RENEWED HOPE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION, INC.

Working Together For Zimbabwe's Future

March 17, 2003

Today, we are in Harare.  One of things I did was to check in and see how the two women were doing who are taking knitting lessons on the knitting machine.   It has been two weeks since they began taking lessons. They are still so excited.  The women nearly fell over themselves trying to get to me to show me the sweaters they had made.  I must say they are doing an excellent job.  The women still have two more weeks of lessons and then an additional week to learn to knit sweaters with several colors.  We purchased more yarn for them to use in their lessons.  It had gone up $1,000 ZD per package.  I hope that the co-op can keep up with the price increases.

A group of 10 people from a United Methodist Church in Crofton, MD is in Zimbabwe on a two-week mission trip. They are working out of the Methodist Mission School in Murewa.  We had met several people from this same church in 2001.  A member of this group sent us an e-mail requesting to meet with us. They are going to come to Nyamashato tomorrow to look at some of the work we have been doing.  This has been the third group this church has sent since 1997.  They indicated that they felt ready to do more and wanted to ask us questions about how we went about expanding our program.  Hope that we are able to help.

March 21 we completed clothing distribution.  It has taken nearly two months.  This may seem to be an unusually long time but I feel the clothing reached more people and was done more fairly than in the past.  People actually got to choose what they wanted and what would fit.  This was not the case in the past.

Adults received clothing in the beginning and we had more of that than clothing for children.  We outfitted the school age orphans and extremely needy children after that.  Each child received a sweater or sweatshirt and several other pieces of clothing.

10 villages were serviced yesterday and today with clothing for children younger than school age.  675 different families came.  Each was allowed four pieces of clothing per family.  When we finished late yesterday, there were only two boxes of newborn clothing left over.  Ralph delivered it to Dandara Clinic.  They were extremely grateful for the donation.  We had no sweaters left over.  In fact that was the first item parents looked for.

Finally after two months the dining room is empty of boxes of clothing and is set-up to be used for feeding children again.  Alice, I even went over today and put up the valances that you sent.  I must say they do improve the appearance of the room.  There were enough that I was able to hang one in the OC office.

Today, March 23, Ralph made an early morning maternity run to Murewa Hospital.  The local clinic would not admit the expectant mother because it was a first baby and there appeared to be complications.  I believe the clinic needs an ambulance.  I think they may be able to obtain one through Japanese Transportation Aid.  That is where the Orphan Care Truck came from.  We had to pay $3,000.00 USD for the transportation.  It is not a new vehicle but is in good shape and runs very well.  During the time we have been here, Ralph has had the brakes relined and two new tires were put on the truck.  However, the quality of tires in Zimbabwe is extremely poor.  By the time the truck was driven from Harare to the school, it was difficult to tell which tires were new.  It might be worth the effort of driving the truck to SA and having new tires put on it the next time.

Now that the clothing distribution is complete, we are able to begin concentrating our efforts on other things.  The sewing women have been begging me to help them make patterns for secondary school uniforms.  There are about 67 boys and girls at the secondary school who are in need of new uniforms.  So every minute I can spare is spent helping these women.  I am also working with them to improve the quality of their product.  Last week I spent time teaching them how to sew buttons on so that they will not come off easily.

Mr. Bondeponde would like for me to devote some time to teaching English to the 6^th and 7^th grade classes.  Most can read English and understand what they read but they have difficulty carrying on a conversation.  There is so much to do and not enough people to share the work.

Mrs. Sanyika, the preschool teacher, wants me to come to the kindergarten class and teach.  Help!  How does one teach 120 little wiggling bodies?  There are just not enough teachers to go around. 

Nyamashato school enrollment now stands at 676 pupils, excluding the preschoolers.  That is up more than 100 children from what it was just over one year ago.  Second term, which begins the first of May, the staff will have a new addition.  The school will then have 17 teachers.  This is going to require another classroom that the school doesn’t have.  To make matters worse, we can’t get cement so we can consider building another classroom block.  Housing is another problem.  Teachers are going to have to share housing. 

When school resumes in May, the nutrition drink will no longer be provided for all the children enrolled in school.  It will continue to be provided for those children who are in the high-risk group.  Most families are beginning their harvest now and it is felt that the children will have enough to eat.  We do not want them to become dependent upon the Feeding program unless it is absolutely necessary.   This issue may have to be revisited as time goes on.

Thursday, we visited Inyagui School.  Mr. Bondeponde held a training session for them on how to go about selecting Orphan Care Givers for their villages.  He also gave them some guidelines to follow when determining who is really a child in need of the services the Orphan Care Center provides.  He cautioned them on pit falls that they may encounter.  We hope to be ready to start feeding a nutrition drink to those orphans when second term begins.  Next week we have a similar meeting scheduled at Guzha.

I wish all of you who had anything to do with the last shipment, through donating clothing, sorting or packing, could be here to receive some of the thanks that we are receiving.  The children are so cute.  They walk by our house real slow so that we will be sure and see them in their new clothes.  This week a widow, a mother of five children, came to our house to extend her gratitude for the clothes and to offer a prayer of thanksgiving.

This week new school uniforms were given to the orphans.  See pictures in the picture section.

On a bit of a sad note, see picture of Tapiwa in the picture section.  He is a little boy that is most likely HIV positive.  He has been losing weight all term in spite of the feeding program.  He walks a long way to come to school.  The teacher reports that the first thing he does when he gets in the classroom is to fall asleep.  When clothes were handed out, he received clothing and a pair of shoes.  However, he carries his shoes to school.  When he was asked why he didn’t wear them, he responded that they were too heavy.  He puts them on after he gets to school.

There is a great deal more to tell but my time is so limited that I am going to send this without further delay.

Ralph and I thank all of you for your prayers and your notes of encouragement.  We are doing fine.

In His Service,

Ralph and Roberta

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Renewed Hope Charitable Foundation, Inc. | a 501(c)(3) charity | P.O. Box 1476 | Castle Rock, Colorado | 80104-1476