RENEWED HOPE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION, INC.
Working Together For Zimbabwe's Future
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RENEWED HOPE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION, INC. Working Together For Zimbabwe's Future |
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| May 9, 2003 No propane for lights. No petrol to run the generator for lights, charging the cell phone or computer. So it is early to bed and early to rise. I am typing this with early light and will type until I run out of battery on the computer. We will probably be in Harare on Monday and will be able to recharge batteries and hopefully send e-mails. Ralph tried to send e-mails Wednesday when he was in Murewa but with no success. The phone line kept kicking out on him. The system is terribly broken here. Work is progressing here at a snails pace. The floor for the preschool/counseling facility is finally poured. Today they will begin plastering the garage. Hopefully it will soon be complete as we are expecting the maize shipment very soon. School resumed yesterday. So things are abuzz with activity. I saw many, many sweaters that had been handed out from the recent shipment. Many of the children do anything to get our attention. They want us to notice the sweaters they have. At least they have something to keep them warm. Winter is approaching. The nights are cold and early morning calls for a sweater or jacket. The days continue to be warm and sometimes even hot in the sun. Last Sunday it was reported that Diana Masadza, an orphan we met last year, had a terrible toothache. On Monday she came to us in a great deal of pain. She had no money and it was obvious that she needed attention. Bus fare to Murewa is 600 ZD one way; more than the child had. Orphan Care goes beyond just feeding the children. I can’t turn my back on someone in pain or say we can’t help. Ralph gave her bus fare to Murewa and some for the dentist. We haven’t heard the outcome. My time has been consumed with helping the sewing women learn to refine their skills. I decided it best to train five women well and let them train the rest of the group. They have come up with a new method of distributing profits that I believe is fair for those who come consistently and work hard. Up to now there have been few producing and the profits were being divided equally among the entire group. It wasn’t really fair but they had to learn through experience. The group was becoming discouraged. Yesterday, I met with the knitting co-op to finalize their constitution. During that meeting we discussed some of the problems the sewing women have experienced over the years. I asked that they work together and try to come up with a method of figuring and distributing profits fairly. At the moment the two women who took lessons are still training the rest. I suggested and they agreed that there would be no profits taken during the training period. The sweaters that they sell during the training period will be reinvested in the co-op. Their machine is going to require a lot of maintenance, more so since it is a second hand machine. However, new machines are non-existent in this country at this time. The report on Diana, the orphan with the toothache, is that there is too much swelling to be able to pull the tooth. So she was sent home to wait for the swelling to go down. Does this make sense? I don’t know since I have never had a toothache. Yesterday we were invited to the Better Schools facility in Murewa. They wanted to have a formal handing over of some of the computers that were donated to them. You can see some of the computers in use in the picture section. It was reported that the children rush to the center after school so that they can spend time on the computer. I wish the children at Nyamashato had the same opportunity. A couple of weeks ago, ZESA came to the school to measure for a power line to the school. That is the first positive move we have seen in the years we have been trying to get power brought to the school. Perhaps, if we are lucky, they may have power in the coming year. Then we can ship computers to Nyamashato Primary as well as Nyamashato Secondary. I am not certain at this time if the other neighboring schools will have power brought to the schools or not. The feeding program for Inyagui and Guzha is beginning. At the moment they are only providing the nutrition drink. The hot meal will begin when the cooking facilities have been completed. This week the people who are going to do the cooking are at Nyamashato taking training from the cooks there. Hopefully they won’t have to learn by trial and error. Ralph has built a crate for shipping the carvings to the states. He built the crate on one of the pallets that came over on the recent shipment. The stone carver was pleased with it when we took it to him over the weekend. He had requested to have it for several days so that he could take his time packing. He really didn’t want the shipping company to pack his carvings. Anyway we hope to ship them in the next week. The day we took the crate to the stone carver, we stopped at his brother’s house. We needed Chris’s help in lifting the crate off the truck. Chris is a writer. In the picture section, you will see a picture of Chris outside his office. Ralph spoke with the MP this morning. He is going to get clearance for the corn that is on its way from Durban. It will possibly be delivered to the school near the end of next week. The receiving agent is keeping close tabs on it. Our time is growing short and there is still much to do. No matter how carefully we plan, it seems as though there is never enough time. 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
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