BUILDING THE FUTURES OF 100 ZIMBABWEAN GIRLS

Hello friends!  We’ve been working hard at Zimkids thanks to your continuing support. Here’s the latest news!

The US Embassy in Harare has issued a grant to Tinashe Basa, our 25-year-old Director to visit the US.  We are looking forward to welcoming him in the States with a full schedule of events. He will not only visit many of our supporters in schools, churches and synagogues, but he will attend TEDX events and be our leader at AID WALK DC, our reminder to all that AIDS is a global pandemic.

 Samantha Jumira, 18, with Zimkids since she was 11, is taking a somewhat different path. Before we even began our pre-school program - for 50 children between 3-6 years old – she’d already written lesson plans for them! Now she’s in charge, doing a terrific job revising lesson plans, teaching the alphabet and a bit of math, introducing our youngest kids to the world of computers, arts, games and sports. She began training in early childhood education in August for two weeks every three months.

 Meanwhile, we’re ramping up to start a sewing project is to make and sell girls’ school uniforms, both for our own income and to train young people in what is potentially a quite lucrative business since all children wear uniforms. Dee Duhe of Dallas got us sewing machines, and many have already been shipped, along with electrical transformers, thread and supplies, thanks to our friends at US Africa Fellowship. Lindiwe Mabhena, one of our Seniors, who began with Zimkids when she was 10 years old, will be in charge since she’s a wonderful seamstress. Unfortunately, we don’t yet have enough space for a sewing room, so we’re waiting to hear back on a grant application for a used shipping container we can convert and initial materials.

It has been one year since we opened the Center that was built by our Senior beneficiaries, and I thought you should hear a bit about how those seniors are doing to get a sense of the trajectory we’re forging. So, consider Collen Makurumidze, now 20 years old, who has been with Zimkids since he was 13.  Collen mixed cement, laid brick and block, assembled roofing infrastructures, installed all our electric wiring and, along with Foster, installed our solar panels.  After we opened and fine-tuned operations, we sent Collen to a formal course in electrical wiring. He could probably have taught it himself, but the course provided the certification to work in the field. In the meantime, a local company has taught him and Foster to install solar hot water heaters, with the goal of starting their own business. I recently spoke with Collen, who expressed interest in taking an advanced course in electric wiring. When I asked him about the cost, he said he’d pay for it himself so ZImkids could use that money to put someone else through the course that could give him or her a real start.

 It was a very proud moment for me to watch Collen take responsibility for himself and wants to lift others into a trade. He will need to go on attachment for a year to be fully certified, so we are working with the national electricity supplier to get him placed. Foster had finished his boiler-making course and we are waiting to hear about an internship with a local engineering firm.

 As Collen and Foster move on into their own businesses, we are moving others up behind them and into similar courses and, we hope, out into their own businesses. And we are currently paying school fees for four students to do their Advanced level high school work.

Our council of Elders, our 15-18 year old beneficiaries, are taking the lead in running our activities, as always.  Marvelous and Susan are overseeing the girls’ welding program. And Shaun and Anele are putting the boys through the paces. Both groups are doing a great job and learning how to make artsy bookcases, shoe racks, sculptures, burglar bars, benches and chairs. Look at the photos! They’re moving fast!

 We are, of course, facing challenges.  Several of our teenage boys have started drinking, an extremely common problem in the neighborhood. Tinashe, our director and Philip, our program manager, are working with the boys’ caregivers to encourage them to intervene when older relatives entice our boys into alcohol and with the boys themselves to move them from drinking into more productive activities. Three seem to now be on the right track, working in welding rather than hanging out on the streets. But we suspect this will be an ongoing challenge.

Even more disturbing are problems facing kids who have been neglected, abandoned or kicked out of their relatives’ homes, some of whom are seriously ill with HIV-related illnesses.  Many of our caregivers are very old and some simply can’t cope with their teenage grandchildren, especially ones who require a lot of care because they are HIV+. Recently, one gogo – grandmother -, who has a 30 year old severely handicapped son and a granddaughter who is HIV+ was at her wits end and wanted to throw the daughter out. Philip and Sithabisiwe, who is being trained as a counselor, intervened and made arrangements to ease her stress and things seemed to have settled down. Another, who takes care of nine orphaned children, became so ill last week that we had to rush her to hospital. Just recovering from cholera, she was so dehydrated that she needed litres of fluids.

