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Tag: Home Based Care

Working Together for 14 Times the Impact

Written by WOW Staff on . Posted in Blog.

“Tomorrow you are going to Chibolya. The driver will pick you up at 9:30.” 

Kathy and I had just flown to Lusaka, Zambia to spend a few days with WOW’s ministry champion CHRESO, our partner for 25 years.

Chibolya… “Where’s that?” we asked.

“It’s in the centre of Lusaka,” they said. “It’s the most dangerous place in the city, maybe in all of Zambia. Most Lusakans avoid it. And they would probably warn you to stay away because you’ll be seen as rich foreigners.”

“But you work there,” Kathy responded.

“We do, by God’s grace. He protects us from the drug dealers, hostile gangs, and disease. It may be one of the most violent, virulent slums in Africa but we felt we needed to have a presence there. A light in the darkness! (We’ve not taken you in the past because of the danger. But we think you need to see where WOW’s meds are being prescribed and delivered.)”

As we drove into Chibolya the next morning, the street was so narrow our vehicle’s side mirrors were almost scraping the market stalls on either side. And it was our first experience driving on a street “paved” with compressed layers of garbage, the acrid smell adding another dimension to the atmosphere.

Apart from mainly curious but occasionally hostile looks from the teeming crowds making way for our truck, and shouts of “mzungu!” (“white person”) from the children, we made it to the clinic without incident. It was hidden behind a cement security wall and a heavy steel gate. It looked like a prison compound.

The clinic was a simple structure of bare cement blocks and a low, flat roof, unglazed windows with rusted burglar bars. It housed two-and-a-half dimly lit rooms. The reception desk, a small pharmacist’s table, and a few chairs were the only furniture in the main room, and an examining table behind a curtain was in the back room. The registrar, the pharmacist, a nurse practitioner, a medical officer, and five angelic volunteers comprised the staff. There were about ten patients crowded inside.

The registrar worked with pen and paper, the pharmacist with a few boxes of medications (supplied by WOW), and the nurse practitioner and medical officer examined and prescribed treatment with minimal equipment but great expertise and a loving touch. The volunteers (I do mean “angels”) brought in the critically ill patients from the streets. They knew there was risk each time they left the clinic to find the sick and the dying.  

As we took it all in Kathy and I felt we were on holy ground. 

To this point our exposure to CHRESO’s medical ministry had been limited to visiting their mobile medical clinics in the remote rural areas of southern Zambia where WOW’s pharmaceutical supplies were/are being administered to 5000 patients per month. But now we were seeing the urban side of our ministry and the overall impact was/is humbling and inspiring.

There’s no doubt the Lord has led us to “the least of these”.

As you know, once a year WOW challenges you with the opportunity to fund life-giving medications for our champion partners in Africa. We’re able to do so in partnership with Health Partners International Canada (HPIC), a marvellous Christian ministry who source their pharmaceuticals from the major pharma companies. And it’s all done with matching dollars.

This year we’re so grateful to the Lord that we can offer a 14:1 match!

One dollar from you becomes 14 dollars of medications for humble, godly ministry to the poorest of the poor. The impact is incalculable.

We, of course, do not take you for granted. We know your gifts are prompted by the Holy Spirit and are bathed in compassion. We truly are “labourers together”.

So we thank you for your heart and commitment to extending the hands of Jesus to these needy ones. They are his children.

In conclusion, I’m reminded of the scripture that declares, “He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and He will repay him for what he has done” (Proverbs 19:17).

May the Lord bless you for your compassion and kindness.

Jim.

One Hand Up. One Hand Down.

Written by Jim Cantelon on . Posted in Blog.

Kathy and I will be in Africa as you read this letter.

We try to be there at least twice each year in compliance with government “monitoring & evaluation” requirements. But we find it’s so very important to be there to meet with our champion ministries and their orphans and widows both to inspire and to be updated in person. Every visit, however, we wonder who’s inspiring whom.

The widows inspire us with their child-like trust in God even as they live in abject poverty and disease.

They love Kathy especially. Whenever we enter a dusty rural village the children gather about her and follow wherever she goes. Sometimes a group of them will reach up and take her hands as she walks. One time I saw four children on each hand!

This total trust in “Momma Kattie”, as they call her, has often reminded me of a little song we used to sing as children in Sunday School:

And the picture of their hands reaching up and Kathy’s reaching down captures it.

