Livestock for 300 Orphan Families in Zimbabwe

Phides Ncube is an elderly guardian who is 83 years old.  She's lives her life working the land and doing odd jobs, making sure her kids grew up healthfully and decently.  As the years went by and her country changed drastically, she found herself looking around for hope.  With a massive drought, fields died and animals perished.  Children had to leave to search for work. Some died. Some never looked back.

Now, at 83, Phides is looking after Praise Chikondo who is 16 years and Tabiso Sibanda, who is 9 years old.Tabiso’s father died 6 years ago while Praise’s father also died 6 years ago.  Their mothers are gone, as well and Phides took them into her home to give them what they need to survive and grow, just as she did with her own children.  Tragically, though, there isn't much to give and the three have been hungry for a long time.  The children have been pulled out of school due to lack of fees, uniforms and books.

Phides says she is suffering from painful knees and that the constant hunger is a big challenge. This year, this small family found hope.  HOPE, in capital letters.  We gave them 3 goats. What can three goats do, really?  Well, when they are pregnant, as these three were, they produce milk to drink and baby goats to grow a herd.  They produce manure to grow the seeds we gave the family so that their gardens will produce vegetables. Yes, three goats = HOPE.

Now that the rains have come on Zimbabwe, there is plenty of feed for the goats and water to drink. This is the opportune time for the pregnant goats to grow and produce milk and babies.  When we asked Tabiso about the meaning of this gift, he said "These goats will educate us. The milk is very nice and makes the tea very thick.”

As a mom, I know I like it when my children find comfort in the simple things of life and Tabiso has done just that..."the milk makes the tea very thick".

I love it when a dream works out this way and when a group of strangers works together to help a child on the other side of the world return to school and to find comfort in his cup of tea.

Thank you.

In Africa, we don't refer to rain as simply "rain".  For some reason, we call it "the rains".  I don't know why this is, but maybe it is because the rains have such power over people.  If there is no rain, crops fail, animals die and people starve.  But, if the rains are too hard, the earth is too dry to take the onslaught of water and erosion occurs, crops are squashed under the weight of the water, and the suffering continues.

Right now, in Zimbabwe, this is exactly what happened.  After such a long time of drought and dry, dry, DRY weather, the skies opened up and the RAINS came down.  They came and they came and they came.  While the maize flats were flattened, the rivers and dams are being filled.  Where the earth hasn't been eroded, bits of green is shooting up, giving livestock something to chew on.  These are some happy little goats, rabbits, guinea fowl and chickens, let me tell you!  Finally, green to eat! They will produce more milk now than at any other time of the year, and for that, we are grateful.  And, they will drop manure to be used in the gardens, which is a blessing.  All in all, the rains are bringing life back to many.

It's wild, this cycle in life.  Everything in moderation, seems to be the cry.  Yes, we need the rains, but we need them to come in bits and pieces, not in a huge downpour, day in and day out.  We don't know if we should cry or dance.  We have rains, which gives us water, which we desperately need.  But, we also have devastation, erosion and homeless as their houses were washed away.  We take the rains, as we take much of what comes our way - with gratitude mingled with hurt for those who hurt.