RENEWED HOPE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION, INC.
Working Together For Zimbabwe's Future
|
RENEWED HOPE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION, INC. Working Together For Zimbabwe's Future |
|
| October 31, 2006 Dear Readers, There are so many funerals, so much sadness. Precious, a little girl with HIV, died yesterday morning. That is the fourth funeral for children in the last couple of months. This is not an easy year. Every time we lose a child, we think how different it might be if we had a place to properly care for the children who are so terribly ill. We could provide the needed medicine the local health facilities are not providing. We could provide a nutritional diet in clean surroundings. All of this would give comfort to the sick and perhaps allow them to regain some level of health and lead a somewhat normal life. Joann left us last Thursday and the children come around asking for her. She did an excellent job of challenging the grade seven students that have nothing constructive to do since they have completed their year end tests. I think the seventh grade teachers also learned something. It will be interesting to see if they carry on with what Joann started. It would have been helpful if Joann could have been here the full two weeks that she was in Zimbabwe . One of the seventh grade teachers is gone for the next 10 days. He is at the Provincial Capital for the purpose of grading the English portion of the seventh grade exams. His class has no supervision and so not much is happening. I foolishly asked if he would be paid for his services. He laughed and said that they are told that it is their National Duty. They donʼt even receive a living allowance for the time they spend there only a small amount of money toward accommodations. Yesterday, three visitors arrived about lunch time. Pat Stephenson is from Evergreen, Colorado and spends most of each year in Cape Town . She is the one responsible for telling us about this place in 1995. Nicol Loos, from Evergreen, accompanied Pat and also Gladstone, a pastor from Cape Town . Our tiny house is bursting at the seams. To top it all, it is extremely hot. Yesterday was one hundred and four. Today promises to be all of that. Ralph is gone today. He has gone to Bindura to consult with ZESA about the electricity issue. We have come so close and now they need more money for meters, etc. Where will it end? The costs are threatening to shut down our other projects. Had we only known up front, electricity would not have been an issue. I am so pleased with the girls learning to sew. They are showing real promise. The young ones are causing the original women to work harder. They are challenged to measure up to what the young girls are able to do. The girl who started yesterday completed her secondary education last year. She has lost both of her parents and is living alone and caring for two younger children. The bit of money she can earn will certainly help out. November 3, I now have four young women who have completed their secondary education that have come wanting to sew. I have my hands full trying to give them a crash course in so little time. However, two of them are catching on rapidly and are already constructing uniforms with a bit of help. All four girls are orphans. Summer hit with a vengeance this week. Everyday it has been over 100 degrees. At noon today the thermometer registered 108 in the shade and we have no air conditioning. The nights cool some but it is still hot sleeping. We took a fourth grade girl to the hospital last week, the day before Joann flew home, with what was thought to be a broken arm. The x-ray proved that it was only badly bruised. The girl said that she had slipped on a rock when getting water from the river to water the garden. However, this week an Orphan Care Giver came to tell Mr. Bondeponde that the girl had been raped. We are inclined to think the suspected broken arm was the result of a struggle when the girl tried to defend herself. It is reported that the aunt, who is the girlʼs guardian, took the child to the man and told him he was now responsible for her (a practice in this culture). The man is already married. What kind of a life does this child have? We must find a way to provide a place of refuge for children like this one. November 8 Sunday morning a boy was brought to us in a wheel barrow. He had been injured playing with other children the previous evening. We didnʼt think the leg was broken but couldnʼt be certain. He was obviously in a great deal of pain. So he was given some aspirin and Ralph said that he would take him to the hospital the next day. There was no point in making a trip to Murewa to take him to the hospital on Sunday. No services are available on a Sunday. On Monday morning at 7:00 Ralph left here with a truck full of children, five total, and the dispensary nurse. The boyʼs leg was broken and he is now in a cast and walking with crutches. Some of the children could not be cared for as there was no water at the hospital. So another trip to the hospital is necessary on Friday. If we are lucky the water will have been restored. How a hospital can operate with no water is beyond me (no toilets, no showers, no surgery, etc.) So goes life in rural Zimbabwe . Yesterday, Tuesday, November 6, ZESA appeared at about 11:00 a.m. to connect our power. All was completed by 5:00 p.m. However, still no electricity because of power shedding. This morning the power is back on. Sometimes I wonder why bother. In spite of the frustration, the teachers are celebrating because they have hope of someday not having to use candles, that have become very expensive. At least they can go to the library in the evenings to do their work because there is power in the Administration building. The cooks at the Feeding Center are looking forward to the day when electric stoves can be provided in the kitchen and they will no longer have to cook outside on a wood fire. Early in our stay, we had hoped to have enough funds to provide stoves this year but the cost of getting electricity installed has consumed most of our money. Cooking for so many children (approximately 800) requires a lot of fire wood and that has become very expensive as has everything else. We have had to postpone our return trip due to the expected visit from Julia Henderson, ZMP chairperson and Jeff Mantz, Zimbabwe Mission chairperson from New Hope PC. Our return trip will be December 19 on BA flight 219 arriving in Denver at 4:15 in the afternoon. This has been an extremely difficult trip and we are looking forward to some down time. We continue to ask you for your prayers for the children here that have nothing and no one cares for. Pray that doors will open allowing us to provide more services. In His Service, Ralph and Roberta |
|
Renewed Hope Charitable Foundation, Inc. | a 501(c)(3) charity | P.O. Box 1476 | Castle Rock, Colorado | 80104-1476 2006 Journal 09 |