March Update: Our hottest Feb since 1981
Dear friends,
Very warm greetings to you all from Bulawayo Zimbabwe (we’ve just had our hottest February since 1981, and finished a week or more of a heatwave, so it’s very warm greetings 😁😁).
I’d love to start by sharing with you today a bit of the ‘heart’ of what’s been happening within Our Neighbours Ministry here in Bulawayo recently…
On the right, or below if you reading from a mobile device, you can see some photos of our precious little ones at Isaiah’s Babies Home 😊😊… how adorable are these precious souls… And our heart for them is to absolutely love and care for them whilst they are with us at Isaiah’s… However, it’s ultimately also to find a family for them to be part of for life, where they are loved and supported etc etc for all of their lives…
Isaiah’s currently has 24 babies and young children, so it’s very busy. One of the areas of focus is family tracing, and family reunification where that is a good option. Family tracing can be a long and tedious process however, it is important to exhaust all avenues before giving up the search. It involves pounding the streets seeking information, engaging other stakeholders who might have information, going physically to places where we might find information such as the neighbourhood where a baby was left alone, or a squatter camp near where a child was found. All this requires resources.
When relatives are traced they are assessed for suitability to care for the child. Most importantly they must have the desire to do so. In some instances, the relatives of the children in our care can be traced, however the reality is that most are living in abject poverty and unable to care for another child. Often times the families are so poor that other children in that family are malnourished and are not going to school although they will be of school going age. However, there may still be options, including with support from us or others, that these families can be supported to live as a family.
This year we seek to even grow the level of our family tracing efforts, at the same time as we grow our awareness raising efforts on the needs of orphans, hoping to increase the amount of people considering adoptions. We would like to thank all of those who contribute in cash or in kind to make this important task possible. We have now had 196 babies/young children come to Isaiah’s since we opened in 2007, including those currently with us. Of these, 30% have been reunited successfully with their extended family, and 33% fostered to be adopted.
We also have a big heart for Tsitsi (name changed to protect identity). Tsitsi is now a 14 year old girl, who we helped to get an educational foundation at Lighthouse Christian Academy, before she was reintegrated into a local government school on a Lighthouse scholarship (these are reviewed annually to seek to do things in the best way possible). Tsitsi is a sweet natured, quiet young lady, with an infectious smile. And she is also academically gifted, finishing in the top 3 in her class ever since she joined the local school.
Last year she wrote her final primary level examinations under tremendous stress due to domestic violence at home. After one particularly violent attack on Tsitsi’s mother by her step father late last year, her mother fled and finally sought police intervention. As ONM we have been able to support the family with counseling, food support and medication, and without this support the family would have really struggled to get back on their feet.
Thankfully Tsitsi has still been able to start this years schooling at secondary level ok, and more determined than ever to excel. One thing Tsitsi doesn’t have to worry about, thanks to the support from well-wishers like yourselves, is if her school fees will be paid or whether she will have school books and a uniform. And she has transitioned well so far into her new school and new environment 😊😊.
Lighthouse Christian Academy currently has 24 students either with us every day, or on year-by-year scholarships to government schools or colleges, and we have 4 students who recently finished with us, who are hoping to start vocational training next term, funds permitting.
There are so many people in need here in Zimbabwe, and it honestly feels like things just keep getting worse year by year. The World Food Program says 42% of Zimbabwean’s live in extreme poverty (current figures). Independent assessment of the rate of inflation of the Zimbabwe dollar by Steve Hanke from The John Hopkins University, shows Zimbabwe’s inflation being 1,605% p.a. (at 7 March), the highest in the world by a very long way. And yes, we also use the US dollar here still, but that inflation rate really increases the cost of living for everyone, including the US dollar cost of living, and affects the entire economy very very negatively.
I sometimes ask God why He allows such levels of corruption, so much greed and lies, etc, as I see happening here in Zimbabwe, to just continue happening… And I also ask various questions sometimes re individual situations… like how to people cope with the level of evil they’ve been subjected to, the levels of abuse, or why people die so young because of a lack of decent health care, etc… And I have no idea… other than being reminded of the fallen state of this world…
However, I also think then, sometimes, that at least we are able to show that we care, to many people… to seek to show God’s love and support to them, etc…
With our Soup Kitchen lunch, which currently averages around 115 people on the two days per week we have that, is basically seeking to help people have a decent nutritious meal to help their overall health, and provide an opportunity to show them that we value them, and to build a relationship with them. And we are just about to empower another group of 25 people through small business loans, within this part of Our Neighbours Ministry.
Each of these 25 people we’ve built relationships with over time, and worked with them as they developed small business plans for themselves. This is something we love doing, because of our heart for these people, and our heart for them to be able to break out of the cycle of extreme poverty.
Out of our last group of 23 individuals empowered through small business loans, 11 have fully repaid their loans, 10 partially repaid (5 of these have paid more than 50% though thus far), and 2 haven’t repaid anything as yet (one due to illness). These percentages aren’t too bad for the target group that we seek to support. And it’s as people demonstrate faithfulness, that we are able to further help people grow their businesses in different ways. That’s why our initial loans are on the small side, around US$100 per person.
So, THANK YOU SO MUCH friends for your part in helping us to show love and care and hope and God’s light to SO MANY children and people!!!
We do continue to face some significant financial challenges as ONM currently, as we seek to do all that we believe we should, as I mentioned in my last update. And we probably expect things to continue to be difficult up-to July this year. We think we are aware of some reasons for this situation and we have looked at ways to improve our situation financially going forward. If anyone would like more information on any of this, please just ask me. Also, anyone who’d like to particularly help us a little extra financially in these next few months, or sign up to start for example supporting a particular part of ONM each month, etc, we’d love to hear from you 😊😊.
I’ll sign out now before this update is too long.
Sending you all much love and thanks, and looking forward to connecting with you when we get to do that next.