SOZ: Support for Orphans in Zimbabwe

Dear Friends of Island Hospice

The children have just finished their first term at school and are in the final weeks of their school holidays. With the lovely summer rains, our crops have been growing well and should be ready and ripe for harvesting soon.

During the holidays Island Hospice held some children's holiday groups and workshops throughout various communities in which we work. The groups were facilitated by an Island hospice Social Worker and Nurse under the observation of Jenny Hunt, a Social Worker who advises and mentors our team.

The children's groups went really well, with many of the children enjoying the teas and sandwiches we had to offer, as well as the support and play therapy. Most of them said at the end how much it helped them and how they loved the time we spent with them.

I have attached a picture of the ground nut site which are growing in the Chikwaka area. These are linked to our Youth Project and when they are ready they will be harvested, toasted and ground into peanut butter. The peanut butter will then be bottled and sold in the local community. The idea behind this is not only to generate a small income for the youth to go to school but also to encourage and strengthen the local economy within the community.

We also have some exciting news!!  

Island Hospice has partnered with PSI in providing free and mobile HIV Testing in the communities in which we work. This is a massive achievement for both organisations and provides the communities in which we work with a service free of charge, thereby increasing their access to ART Therapy and Opportunistic Infection treatments.

Thank you for your support - we look forward to welcoming you to our projects soon!

The boys and girls who have benefited from the amazing donations through Global Giving have now completed their school year and are moving on to the next grades. The new school term has started and the children are doing really well. We have been fortunate enough to receive complimentary donations for school shoes and stationery from Rotary International which has really encouraged the children and motivated them to get to school! We have already completed a Psycho Social Support Group this year and are now in the process of forming a peer to peer support group where the children can support each other at a community level. We hope to run eight of these groups throughout the year. This will be complemented by a sustainable livelihood project and a sport project where children will learn how to grow vegetables in a community garden and they will also learn about HIV, Sexual Reproductive Health Awareness and Bereavement support. The children really are interested and are engaged in this new project development. Its been great so far! Thank you for your support and next time we will put up some pictures of our vegetables grown in the community garden!