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GLOBAL TEEN CHALLENGE Strategic Outreach Report

WONDER KID

Manquoba and Joshua
They found Maquoba abandoned in a Police Station, after he was rescued no one had any idea this little dynamo would captivate a worldwide audience on the national day of prayer at the Prince of Wales stadium. This story comes for the Swazi Observer. It touched my heart to see him rise past his illness on tourin 2002, fighting the effects of the anti- retrovirals to minister with us each night. In my Africa Video I hold him in one arm as he sings, he now tries to pick me up when he see's me. He is a bundle of life, singing for the Lord in the face of a virus some outside Teen Challenge have told him for 6 years must soon cause his death.
. WONDER KID
 

13 YEARS OLD: HIV POSITIVE AND POSITIVE ABOUT LIFE

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INNOCENT  MAPHALALA
EMAFINI, Mbabane--That a 13-year-old child be told that he has tested positive to the HIV virus that causes AIDS could be regarded as an insensitive decision, but Manquoba Diamini has welcomed his fate.
In fact, he believes this is God's way of using him to save the Swazi nation from perishing. His minders at Teen Challenge agree.  They feel that it is better for one to know the truth about his status, so that he can take the necessary precautions to remain healthy and avoid infecting others.
f one has heard about him before meeting them, the first thing one notices about Manquoba is his size.  He is very small for some who claims to be 13 years old. Then his most striking feature -- a brilliant mind -- hit's one like a ton of bricks.  That he is HIV-positive is something that you will nor recall when he starts relating his life story.
"I do not know how I got infected with HIV but I know how it is transmitted," he said during an interview with this newspaper.  "It can be transmitted through contact with blood of infected person, through sexual intercourse or from mother to child." He decided to come out and publicly declare that he was HIV-positive to help follow fellow Swazis realize that the virus that causes AIDS is still spreading.Manqoba's first public appearance was last weekend where he testified before thousands of astounded Christians at the Prince of Wales Stadium.
This was during the national healing prayer organized by the Swaziland Association of Christian Ministry (S.A.C.M). This was when Maquoba, who was speaking in public for the first time, told the throngs of worshipers that he was HIV-positive.
He advises those who attended the prayer to change their ways to avoid getting infected. He said only God was the answer to the spread of AIDS. Interviewed this week, Maquoba said he was not afraid to appear in front of so many people.  He went there with some of the people he is staying with at the Lighthouse.  When he was asked if he wanted to testify, he agreed and stood to address up.
"I became displaced when my parents broke up because each time I wanted something, my mother would tell me to go to my father who would send me back to my mother," he said.  "I decided to run away and went to live with strangers in Matlanya. the audience Most of the attendees were touched by his words especially coming from a young man who claims to be 13 years old. Maquoba looks younger than 13 but insists that is his age.  He hails from Malamya where he stayed with his parents before they broke up.
I met Sister Carol, his caretaker in Mbabane, after I had left home.  The two met in a police station where Carol Cooper had gone for other business. This was on March 21, 2002 when Carol decided to take Maquoba to the Lighthouse. Here, Maquoba stays with seven other youngsters who are either orphans or addicted to drugs.  They stay with Carol and their other minders at  Checkers.
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Carol, a committed worker for Teen Callenge, rescued Manquoba from the Police Station. She prayed an broight hum home to "the ark." She has moved on to another ministry,, but her legacy of love continues at Teen Challenge as Manquoba grows.
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http://www.swazitc.com.