK, USA so they can build a home in Lesotho. 2. The sale of their 2004 Dodge Ram 2500 Quadcab longbed truck. 3. The purchase of a shipping container. 4. The cost of the shipping to Africa. 5. Strength, Stamina, and God's will for their ministries.
You may still contact them at their Oklahoma address until notice of their departure. That address is 7620 NW 16th St, Oklahoma City, OK 73127
Blessings. Office of Logos Global Ministries (Source of Information: IRIN)