Susan and the Angels of Makhewu

I've written about my friend Suze on these pages before

She is a devoted mother, esteemed lecturer, comedienne and wonderful ambassador for the Australian Muslim community. But more than all of this, her heart is as wide as the southern sky.

When I told her I was returning to Swaziland this year, her response was simply
‘Well…. Let’s go shopping!!!’.

She bought enough childrens clothes and shoes to quite literally fill my entire suitcase. Over 30kilos worth.

So when I arrived in Swaziland I spoke to my friend Make ( pronounced ‘Magay’ meaning mother) Bhembe who works with the orphans in the community of Makhewu. She engaged a local youth group to go out into the surrounding area and find the names of those AIDS orphans who were in desperate need of clothing.

She then took Susans gifts and painstakingly made a set of clothes for each child, packaged them in black plastic bags and wrote a name on each one. She stored them in her own two room home until it was time to give them away.

Then one fine Saturday we organised one of our regular parties for the orphans at Makhewu.

This particular day we began by visiting the Maziya’s. A family about whom Make was very concerned.

Babe and Make (father and mother) Maziya were in dire need. Babe had come to Make Bhembe in tears one afternoon, saying that he had spent the day thinking of how he might steal some clothes for his baby. He was a good and decent man who had worked hard his whole life, and yet supporting a child was becoming just too difficult.

So we brought a bag of Susans baby clothes for the family.

Their joy was pure and unrestrained.

Later that day at the party for the orphans, we took 50 of the poorest and most vulnerable children in Makhewu into a room at the care point, and one by one began giving them their gifts.

I never cease to be amazed by these little ones. As much as people might think that we are helping them, I truly believe that they are our angels.

They have so much to teach us. About loving honestly, with the entirety of our soul. About living centred in the open moment. About walking forward in the face of the most tremendous adversities imaginable.

These little children bless the world with every breath they take.

They may have no parents. Often absolutely no adult guidance whatsoever and yet they seem to know something that we have lost along the way.

They give before they take. They feed each other before they are fed. They cry for a moment and then get back to the business of sharing love and seeking joy.

As I step back into this land overflowing with milk and honey, I am baffled as to why so many are reluctant to give to those who are without.

We come to the earth with nothing. We leave it with nothing.

Holding on to all that we perceive of as accumulated wealth, is simply feeding an illusion. None of it is ours to begin with anyway. Giving is a way of unburdening the soul.

Why should I clench my fist in selfishness, when I can open my hands and be free?

There is a line in one of my fathers favourite hymns which says:

"Brother, Sister, Let me serve you.

Let me be as Christ to you. Pray that I might have the grace to let you be my servant too."


It is always a privelege to serve.


This video comes with love and humble thanks to all those who have given and continue to give in ways big and small to the people of Swaziland,

Inkosi ini Busise (God bless you all)

Maithri