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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| November 21, 2006 Dear Readers, I am writing to you from Zimbabwe and the temperature is hovering at 100 degrees. Most of you at home are preparing for Thanksgiving. It seems strange to be here and not involved in all of the festivities. We will think about you as many of you feast on roast turkey. Since we have no oven, roast anything is out of the question. With the temperatures we are experiencing, it is difficult to keep ice even in a good ice chest. Sunday, November 19, at a very early hour we met Julia Henderson, Ruth Huff and Jeff Mantz at the Harare airport. They had been traveling for two days and had a busy day planned for them. After church at Tinashe Chemuviʼs church and a lovely lunch at their home, we said good bye to Julia and Ruth. They were going back to the hotel for a rest before evening activities. Jeff came back to the Mission with us. He was still awake but barely. Ralph unpacked one of the cases Jeff had brought with him. It was filled with supplies for our little Dispensary here at the Orphan Care Center . The Friendship Force Club of Greater Denver had sent the supplies to help out here. It was almost like Christmas. Monday morning the nurse and bookkeeper inventoried the supplies before putting some of them in stores. Many of the supplies went directly to the Dispensary to restock their supplies that were dwindling fast. The Friendship Force gift of first-aid supplies was greatly appreciated. We are still struggling to get the antibiotic (gentamycin) for Prosper, the boy with the serious bone infection. Apparently it is not readily available in South Africa . Today Ralph and Jeff drove to Harare . We had received word yesterday that a pharmacy in Harare had some. We only hope that they still have it when Ralph arrives. If Ralph is able to obtain it, it will be an answer to our prayers. We are seriously concerned about saving the boyʼs leg. Today, a mother from another ward came here for assistance with her six year old child. He is unable to walk and his legs are deformed. The mother says that he is getting too heavy for her to carry. I am puzzled as to how she got him here because the ward she lives in is miles away. In addition the child is not an orphan. I donʼt know how to deal with such situations. The case doesnʼt qualify for assistance and yet Oneʼs heart breaks for the parents. In this country there is no place for families like this to get assistance. This child reminded me of a man I saw in Harare , recently. His legs were deformed and he was in the lane of traffic on the very busiest street in town. He was moving along the cars begging for money. He propelled himself by clenching his fists and stiffening his arms. He was literally walking on his fists. In not too many years, I can see this child that was brought today doing the same thing. All I can say is that this job is not an easy one. Beauty, a little girl that has a goiter is in the hospital. She was admitted yesterday and will have the surgery later in the week. It was a miracle that I saw her. She walked by the house one morning, when Joann was here, while we were eating breakfast. We had never seen the child before and no one had ever brought her condition to our attention. I went out and grabbed hold of her and took her to the dispensary. Things have happened fast from then on. We pray for her recovery. Surgery is something we donʼt ever take lightly and especially for the people in this country. I am convinced that it was God bringing her condition to our attention. How mighty is our God! Sunday, November 26 Ralph and I took Julia and Jeff to visit Tirivanhu Medizso, the stone carver. I had not been there for a while and had not seen his most recent work. It is so impressive. I would have difficulty picking a favorite. Julia and Jeff spent some time studying the carvings and taking pictures of the carvings and also of Tirivanhu. November 30 Monday, Ralph and Jeff took the boy with the broken leg to the hospital to have the cast removed. He came back to school with a huge smile on his face. Jeff said that he was walking all around when the cast was removed. I am happy to report that Beauty is out of the hospital and back home. She looks good and was all smiles when she came to see me. The surgery ended up not a goiter but a cyst that was growing. I am grateful that it has been taken care of. I would like to up-date you on Prosper, the boy with serious leg infections. Ralph finally obtained the medicine, Gentamycin after some searching in Harare . We were so grateful to finally be able to treat Prosper. Florence , the nurse, gave him a daily injection. However, we learned on Friday that she was scheduled to take a refresher nursing course in Harare . That left me to give Prosper his injection. This is not my favorite thing to do. I told Prosper that it hurt me worse than it did him. Anyway, on Tuesday he had his last injection and indicated that he was feeling much better. It was truly an answered prayer. In the beginning we felt we were not going to be able to obtain the medicine. The building for the knitting and sewing co-ops is moving right along. The floor may be poured by the end of this week. Since paint is so terribly expensive, we are contemplating not painting the inside of the building at this time. That could be done in the future. We would really like to move the ladies into the building before we leave. We brought two of the knitting women to town with us along with their machine. The knitting machine needed to be cleaned and serviced. It is not easy for them to get it in for repair. Last Friday, a grandmother brought an 11 month old baby to me. She had the death certificates for the parents. The Death Certificate is a requirement to prevent some from saying they are orphans, in order to benefit from the services, when they really are not orphans. The local clinic said the baby needed to go to the hospital. While it was 11 months old, it weighed less than 11 pounds. I suspect the baby was HIV positive and certainly had every sign of starvation. The mouth was full of sores and so it was refusing to eat. No one was around and so Florence and I drove to Murewa to the hospital. It was late afternoon when we arrived at the hospital and there was no Dr. on duty, but the staff did admit the child. She died mid-morning on Monday. The same day another child died that I have written about in a previous journal. The child was 4 years old, not an orphan and was only a skeleton. It was also in the same hospital. I am beginning to see a need for wide-spread education on child care. These poor babies/children donʼt even have a fighting chance. Florence and I have discussed the need for classes for mothers on proper care of a baby. I hope to have time to make some plans with her after her training is complete and before we leave. It seems that so much that needs to be done only surfaces when it is nearly time for us to return home. This has been a concern for Ralph and I for all the years we have been coming here. We have talked of the need to be here full time and yet not able to commit ourselves to such a task. We are beginning to realize that it is time to pass the responsibility to someone else. We may still pay brief visits to this place in the next few years. However, we realize we cannot put in as much time as we have in the past. It is a tough job. I believe the time has come for a young couple to come here to oversee what has been put in place and who has the vision for expansion. Who that couple is remains a mystery at this time. We pray that God will show us the right people. We ask for your prayers as well. 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 20006 Journal 11 |