Visit to Catherine

Our next visit to a middle-aged woman’s home was equally sad. Catherine, an AIDS widow, and her daughter live alone in a little two-room mud-brick house. Both mother and daughter have AIDS. Catherine is now quite ill and her feet and legs are swollen making it difficult for her to get around and impossible for her to pursue any income generating activities. The most pressing issue the day we visited was lack of food. The daughter was out in the neighborhood looking for food while the mother was home awaiting the results. It was obvious from the kitchen shelves neatly lined with newspapers and the attractively arranged meager possessions in the house that Catherine had once taken pride in her surroundings. Now her total existence revolved around finding food for the next meal. There was literally no food in the house – not even a few dried beans or handful of cornmeal. At the end of our visit we had prayer with Catherine and took our leave.

Totally sobered by the impact of our visit and knowing there were many more just like Catherine in the neighborhood, a little emergency fund of $400 was set up with donations made by our team for the Kafwa to use. They immediately set up a bank account, developed an accounting system, and spent 68,000 Kwacha (approximately $15 U.S) to purchase enough food to last Catherine and her daughter for two weeks. When the food was delivered, Catherine said with tears in her eyes, “God is so good to me!” The Kafwa estimate that the $400 will last about 6 months if they use it only for the most pressing emergencies.