March Newsletter     March Calendar

                                                MWANDI INFANT FORMULA PROJECT

First Presbyterian Church has been supporting the Mwandi Mission Hospital Project in Zambia for almost 20 years. Like most sub-Saharan countries in Africa, Mwandi suffers from a high incidence of HIV/AIDS. Many infants are born from HIV-positive mothers. If the infant is HIV-negative at birth, it is immediately placed on infant formula to prevent transfer of the HIV virus from the mother via the breast milk. Ida Waddell, resident missionary in Mwandi, is head of the AIDS Relief Project in the area. She began the infant formula project even though the AIDS Relief Project would not pay for it, which costs about $1/day for each infant on formula. Currently, there are >60 infants in the formula program. Ida works hard to collect enough money from many global sources to buy enough formula for all of these infants.

The picture below shows a group of the HIV-positive mothers with infants in the project. The mothers are knitting, crocheting, and sewing to make items to sell to help raise money for the formula.

Our Presbyterian Women’s sewing group is making ribbon/yarn necklaces to support this project. Photos of the necklaces are shown below. The necklaces can be made with a metal screw clasp with a knot and a sliding bead.

To order your necklaces, or if you have any questions, please click on either of the following names:   Jim & Lorraine Kelley or Catherine Vandegrift.

 Postage ranges from $2-$4 depending on the number of necklaces ordered.  Checks should be written to “First Presbyterian Church Aiken,” with a notation that the funds are for the “Infant Formula Project”.

Necklace Views:

(Click on a photo to enlarge - then use the back arrow to return to this page)

A child's necklace can be special ordered in any color for $3 each

New Arrivals:  $5.00

     Bubblegum           Cherry Blossom         Flower Garden         Foggy Morning            Rocky Road    

         Sierra                     Spices                   Strawberry

$5.00 Necklaces

          Advent                   Aquamarine                Berry Berry              Black-Gray                Blue                          Blue Ice            

      Breen                     Carnival                   Celebration         Copper Penny              Copper Wire                Crayola                                 

 Ebony & Ivory         Electric Cranberry             Fiesta                    Fire                       Goldenrod                  

        Grape                  Gray Pink                Holly Berry         Lavender Breeze               Lime                     Mardi Gras              Midnight        

        Night Life                  Ocean                   Olive Green              Peppermint            Pumpkin Patch             Rainbow          

        Raspberry                   Red                    Sapphire Sea             Sky Blue                   Smoke                               

          Snow                  Spring Fling             Starry Night             Stained Glass             Sweet Pea              Sugar & Cream                      

      Turquoise                  Waterfall                      Wine

$7.00 Necklaces

Aiken Delight                Champagne                   Citrus              Gold Amethyst

      Kimono Rich           Night Rainbow           Pastel Garden           Purple Passion            

      Red Hot               Rose Sparkle               Royal Blue                 Sassy Sorbets                    

     Silky Aqua                Silky Gold                Silky Silver                  Victoria

School Colors - $5 each

     Aiken High                Alabama                    Auburn                 Clemson/Michigan/VA Tech         

        Florida                   Furman           Georgia/Univ of SC           Indiana                   Georgia Tech

Presbyterian College    South Aiken High           Tennessee                  Wofford