Magogo to play with

Martha and I have just had a good giggle over the phone. She is sitting at home in Makapanstad sipping on her petrol (that’s what she calls coffee), having just returned from Pretoria after posting – what should have been - our last orders. The reason we are laughing is because Lebogeng, Martha’s granddaughter, has just interrupted us telling me how excited she is to have her Magogo (granny) to play with again tomorrow.

Martha has been so busy over the last few weeks – there has been little time for anything other than heartfelt. That's why she needs to go back to the post office one last time tomorrow. A combination of last minute orders and unforseen circumstances - unfortunately a few ladies have not been at work due to children taken ill – so instead of finishing today, tomorrow will be Martha’s last day for 2009.

I can hear the excitement in her voice - she can't wait to have a rest and spend some quality time with her family & grand children over Christmas and New Year. During our chat we also reminisce about everything that has happened over the year and how much we both love each other – I know that probably sounds a bit soppy but we really do. It's been a very challenging year and a really special journey. We are also so grateful and extremely humbled by all the support we’ve received from customers and friends. And so thankful to everyone who has given us a dream to believe in.

It’s been so inspiring to see the difference in the ladies and how they are empowering their lives. I’ve see a confidence grow in them that wasn’t there before - and a lot more happiness on their faces. Martha has been such an inspiration to us all over the year and her love and kindness has spread into all of our hearts.

I am going to be heading off to bed in a sec and wonder what time Martha will be up until? I have a feeling she might be up late finishing off the last of the last orders? Hopefully by next year this time we’ll have more ladies working with us and more heartfelt hands on board. Then Martha can spend a lot more time with Lebogeng teaching her the ‘Martha way’ – lucky girl, with a grandmother like that she’ll certainly grow up with a kind, kind heart.

A special something for our special lady

On the 1st of December for World Aids Day this year, Wendy Slade from Abantu Shop in the little village of Bourne in the UK put together a special heartfelt hamper for our special lady who is HIV Positive. It was filled with a whole heap of FairTrade goodies from her beautiful shop and each ticket was raffled off at £1 a ticket. We have just received a total of £72 from Wendy which will be given to our lovely lady and her family for Christmas. A very big thank you to everyone who bought a ticket and to Wendy for truly helping to make a heartfelt difference. It's going to be a very merry Christmas indeed!

A reason to celebrate

My brother got engaged last week – Martha calls him 'Mosimane' (which means 'boy' in Northern Sotho). He was Emanuel’s best friend. It’s so exciting to think that there will be another wedding to look forward to - my sister (picture here with Martha at my wedding) got married in May with all the heartfelt ladies there too. They were beside themselves with excitement when Martha told them about Mosimane & Christina. There was clapping and singing and everyone already knew what they were going to wear by the end of the day.

Martha was laughing when she told me. She just prayed the wedding was in Pretoria and not Cape Town where he lives. There’s one thing (actually two things now that I think of it) that Martha is petrified of. One of them is flying - so getting her on a plane would be an impossible task – and the other is Silkworms. I know, how funny. It makes me giggle when I think about how we used to have to keep them hidden out of sight in the garage when growing up. Just carrying anything that remotely looked like a shoe box would make her run for it.

Well I sure hope that Martha & the ladies can be at the wedding – we’ll put them all on a bus down to Cape Town if need be. It's just sad to think that Emanuel won’t be there – and that he’ll never have the opportunity to get married himself. It would have made Martha so proud.

I guess that’s why it is so important to celebrate special moments with the people we love. You just never know when they might not be around.

In the still of the night

'le Robale ga botse'. That’s what Martha and I say to each other most nights. It means 'good night and sleep well'. Though sometimes I have to wonder how much sleep Martha gets. She's such a busy body. I’ll often phone her at nine at night and she’ll still be up – working on the jobs for the next day. She doesn’t always like to let on that this is what she is doing because she knows I worry about her. She says she loves doing it with all her heart because it keeps her mind from wondering. I haven’t asked her about Emanuel in a little while but I bet this is who she wonders about.

I guess, in the stillness of the night – under the African night sky – it’s hard to escape ones loneliness and the sadness of losing a son. I also think about Matapelo alone with her two children after recently losing her mother and her husband. Madala down the road, who lost his wife last month after 40 years of marriage. Our lovely lady, lying in bed worrying about her health and her future.

In the cold light of day the reality of life in a little rural community is filled with a lot of sadness and pain. I guess that's why Heartfelt is something Martha cares about so deeply. It's where the ladies can share their heartfelt stories and she feels like she is not alone. I do often wonder if once all the work has been packed away and Martha is lying in the quiet of her bedroom she says ‘le robala ga botse’ to Emanuel before falling asleep every night? So that when she wakes - she can start her day with love in her heart.

