From Shacks to Houses in South Africa

With the help of friends, Charis International recently sent $40,000 to Mamelodi, South Africa to build houses that will provide shelter for the poorest of the poor who are now living in dilapidated shacks.

I met Martin Vorster in Washington, D.C. at the Prescription for Hope Conference on HIV/AIDS. I identified with him when he described the call of God he and his wife Terry received to serve among the poorest of the poor in Mamelodi, a black township located near Pretoria, South Africa. In response to God's call, the Vorsters began traveling daily from their white suburban neighborhood to work in the black township. But they realized that to be accepted by the people, they must live among them. Here is part of their story.

Throughout Afghanistan, thousands of women and female-headed households have been left with no obvious means of support following decades of political instability, six years under a regime which denied women permission to work outside the home, and four years of drought

It has been twenty years since we first learned about a strange new disease—HIV/AIDS. No plague in the history of mankind has been as devastating. With infection rates running higher than expected, the next 20 years of the AIDS epidemic will be far worse unless there is a marked increase in prevention and treatment, according to the United Nations.

War, Drought, Famine

Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world. The ongoing 21-year civil war has destroyed the infrastructure of the country and caused the death of two million people. The effect on the population is incalculable.

Child Trauma Counseling Centre—Kosova

The Child Trauma Counseling Project was started in October 1999 with 10 children. Operating in Peje, Kosova, it was the idea of a Kosovar woman who had been in exile in Albania.

Out of her concern was born the Ketchup Club (Kids Enjoying Through Compassion and Hope), which is designed to tackle the effects of trauma in the children’s lives through group work and individual counseling.