Author: Zeng Dieulv

We Are Helping Someone Else As Well

Diana

Her name is Diana Comacho – see photo. Her parents fled from the Frelimo war in Mozambique. She was born in South Africa. Sadly, her parents died when she was very young and she and three siblings were left alone with no relatives here to care for them. So, her brave older sister, a teenager at the time, had to do the parenting, no easy job when you have no income. The parents had both worked, but the children were left penniless. We found them, about 7 years ago, living on a stoep at the back of a house in Troyeville, really struggling.   

Diana completed her schooling at Jules High last year. Although it is extremely difficult for school-leavers to get work these days, she managed to find a menial job. Unfortunately, the so-called employers never paid her, so she left and is in need of some training. Mercy House considers it an honour, as usual, to be able to help: we are sponsoring her for a Beauty Course at a skills centre run by Bienvenue – a shelter for refugee women and children near Mercy House. We wish Diana well and hope that our efforts to help her will enable her to become self-employed.  

 

We Are Also Helping Nadine

Nadine

 

Nadine works as a volunteer at the Catholic Refugee Office. She helps in giving out food and clothing to refugees in need. As she needs some qualification to enable her to get employment, she asked us to help her do a  3-month course in home nursing which also includes caring for people with dementia and alzheimer’s disease. We were happy to be able to help and hope this will get her onto her feet in life.

Welcome Paige

Paige

On Sunday, 1 September,  we were able to welcome three young Americans  to Mercy House. Paige Clark was accompanied by her husband, Emmanuel, and Tiwana.  Paige has just taken up a post as Student Counsellor at the American International School and Tiwana is their new Service Learning Co-ordinator.  They arrived in South Africa in early August this year, Paige and Emmanuel coming directly from the USA and Tiwana from an English teaching stint in China.  They are very enthusiastic about helping at Mercy House in whatever way they can. We already planned that our Mercy House young people will attend a Fun Day at their school on Saturday 5 October. They will even fetch them and bring them home!   We put up posters to welcome Paige.
In the accompanying photo she is seen receiving one such poster, which touched her deeply. We thank God for this unexpected gift and look forward very much to working with them to enable our Mercy work shine and shine ever more brightly. Welcome Paige, Emmanuel  and Tiwana!

Christmas With A Difference

Preparing our Christmas balloons

 

We had a unique feature in our Christmas celebration 2018. In order to bring home the true meaning of the feast, we asked our young people what values this day gives to the world. We then inscribed these onto balloons filled with helium and released them, designating a county for each one. Our children had never seen balloons rise before so they were totally astonished as they rose up high until completely out of sight, sending peace and love and goodwill to the world. It was a great experience and thanks to Santa Shoe Boxes and Rosebank Union Church, everyone got a personalised Christmas gift.

 

American International School Does It Again

Thanks to our co-worker, Nozizwe Ndebele, in January of this year, the American International School donated two pairs of school shoes for each of the 20 refugee children who are being supported by Mercy House this year. What a blessing that was, given the cost of school shoes today. We thank them and Nozizwe for this magnanimous help. In March they will visit Mercy House and our young people will also have a trip to their school – something they always enjoy so much.

    

  

Rafael getting his shoes

 

Our Commitment To Education Continues

 

Unfortunately, a very large donation which we got annually in the past – to fund our education project – seems to have fallen away. Hence, we have had to reduce our extensive web of educational assistance, which was always schooling and tertiary, in favour of focussing on getting our young people through school and attaining the prized and essential matric certificate. In spite of this slight disadvantage, we can proudly (and gratefully) say that, thanks to help from our various donors, we are still able, this year, to assist 20 children with schooling, of whom 11 are in high school and 9 in junior school. 3 of the high school boys are in matric. Our tertiary support has been cut, but one donor is assisting a Mercy House boy with completing his degree in law, while we are also assisting another young man with completing a diploma in chemical engineering in April at a local technical college.

We wish also to congratulate Zeng, our website designer: all on his own he researched and found what seems like a dream come true in his life. Zeng has already done 2 years training in multimedia, but wants to specialise in animation and produce animated stories for children on the Bible. He found exactly what he was looking for and even got a bursary to study animation for 3 years to obtain a university diploma in digital animation at the Animation School in Johannesburg. We wish him well and trust it will enable him to shape many young people’s lives in the future.

We extend our warm congratulations to Ivan and Dioscor who wrote their matric at the end of last year and both passed well – with a “bachelors pass,” meaning they are eligible for university training. Ivan would like to be a teacher and we are trying to get a learnership for him at a private school, which would enable him to be an assistant teacher, whilst studying through UNISA for a degree, by distance education, at night. Dioscor wishes to do a degree in supply chain management. Since funding is a problem, we have suggested that they try to get work, so that they can pay the fees, and do their degrees by distance learning. Finding a job is also not easy for those who have just left school, so prayers are needed.

The photographs below show two of our Phoenix College scholars:

Brielle, who is in grade 3 this year

Exorcee now in grade 8, proudly sporting his new school blazer

Claire Giuliani Revisits

Claire came to Mercy House as a volunteer in September 2015 and stayed until  Christmas. Her parents are South African, but she was born and brought up in Italy

(from left to right) Claire’s husband, Claire, Diana and Mama Berthild

During her stay with us, she did simply anything and everything she could. She was like a ray of sunshine and greatly loved by all. It was hard for her to leave us, but she did not forget us. Soon after leaving us she got married and came back in February this year with her husband and small baby girl, whom she wanted to introduce to Mercy House. We greatly appreciate this sign of her love for, and loyalty to, our work. The photo shows her, with her husband and baby, arriving at the airport, where we went to welcome her back.

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