We are just like them in so many ways. We may not be impoverished or diseased but we ARE ultimately  totally dependant on the Lord. This may be why Jesus said we’re to be like “little children” in our trust and obedience. We reach up even as our Father reaches down.

This hand-in-hand relationship is what the Father seeks.  He has taken the initiative. He has reached down. And his love captures our heart – so we reach up.

You need to know that our entire ministry with WOW is predicated on this truth. The orphans and widows in their desperate plight are reaching up to the Lord by reaching up for our hands. We too reach up to the Lord and down to them. As we do so we see ourselves as your hands extended to them in the name of Jesus. This truly is a partnership between heaven and earth.

So it’s one hand up and one hand down. Our faithful offerings  of our time, talent, and treasure are the evidence  of our trust and obedience as we humbly seek to do His will.

We truly value you! You are proven friends of “the least of these”. We’re so grateful for your support.

It’s Something Extraordinary!

Written by Jim Cantelon on . Posted in Blog.

Once a year WOW does something extraordinary!

In cooperation with a proven Christian global organization, “Health Partners International”, we are able to provide desperately needed medications to our African ministries at a 7:1 match. This, of course, means that our donated funds are magnified 7 times, as is the volume of pharma we are able to ship.

One of the areas where we administer these vital medications is in the Siavonga region of southern Zambia. Situated on the shores of the man-made Lake Kariba and bordering Zimbabwe, it is a semi-arid, harsh, remote area thinly populated by the historic Tonga people. It is unserviced and impoverished in every way. Thankfully, with our Lusaka-based ministry partner CHRESO, we are engaged in vital health care for approximately 5,000 of “the least of these” every month.

A saintly nurse practitioner named “Suitebertha” (pronounced Sweet-Bertha), with a skeleton staff and a well equipped 3 ton box van, does a circuit to 27 remote, rough hewn clinics. Faithfully, week after week, she and her driver-cum-triage nurse- cum-orderly-cum-mechanic process up to 150 people a day. She is truly an “angel of mercy” to her suffering clients. The people gather at these humble way stations as dawn breaks and patiently await her arrival. A cheer erupts as they see the dust trail of the van on the horizon and they greet Suitebertha with joy and not a few shouts of praise to God.

Every patient has a file and every medication is recorded, as is their current health status. It’s a totally efficient operation. We travelled to Siavonga last September and it was humbling for Kathy and me to witness the relief and gratitude on the people’s faces. As they gave thanks to the Lord so did we!

The medications we are able to provide are the “over-the-counter” products like pain killers, cold medicines, topical skin salves, antiseptics, etc. – all of which are unavailable apart from what we can provide. Our costs also include shipping, which can range from $16,000 to $20,000 for the air transport of meds overseas.

So with gratitude in my heart I encourage you to join us in this extraordinary opportunity to give a generous gift at a $7 – $1 ratio to the Lord’s dearly loved Tonga orphans and widows in Siavonga.

Together we have been faithfully ministering to thousands of orphans and widows in Jesus’ name for 23 years. What a privilege, what an honor! Such a blessing to bless others and hear them, from their hearts, give thanks and glory to the Lord.

 

 

The Cost of Survival

Written by Jim Cantelon on . Posted in Blog.

 

As I sat down to write this letter to you my WhatsApp pinged with a message from Pastor Kyle Tolman,
our partner champion in South Africa. Read it and weep…

 

The United Nations designates orphaned children raising children as “Child Headed Households”(CHH). We care for scores of these children in South Africa, Zambia, Malawi, and India. They are “at risk” in every conceivable way. They break your heart. Truly they need “a Father to the fatherless and defender of widows” (Ps. 68:5). And the Lord calls his children to take up this challenge in his name.

WOW has been faithfully doing so for 21 years. Literally tens of thousands of orphans and widows have been cared for in our Home Based Care programs administered and championed by our vast network of pastor/champions and their local church volunteers. It’s a great story of God’s love shining through his servants to those lost in desperate need.

The Covid-19 pandemic has added more than an edge of urgency to this ministry, not only in terms of added sickness and death, but also in terms of the cost of providing basic commodities (cornmeal, cooking oil, sugar, blankets, medications, etc). The rise in prices for these basics is in the range of 300%. Needless to say this puts our partners under enormous financial stress.

