Now we enter December, a month of affirmation and of reflection. This season we honor with deepest gratitude the wonderful people whose gifts come our way, which we pass on to our dear Malawi friends.

One friend was John Mwambokera, pictured above. He was himself a gift, and his organization is as well.

John was the organizing force behind Mphatso Home-based Care, a community of neighbors in a greatly impoverished part of Malawi's capital city. In the Chichewa dialect of Bantu mphatso means "gift." He and his organization were indeed that to the orphans and to patients struggling with illness.

John's caregiver group worked hard and devotedly to help all in their community. Always they received us warmly, with broad smiles. They appreciated so greatly the help we have been able to provide them. Our time with John, the caregivers, and orphans invariably opened and closed with a bit of ceremony expressing the gratitude and hope that enables everything else. This kind of affirmation was the fuel that kept the works of mercy going when the money was gone and the medications, blankets, clothes, and food were no more.

John was orphaned as a child and lived with HIV for several years. He was lucky to have obtained anti-retroviral medications soon after they became available. Recently, however, he became ill. He died on October 23 and was buried two days later in Karonga District, in Malawi's north. His wife predeceased him and his children survive as orphans.

A lovely group of people in eastern Pennsylvania - HomeAID for Africa - has partnered with us to support Mphatso under John's leadership. Now one of their families has named a nursing scholarship for John Mwambokera, which we will administer in support of two young Malawi women destined as nurses to become caregivers. John would be very pleased.

The days grow shorter and darker in our part of the world, but in Malawi they grow lighter and longer. The rhythm of this is good for us to know. We try to follow the African example, to live in gratitude and hope and we mostly succeed with it. This time of year we wish these gentle qualities for all of you and yours.

The photo you see of a newborn was taken by Marie Arago. It was shot at a hospital in a subsistence farming area in a western part of Malawi near the Zambia border.

The small, rural hospital is operated by Malawi Roman Catholic nuns. Their parish service area contains 60,000 people, including several thousands of women of child-bearing age. The maternity staff anticipates 4,000 deliveries per year. Country-wide, Malawi ranks third in the world in maternal deaths.

HIV is heavily implicated in the 15% of complicated births requiring Cesarean sections, blood transfusions, fistula repairs, and the like. This hospital is presently unable to respond effectively to these problems, so the women in difficulty must be transported to a congested government hospital fifteen kilometers away. Some moms and newborns do not survive the trip.

GAIA is presently helping to establish a 'safe birthing center' here, to include a new delivery environment and appropriate equipment -- a respirator, incubator, oxygen concentrator, sterilizer, and other equipment to save lives. We envision a day when pregnant women in this high HIV-prevalence rural area can count on safe and effective hospital care for themselves and their babies.

Many, many thanks.

The photo taken in August by Marie Arago shows two kids finally at the head of a line to receive bread.

"We also supply food to orphans," I mention to U.S. donors, as if feeding children is mundane, hardly anything.

But being close enough to speak with these kids makes it difficult not to wonder, "Will there be bread next time, and the time after that?" This is inconceivable, utterly impermissible.

The children are cared for by a group formed in 1997 to help AIDS patients. When the parents died their kids were left behind. This organization cares for 1500 children, a typical number for an entity of this kind. Of this number 52 contracted HIV from their mothers at birth or through breast milk. They are now on medications for HIV and/or TB.

The youngest attend free government primary schools. We pay secondary school fees for 21 orphaned youth.

The Executive Director is enlightened. His former professor at the University of Malawi says "we knew he was a special person." Here the psychosocial needs of the children are attended to, as well as the physical.

In Let Us Now Praise Famous Men James Agee wrote, "In every child that is born, under no matter what circumstance and no matter what parents, the potentiality of the human race is born again and in him, too, once more and of each of us, our terrific responsibility toward human life: toward the utmost idea of goodness, of the horror of terror, and of God."

In this photo I see the potentiality of the human race, and I feel some urgency and joy at responding, being somehow responsible. And because you help us help them, maybe you too feel a little bit the same.

We Americans were greatly moved by the singing of the girls at the Likuni Secondary School for Girls in Lilongwe, Malawi. A particular girl here, one among many whom we support, is doing extremely well in her studies, despite having had a hard life. Mary is an 18 year old orphan in Form 4 (senior year.) Her parents divorced when she was young. She was raised by a grandmother, a farmer, north of here. Her mom died 8 years ago and her dad after that. Mary would like to attend the University of Malawi to become either a journalist or a political leader. She received an award for excellence in scholarship, and her photo appears in this update.

Sister Clementine is the Head of the school. She says most of the girls here are selected by the government after competing in a national exam. She adds that it is difficult for a girl to find a rewarding job without further education. Many of the girls would love to go to college, a nursing school, or a teacher's college if funds were available.

We assist girls in forms 2, 3, and 4, the equivalent of the final three years of high school. Our funds buy them school supplies like pens and personal items they could not purchase otherwise, like sanitary pads, soap, and skin lotion. And we provide the $171 that covers their school fees for a full year.

At the ceremony welcoming us one girl reads a speech thanking us for our help. Another asks for continued GAIA support. There are other speeches and soon it is my turn. I tell them we want strong, smart girls and women for Malawi's future, and that we are very proud of them.

We provide similar assistance to some orphaned boys in a related secondary school as well, and another 34 students at the Lilongwe Girls' Secondary School. Lots of the young people at all these schools are orphaned or otherwise affected by HIV.

In a teacher's lounge at one school is a small blackboard for personal announcements, requests, and the like. "Remember Social Welfare Contribution to: Mrs. C, Mrs. K," reads one phrase, and below that, "It is well with my soul."

We were greatly affected by the young people and their teachers, and grateful to our U.S. donors whose generosity enables these orphaned kids to have a chance at a meaningful future.

We believe that effecting change is done by finding key individuals who are both smart and dedicated, and who also possess the ability to simply 'make something happen. That trait is indefinable, but we know it when we see it.