We had come to South Africa with 48kg of beanies and baby clothes that were to be distributed amongst four specific areas of need. Months earlier D had had clear instructions from God that we were to take beanies to Africa! I have to admit I thought she was mad.. but the beanies started arriving and with a few weeks to go before our departure date we had a mountain of beanies and free excess baggage to get all the beanies as far as Johannesburg. In Johannesburg we missed our connection to Cape Town and were upgraded to businesss class, which gave us excess baggage allowance. So God provided us with free beanie transport all the way to Cape Town! This would have cost us about R6000 or $1000 AUS! In Cape Town we only had one hurdle left.. how to fit 102kg of luggage into the mediumm sized hire car we had booked? There is no way 4 people and 102kg of luggage fit into a Chev! Again God stepped in.. the hire car company upgraded us, free of charge, to a 7 seater for the night! So at midnight, after 30 hours of travel, we arrived at our base in Cape Town.
A small selection of the knitting we brought to RSA.
Our reason for coming to Groote Schuur was to deliver some of the beanies and baby items to two wards there. Firstly we met Doctor Roux who works with HIV positive patients and has set up a project within the Kidz Positive Organisation called called Positive Beading. This project employs Moms to do beadwork which is then sold to earn them a living. Please take time to look at their website!
http://www.kidzpositive.org/beads/index.php
A few of the ladies working on the Positive Beadwork Project.
Dr Roux told us about the project and showed us examples of their beautiful work. He also took us around the wards where we were able to deliver a very special blanket to a very special boy! Dr Roux was also asked to take a number of the baby items with him to the Eastern Cape where some communities are in deperate need!
After saying goodbye we headed to the Special Care Baby Unit or SCBU in med speak. We had over a 100 beanies and booties to deliver here for the prem babies. This unit uses over 90 beanies, vests and booties a month! The beanies are vital as these little children, some born as young as 25 weeks gestation / 5 months into the pregnancy, loose much of their body heat through their heads.
It was so encouraging to be told that the staff regularly get together to pray for the well being of their patients and they have seen miraculous turn arounds in some patients prognosis as a result!
A patient ready for home. Look how his beanie has shrunk!
So after our tour of the unit we prayed together with the ward sister and took our leave. What an amazing day!
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