Help Feed Hungry Children in Zimbabwe

Dear Supporters,

September in Matabeleland South. It’s dry and the hills are hazy with the smoke from wild fires. But there’s still water around – and the school now has a pump in the well that supplies three outside tanks, and a raised tank by the kitchen where they can store water from the local authority, when their pumps break down – which is frequently!

So, at last, we are facing the worst of the dry season with a good chance of a constant water supply.

The children have been on holiday for almost a month and sadly, during that time, they don’t receive their daily school lunch, as there is no way of organizing this. Still, the lorry full of supplies will be arriving in the next few days – and this will last them until the December holidays.  

Zimbabwe had its election – and despite the noises made by both sides, the result was inevitable. SOS, as they say, same old story – except that this time we have the army firmly ensconced behind the President. Nothing has improved since the “coup” – in fact, some things, like the supply of cash have become far worse. And the value of our “bond” money is being eroded away day after day, leading to runaway inflation.

Since there is no cash available, I have been unable to pay the two ladies who cook for the children at lunchtime. Some people can receive money via their phones, but since neither of the two ladies can afford a phone, the only way I could pay them was to go with them to the local store and buy them supplies.

As you may remember from past reports, we are hoping to use future donations to erect an outside kitchen, so they no longer have to spend hours every day choking on smoke in a small room. Unfortunately, they have to cook on open fires in enormous, three-legged cast iron pots, as there are so many mouths to feed.

A high spot was the visit to the school by Phumuzile – a 32 year old Wife and Mother of a two year old boy. She’s pictured here with a new girl to the school who was not all happy about it! Phumuzile was a village girl, and the village remains her rural home. There were nine children in her extended family, all raised and cared for by her mother, who laboured untiringly in the fields and seasonal gardens, while her husband worked in Bulawayo, many kilometres away – only managing to visit the family for one day on every second weekend.

The children helped with all the chores: laundry, field tilling and weeding, all the way through to harvesting, and Phumuzile says that through those skills, she learned the value of hard work.

The family could barely afford to send the children to the local rural primary school and if it had not been for the intervention of a new headmaster in Grade six, she would have gone no further than the local secondary school. But he recognized her talent, and managed to obtain funding for her to attend a Catholic boarding school. “It was strange,” she says. “Everything was new, electricity, stoves, toilets - everything. It was like starting a new life altogether, it wasn’t easy for me, I was so out of place.” But she soon settled in and, once again, excelled. This led to a degree in Forestry and Wildlife Management at the University of Science and Technology, and then to a Masters through Rhodes. She’s presently helping my husband, with a wide ranging project on Zimbabwe’s leopard population, and through that, she hopes to go on to to study for her PhD.  

But Phumzile’s real love is education and that is where she can make a huge contribution to this impoverished country. It’s all very well educating our children in Maths, Science, English and the like – but since only a very, very few of them will ever find a job, teaching them animal husbandry, land and wildlife management and all the associated practical skills will be of far greater use.  

“My greatest thrust is bridging the gap between research, management and education in natural resources conservation through the outreach and empowerment of the young generations and community involvement. Without the community, natural resources can only persist for so long. Looking back, I can just see the hand of God in my life, how he has brought people in and out, how he has put me in places I could only dream of. I have come this far because at some point someone believed in me, saw something in me and gave of themselves to see me move forward, even now. That has made me realise that I can do the same for others,” says Phumuzile.

With people of Phumuzile’s calibre working in our community, there is truly a reason for hope!

We would like to thank you for your continous support to our program and our mission! 

With Gratitude, 

Zimbabwe Feeding Program 

Dear Supporters, 

For the last few years, the 250 plus day scholars from Marula School in rural Matabeleland South have been receiving a cooked lunch every day of the term, thanks to our wonderful donors who have given so generously through The GVI Trust. 

We have just begun another term - and the feeding programme was in full swing from the first day. Our headmistress says that if it were not for their daily meal (in most cases, the only one they will get), the children wouldn’t be coming to school at all.  Now they have the strength to walk the often long distances from home and back; to concentrate in class and to play - (the most important activity of all!)

National Foods provides 1.5 tonnes of mealie meal free every term, and has continued to do so even when the local crops have failed and the bulk of it has had to be imported from Zambia or South Africa. The rest of the food - beans, soy mince, soup and vegetables is supplied from a wholesaler in Bulawayo and trucked out to Marula.

We’ve now extended the reach of our appeal - first, to build a simple outside cookhouse for the two ladies who are presently preparing this enormous quantity of food daily in two gigantic three-legged pots in a horribly smoky room; and second, to provide the most needy children with exercise books, pencils,pens and other basic stationary.

Unfortunately, Government does not assist the school in any way, although this doesn’t stop them from making constant impossible demands on the Headmistress. (Their latest suggestion was that the school should raise funds by starting a fish farm, despite the fact that water is a never-ending challenge in drought stricken Matabeleland. If anyone knows of fish that can survive in hot sand, please let us know…).

So your assistance, as always,  is invaluable. The school was built by local farmers in the 1930’s for a maximum of 60 children. There are now around 350 (including some boarders), so the place is bursting at the seams. We need classrooms, upgraded toilet blocks and so much more, but right now, we’re so grateful that we can offer the children their daily meal, and perhaps make some other changes that will assist them.  

Our heartfelt thanks!

Zim