 As always, then, we moving from triumph to challenge. And, as always, we move forward thanks to your generosity. 

Links:

• Zimkids Website
• Zimkids Facebook page
• US Embassy blog about Zimkids

Hello friends!  It’s been a great few months at Zimkids thanks to your continuing support. I just arrived back in the States to begin meetings with our friends across the country. Here’s the latest news!

 Over the past two months, we’ve built the welding training program into a serious operation. We’ve now constructed a covered welding area, with the donation of our good doctor’s metal carport. Our boys and girls over 15 years old are becoming great welders. And they just finished Zimkids’ first commercial welding job: the construction of railing, a bookcase and wardrobe for a private client, using her old railings as the materials.

 Meanwhile, the older girls and boys cut poles, drilled, bolted, tied, cemented and built a stunning obstacle course, complete with a tunnel made from enormous old tires, balance beam, swinging tires, hanging rings, a tightrope, and a rope climbing structure.

 As if they weren’t busy enough, Foster and Collen who joined Zimkids 7 years ago, who were a big part of our building team and are now on staff installed an electric fence to further secure the property, thanks to the continuing generosity of private donors and the Independent Pilots Association. Foster and Colin, also installed our solar array under the guidance of a local solar energy contractor, needed no guidance this time. The contractor was so impressed that he asked if he could train them to install solar hot water heaters for his company in the hope that he can spin them off into their own business, to serve as a subcontractor for him.

Meanwhile, Sithabisiwe is continuing her counseling training with Contact, currently interviewing HIV-positive teenagers to develop her technique. Week by week, we’re watching her understanding grow – and being brought to bear with our own kids.  

Our girls are also engaged in training in permaculture and the garden is bringing forth vegetables that feed our kids and their families. Our garden has fully recovered and is yielding bountiful tomatoes, chimulia, butternut and spinach. We use our drip irrigation system in the greenhouse and upturned 2-litre soda bottles to water vegetables that are planted in maize meal sacks to conserve water.

Computer training continues. 

You can imagine how proud we all felt that our plans for these young people are turning into realities. Our dream to enable our kids to gain myriad skills and eventually go into business is becoming a reality.  We are thrilled.

 The new program we began for children ages 3-7 years is thriving. The kids are clearly gaining weight and energy thanks to the feeding program. They are all now happily playing games on our computers and beginning to write as well. The incredible Julie Tazzia of Michigan sent underwear for the girls, none of whom had ever HAD underwear. We could use more underwear for both girls and boys, all sizes.  (Contact me at dennis.gaboury@yahoo.com for further information)

 We had another amazing clothing moment with a 6-year-old boy named Francis who lives with his 78-year-old grandmother and grandfather. He just joined ZImkids and always appeared in the same rags every day. So we reached into the suitcase filled with clothes dropped off by a donor from London and outfitted him in bright lime green soccer shoes, red shorts, a yellow T-shirt, and a bright yellow fleece hoodie and his first pair of underwear. As he walked home that afternoon, the neighbors all began cheering. He’s a different boy now, not hiding in a corner but smiling and playing with the others.

A church in northern Zimbabwe sent us a full set of marimbas – musical instruments that are sort of wooden xylophones – and Energy Maburutse, the former lead marimba player for the band Liyana and one of our trustees, will be spending part of his summer break from Lynn University in Florida teaching our kids to play. Drillwell, the well digging company, appeared with more playground equipment, this time monkey bars to add to the swings, see-saw and merry-go-round that they’d already built for us.

 The biggest news about local support came from the foundation funded by Strive Masiwa, the owner of Econet, the largest cell phone company in Zimbabwe. They are coming to install Internet at the site and are giving us the money to pay for it for three years. So now our kids can skype schools in the States from the site, receive and send emails,  learn to google and see the world.

 In January we shipped 68 boxes of books, sewing equipment, games, sports equipment, etc and it will be arriving at the center the last week of May.  So it will be a big holiday when they arrive!

 I’m leaving, then, filled with pride, excitement and a little bit of exhaustion. But mostly, I’m relaxed, knowing that things are moving ahead beautifully, thanks to a fantastic staff and extremely loyal donors. 

Links:

• Website
• Our facebook page