A Shaky Shaky

It’s posting day today. Which means Martha has to go into Pretoria to post our weekly orders. There is a Post Office in Makapanstad – but we’ve had far too many parcels go missing. Something about seamail that they seem to love – airmail hasn’t hit the little community yet we don’t think. Martha said she was in there the other day to give them a ‘shaky-shaky’ as she put it, which made me smile. Apparently she told them that they would not be responsible for her business to go under and that if that happens and customers were unhappy – then they’d have a lot of very unhappy women in the community to deal with!

I love the fact that Martha is so passionate about Heartfelt. Ok, that’s putting it mildly. She is incredibly passionate about Heartfelt and everything that we do – and has taught me so much about work ethic. Who knows, maybe one day because of her - Speed Services will finally hit the Post Office in Makapanstad! Wouldn’t that be something? I bet had she had the opportunity to run a business earlier on in life she would have been a force to be reckoned with. Well I guess for now it’s an early start and a bus trip into the big city. But who knows - in a few years time she could be on the executive board of SAPO telling them where she thinks they're going wrong.

December Third

I spoke to our lovely lady yesterday (and to her mother) to tell her how supportive everyone has been since World Aids Day and how much we all love her. She sounded so happy, so thankful, so hopeful. It made my heart really happy.

Martha also popped over to her house (just around the corner(ish). First dirt road to the left, then turn right) and took her some hearts and a Mr Warthog to make – her favourite. It’s been almost a year since she was last at work. Martha will collect everything from her next week to see how she gets on. We would love it if she could get back to work in the New Year. Not only because we miss her smiley face – but also because we know that it will boost her confidence to be back in a loving environment. The Heartfelt ladies are always laughing together and they really care about each other – just the kind of place you need to be when you’re feeling a little vulnerable.

WORLD AIDS DAY & LESSONS LEARNT

As I sit here thinking about today - World Aids Day - I can’t quite believe where our heartfelt journey has taken Martha and me. We’ve had many challenges over the past year, HIV being one of them - and we've learnt that love and faith are a formidable force.

We’ve come face to face with this deadly virus and seen the damage it can cause to a woman’s body, her confidence, her mental health and most of all to her family. We’ve also seen how courage and a supportive environment are the difference between life & death and how corruption and poor education still run rife in rural areas.

In January this year, one of the Heartfelt ladies was diagnosed with HIV. It took the doctors at the local clinic three months to diagnose her. By this time she had lost all the feeling in her right side and she couldn’t walk. The doctors kept telling us that she had had a stroke – but at 32 years old – Martha and I were not convinced. When the doctors finally took the blood tests and diagnosed her as being HIV Positive (it costs R300 each time she needed to see the Dr so we believe all part of a corrupt system within the community), they gave her medication for Tuberculosis and sent her on her merry way. Offering no counselling, no advice or any explanation about her condition or the tablets she was taking – in fact, if we hadn't researched the tablets on the internet they would have slowly killed her.

I don’t think our lovely lady would still be alive today had she not had Heartfelt and the incredible support we’ve received from all our customers. After a lot of research (and a small donation) Martha and I came across the Tshepang Trust who not only found her a better Doctor but are still checking up on her progress on a bi-monthly basis today. Francie Finn – who helps us with all social and ethical issues within Heartfelt, found a counsellor through the Lighthouse Foundation - a lovely young lady called Nkele - who is slowly helping to give our lady an understanding about her illness and who'll also help us with workshops at heartfelt teaching the other ladies about HIV/AIDS and educating the community. There is still a ‘stigma’ attached to having the virus - hence why I've not named our lovely lady. She doesn’t want anyone to know about her condition so we have to tread carefully.

The sad part is that we can almost guarantee that she got the virus from her Husband who only lives at home on weekends and works in the city during the week – he denies that he is HIV Positive – and who know how many other women he is infecting?

With WORLD AIDS DAY today, I’d love to challenge you all to educate just one person around you about being HIV Positive. Martha’s sister Mina died from AIDS because she was too scared to tell anyone she had the virus. In South Africa you literally have to be on deaths door before they give you anti-retroviral drugs and by this time – your chance of recovery is really low. This is not right, the drugs are there to be taken straight away – so educate someone you love. Get them to ask the right questions, show them how to grow and eat the right foods and teach them that they can live a healthy, happy life with HIV.

If we all just save one life, we’ll start saving an entire generation. Yes there are many challenges that face our country and the rest of Africa. Over the past decade HIV/AIDS and other preventable diseases still take too many lives. I challenge you to make a positive difference. Teach someone with love - it could save their life.