Photo By Master Sgt. Lesley Waters | Army Capt. Julie Bridges, MEDFLAG 09 participant and Center for Health Promotion and...... read more read more
Subscribe
MOTJANE, Swaziland — Christmas came early for 65 children from the Emmanuel Khayalethu Orphanage, Aug. 14.
U.S. service members, participating in exercise MEDFLAG 09, donated 6,200 South African Rand (about $800) worth of food and toys to children, ranging in age of one to 15 years old.
MEDFLAG 09 was a joint and combined military exercise conducted by USARAF which supports the AFRICOM commander's Theater Security Cooperation strategy wherein U.S. military send medical capabilities to African countries. During exercise MEDFLAG 09, both U.S. and Swazi personnel conducted in class training on disaster medical planning and operations, a mass casualty exercise and humanitarian and civic outreach to local communities. Classes included first responder familiarization, disaster relief, preventive medicine and tropical medicine.
Halfway through the exercise, several service members wanted to do something more for the community and came up with collecting donations in order to purchase food and toys for a local orphanage, as well as spend time with the children.
"This has been the most rewarding part of my time in Swaziland," said Marine Cpl. David Johnson, 8th Communications Battalion field radio operator. "Our spending time with them, even for a few hours, shows the children someone does care about them and that they are not alone. The toys are great, but the personal attention is what they really enjoyed."
For the next several hours, 10 U.S. service members played soccer, rocked babies, held hands with toddlers, rolled toys trucks back a forth, combed little dolls hair and gave piggyback rides to the children of Emmanuel Khayalethu Orphanage.
"What you have done here today is one of the most important things you could have done for the children," said Hixonia Nxumalo, Emmanuel Khayalethu Orphanage coordinator. "Nearly all of these orphans have had nothing but bad horrific experiences in the young lives. The time and love you have shared with them will stay with them the rest of their lives."
The U.S. service members were in Swaziland at the invitation of the Swazi government and in coordination with the U.S. Embassy in Mbabane. Upon completion of the exercise, the U.S. service members returned to their home stations.
| Date Taken: | 08.14.2009 |
| Date Posted: | 08.20.2009 05:02 |
| Story ID: | 37734 |
| Location: | MOTJANE, SZ |
| Web Views: | 206 |
| Downloads: | 171 |
This work, U.S. service members visit Swazi orphanage, by MSgt Lesley Waters, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
