Hi Everyone!
Greetings from Zimbabwe! I hope this letter finds you all happy and healthy. Here’s a quick update on life at Harare Children’s Home…
Each and every one of us in Harare has felt the burden of the past few desperate and dry months. But like everything else in life, nothing is forever, and the rainy season has arrived bringing fresh hope for us all.
This week we are sinking our very own borehole! This will provide us enough water to supply the entire home AND to irrigate a nutrition garden! This is amazingly good news, as it took almost a year to fundraise for this project, and it’s completion opens the door for many new, sustainable projects at the home. Adam has already sent one of the staff from the home for an entire training on nutrition gardening, so we can plant as soon as the borehole is complete! It was an amazing course that even included instruction on what to plant and even how to prepare foods for malnourished and HIV positive children… quite appropriate for many of the kids at the home.
We are quite proud to announce that next month we have 8 young ladies who will be taking their ‘O level’ exams and 3 who will be taking ‘A level’ exams. Many of our children arrive at the home after missing several years of school as a result of taking care of their dying parents, or not affording school fees, making it quite a special treat to see some of them excelling in their studies today.
We are facing some rather daunting challenges in the coming year, but have faith that we’ll “make a plan” to meet them.
Our first challenge is educating the children. We luckily have sponsors that pay the school fees, but not for the uniforms or school supplies. In the next 2 months we’ll be looking for uniforms, notebooks, rulers, pencils etc for 60 children.
Our unbelievable inflation has left us with a serious staff shortage at the home. While prices in the shops rise almost daily, the wages at the home do not. We are working on a monthly budget of US$176.00 for 29 staff members. That’s right, an average salary of US$6.00 per month. It’s no wonder we are unable to keep our staff around.
Our clinic shelves are becoming quite bare as well. We need basics such as multivitamins, dewormers, cough mixtures and bandages. The multivitamins are needed most urgently as the food shortages have left us feeding the children whatever we can find… seldom a well balanced meal.
It's the very imperfections of Africa that make it the perfect home for those of us who thrive on challenges… and the next year will certainly bring us plenty. If anyone would like to take on any of these challenges, please send me an email directly. Together we will make a difference.
Ndatenda chiazvo
Märta
