KEDESH HOME PAGE
Photos by Debbie Burgess. . Photos by Peter Keen. . Photos by Dave West. . Photos by Courtney Hancock. . Photos by Sarah Sparks
HEATHER PRITCHARD
My name’s Heather.
I’m from a small town called Hythe in Kent, South East England. I arrived at Kedesh in July 2008 and have been living and volunteering here ever since. In England I trained in Occupational Therapy at University and worked after for about 5 years in Mental Health settings. My job involved using activity as a way of helping people in varying degrees and stages of mental health illness recover and rehabilitate into rejoining everyday life outside the hospital. So how did I end up at Kedesh I bet you’re wondering?! Well before university I did a gap year project for 6 months which was based in Zimbabwe at the church that John’s father-in-law heads up in Harare. So as part of that my team was sent to Beira for 6 weeks to help John at Kedesh, which, at this stage was a home for 15 former street boys. I really enjoyed my first Mozambique experience and kept in contact with what was going. Then in 2007 I felt it was right to leave my job for a year and go back to Zimbabwe to help out with a local church in Bulawayo and see what Occupational Therapy was going on in the local Mental health hospital there. During this year I came across to Kedesh to visit (the 1st time in 8 years!) and it was then that I felt God speak to me about coming back long term. It was really just in the form of a ‘sense’ that I had that God was speaking to me but also at this time God reminded me again of the blessed upbringing I had, with 2 loving parents in a supportive environment and I knew that God had given me that for a reason – to use it to bless and help others that may not have had that. So that’s the end of the story really. I came back to the UK and resigned from my job, told my family and friends who were all really supportive and came back to Kedesh about 5 months later. Many people ask me what I do at kedesh or what my role is and it’s always a tricky question to answer. We have 30 boys that stay with us ranging from age 9 to 18. Some of them are orphans, others have one parent but the situation in their home makes it harmful for them to live there due to abuse, neglect or extreme poverty. Being the only women living at Kedesh my role is to be an Auntie figure to the older ones and mother figure to the younger ones and all that involves. As well I’m in charge of finances – giving out the money and monitoring our spending, a job that can be hard at times, especially when money’s tighter. Like my job in the UK I spend a lot of time doing activities with the boys and I think I’m using my occupational training in this – using activities not only for enjoyment but to help the boys develop and learn in the process. I regularly teach the boys English and bake with the younger boys and enjoy also helping give out food to the widows we support from the local area. No day is ever the same but that’s what I love about being here and the fact that every boy here has different personality, interests and qualities that the longer I’m here, I get to see more clearly.
Kedesh Orphanage, Mozambique
