East and Southern Africa

Bringing Hope to the Xhosa

by Lyn Burnett, TWR Women of Hope Representative - Eastern Cape, South Africa

South Africa, at the southern tip of Africa, has nine provinces and 11 official languages. The Xhosa-speaking people are the second-largest cultural group, mostly living in the poorest province in South Africa, the Eastern Cape.

As is the case among many groups in South Africa, Xhosa women are also victims of issues like domestic violence, rape, unemployment, poverty, and alcohol and drug abuse.

In 2018 TWR Women of Hope started producing the Women of Hope program in Xhosa to reach out to these women. The TWR Women of Hope team soon realized that many of the neediest women were living in the rural areas where the illiteracy rate is high and access to health facilities, transportation and even water is inadequate.

Women in these areas find it difficult to listen to the Women of Hope program on radios, mobile phones or the internet because reception, electricity and even batteries are either unreliable or expensive.

The Xhosa Women of Hope program together with the Xhosa Bible are loaded onto audio players (small handheld devices that are solar-rechargeable). The women listen to these when they meet in groups in their churches or communities. They also use the Xhosa translation of the prayer calendars to pray for women worldwide. These audio players are used very effectively in the difficult-to-reach rural areas. Even though many audio players have been distributed in the Eastern Cape, many more are needed.

Two local FM radio stations in the cities are broadcasting the Xhosa Women of Hope program, and we are working with other FM stations to get them on board with us.

The women are tuning in and connecting with TWR Women of Hope! Recently, a listener cried out for help: “Please pray for me. In February last year, I lost my son. He was 10 years old. Two months later my husband filed for divorce, and now a month ago, my father died. I am tired, I am hurt, I am lonely, and I no longer have the desire to pray.”

We want to reach out to even more women in South Africa using the radio program and prayer calendars to give them real hope and to help them grow in their walk with the Lord.

“The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field” (Luke 10:2).