To heal, educate, feed, parent and nuture children in need are the main goals of Saving Orphans Through Healthcare and Outreach. Students were told just how they could help.
Cynthia Prime, co-founder of SOHO, visited Ball State Tuesday night to offer students information about SOHO and explain ways in which students can get involved.
Swaziland is the center of the AIDs pandemic, Prime said, and the high death rates contribute to a high amount of orphaned children. These children receive little or no assistance from the government — a monarchy — that Prime said is largely disconnected from its people.
"The king does not lack," she said. "He is extremely wealthy, and he lives with his 14 queens in palaces. He's not a monster. He is just not in touch with the fact that children are dying in his kingdom."
SOHO is a non-profit organization with a hub in Indianapolis that works primarily to help these orphaned or vulnerable children. They furthermore focus on offering aid to child-headed households.
"It is difficult to conceive that a child who at 10 or nine, or even eight, has to figure out how to find food, how to find water," Prime said.
Yet of the 120,000 orphans in Swaziland, approximately 15,000 of them are members of families in which children raise their siblings, she said.
Prime said despite their challenges, the children remain resilient.
"They make joy for themselves," she said. "When they are hungry, they sing, but when they are full, they dance."
Prime explained that hope is the reason these children are able to survive. This is the inspiration for "The Hope Seekers," a coffee table book of photography from and documentary about Swaziland that SOHO is soon releasing.
"The struggle is there, but what you're seeing there is the face of hope," Prime said. "This is not a downer. It is meant to inspire you, because you are the change agents who are going to change things in society."
SOHO offers a variety of ways through which students can get involved. The organization plans regular trips to different nations in sub-Saharan Africa that usually last two weeks and cost approximately $3,000. People who participate in these trips inform SOHO of their interests and talents so the organization can offer individuals opportunities to help that all parties involved will find valuable, said Rachel Phillips, Prime's academic liaison.
"You're meant to empower these children," Phillips said. "But the children are also meant to empower you and allow you to come up with a solution."
Students who attended the event came for a variety of reasons. Kelsey Thompson, junior elementary special education major, came because of her passion for children.
"I realized how blessed I am, that I have so much to give that I'm not giving," Thompson said.
Thompson, who is part of Ball State's Christian Campus House, said that she would love the opportunity to work with SOHO.
"It's definitely a good possibility that we would be going as an organization," she said.
SOHO works closely with Butler and has a hub in Indianapolis. The organization also hopes to get significantly more involved with Ball State.
Some events SOHO needs volunteers for include an upcoming donation drive, in which SOHO will be accepting a wide variety of necessary goods to send to Swaziland. Many events also occur regularly that raise awareness and money for SOHO and its causes.
"Hope is hitched to the belief that you can make a difference in the lives of these children," Prime said. "You can become the hope that is not existent in their lives. Your voices are being heard around the world. When you speak up, the governments listen."
For more information or to get involved, visit seedsofhopeoutreach.com, or contact Cardinal Communications at info@cardinalcomm.org.
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