Swazi...At A Glance

Here we are 2 weeks ago from departing to South Africa and Swaziland!  There are a lot of emotions swirling around for me and for the rest of the team.  Four years ago I had never heard of the tiny country called Swaziland, and now I will be helping lead a team of high schoolers and adults to Swaziland.

I wanted to give you a snapshot of the Kingdom of Swaziland.  For several years I have researched these stats, read about them, prayed about them and now they are going to move from stats to faces.  The 215,000 orphaned/vulnerable children number will move from a statistic on a website to an image of dozens of kids playing at the care point...which I am sure our team will talk about more on this on blog.

Hopefully this will give a you a snapshot of the country will be in!

*  Swaziland has a population of 950,000 - 215,000 are orphans or vulnerable children.  

*  There are 94,000 jobs in Swaziland - 70% are government jobs

*  On average 1 working Swazi supports 10 other people.  

*  Swaziland is a monarchy - it is ruled by a king.  King Mswati III, who has been king since 1986.  The King has 14 wives - each who drive a BMV, have their own royal residence.  The King also has 6 palaces.  

*  In the last 3 years 350,000 people have died of HIV/AIDS

*  44.6% of the population has HIV/AIDS

*  The religion here is a mix of Swazi Tradition, Zionism, and Christianity.  It's called a "powerless" faith.  

*  Life expectancy in Swaziland is about 40 years.  

Thank you so much for the support you have given and continue to give to the team.  We covet your prayers!  

For the team, 

Matt