Pub. 4 2020 Issue 1

Building Partnerships in Eswatini I n the fall of 2019, Dr. Erin McAdams and Dr. Zachary Fredman worked with other medical professionals to plan a two-day medical conference. They had assessed the educational needs of their audience, researched evidence-based information, and prepared informative and topical presentations. What made this medical confer- ence very different from most, however, was that it took two days and over 10,000 miles to get there — because this conference was held in a small southern African country called Eswatini. Adventures in Missions In the early 2000s, Matt and Carike Gerber, a couple living in South Africa, became aware of some of the significant challenges facing the people in what was then Swaziland. The Gerbers wanted to find a way to assist the communities there that complimented the efforts already in place. What they learned was that groups of local women had set up informal resource points on plots of lands throughout the country to provide meals to children. The women were not paid for this service. They saw it as their duty to the commu - nity. Matt and Carike worked with the community members to formalize the plots of land that would come to be known as “Care Points.” The Gerbers’ objective was to provide sup - port on the backend to ensure that food would be available for the women to prepare and provide to the children. While the Care Points initially served only a few hundred children, they now provide meals to over 7,500 children from around the country. As the Care Points interacted with more and www.UtahAFP.org | 32