“Cost of Living” is now “Cost of Survival”.

 

This is not a gimmick. This is brutal reality for our thousands of orphans and widows, especially for those humble mud hut households where children are raising themselves. Their “cost of survival” is now 300% higher than it was before Covid-19 began ravaging our world.

We are more than able to reach into our abundant resources and reach out to a world of suffering. WOW is one of many ministries doing a great job. But we are in relationship with you. You trust us and we trust you. This is strength. Strength to meet the challenge of the “cost of survival” for our vulnerable little brothers and sisters in need.

 

June 2021 Update

Written by Jim Cantelon on . Posted in Blog.

I answered a WhatsApp call in the early hours of the morning. It was Prem, our church partner in Chennai, India. He confirmed my worst fears: “The pandemic is ravaging the city. The infection rates are soaring and people are dying. But, a wonderful thing has happened, Pastor! The state government has reached out to us as a trusted Charity and have urged us to provide “COVID Kits” and “Medical Kits” for those under our care. Can you help us?” What could I say? “Of course we will help!”

We’re all too aware that the COVID-19 pandemic is proving relentless. Here in the West, with the rollout of vaccines, there is incremental traction against it but in most of the developing world the crisis is growing exponentially. WOW’s fields of ministry are right in the middle of it, especially India.

 

We’re a small but trusted and effective player on the world scene with a footprint that includes South Africa, Zambia, Malawi, and South India. Our focus, as you know, is providing and equipping local church-based volunteers in an effective Home Based Care ministry. The “clients” are at-risk orphans and widows, all vulnerable to what is now a double pandemic of HIV&AIDS and COVID-19.

 

We have for several years been providing medications (non-prescriptive – painkillers, ointments, cough syrups and cold and flu relief) sourced through our terrific partnership with Health Partners International.

Once a year we do a 7 – 1 match, one dollar providing seven dollars worth of meds

What your gift funds, of course, is symptomatic relief (we cannot provide vaccines or anti-retroviral drugs), but it makes a huge difference for the afflicted!

We are again sending a shipment to our partners in Africa. Indian law makes it near impossible to ship meds, so we’re sending funds for our church partner in Chennai to purchase locally sourced supply.

I know you are motivated to give when your gift is multiplied Seven Times!

All this is done in the name of Jesus. It’s humbling and gratifying to hear “the least of these” not only rejoice but thank God for WOW’s medical intervention.

I thank you for your prayerful and generous involvement in this vital work.

Blessings,

Jim Cantelon – Founder/President
WOW – “Working for Orphans & Widows”

 

 

 

 

 

Pandemic Relief – Update from Malawi

Written by Jim Cantelon on . Posted in Blog.

As I write we’re into Year Two of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. We all feel the impact. And we’re ready for it to end. We’re tired. 

 

But, ironically, we’re also renewed in the sense that we’ve been forced to re-examine our lives, our values, our relationships, and our spirits. We’ve been “orphaned” from loved ones and from church community. We’ve been forced to go it alone.

And yet…

many of us have been surprised by the nearness of God in our isolation. It’s like we’re back to square one in our walk with Him and it feels good. Faith has been purged of much of the religious trappings that had attached themselves to the simplicity of the Gospel and we’re back to James’ clarion words:

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” (James 1:27)

Your partnership with us has enabled WOW to continue to grow in these troubled times.

As you know we work in South Africa, Zambia, Malawi, and Southern India. Our focus is Home Based Care, through local church volunteers, for at risk orphans and widows in their thousands. Amazing work in the name of Jesus is being done.

I’d like to highlight our partnership in Malawi.

Here’s a bullet point summary of just some of our ministry there in the past few months:

And this is just Malawi! WOW’s ministry in our other countries is thriving as well. God truly is “a Father to the fatherless and Defender of widows” (Psalm 68:5).

Because our champion ministries buy supplies locally we are faced with the COVID reality of doubled costs. We’re doing our best to adapt. So we’ve decided to provide our beleaguered partners with a COVID supplement. To do this we’ll need our support base (that would be you!) to add a little extra to your funding this quarter.

What a joy and privilege it is to link arms with you in loving these dear ones!

Thank you for your sensitivity to the heart of God.

Many blessings,

Jim Cantelon – Founder/President
WOW – “Working for Orphans & Widows”