By Dennis Gaboury – Founder.
Roseline (head of household) is responsible for her family.
Zimkids has been thriving and growing – but before providing you the latest details, can we ask a favor? On Dec. 3 beginning at noon east coast time until funds run out Microsoft will match your donation to Zimkids 100 percent! A Microsoft logo will appear on our project page (below click on URL) if matching funds are available. BUT the closer to twelve the better, and only at THIS site: http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/vocational-training-for-200-zimbabwean-orphans/
Thanks so much.
In these updates, we thought that we should tell you a bit about the challenges we face, and we’ve dealt with a particularly difficult one over recent months. In July, one of our caregivers, 76 year-old Linah Ndlovu, fell ill. Linah cared for eight orphans, her grandchildren, between the ages of 1 and 16, and managed to keep them in school by cleaning for neighbors and school authorities. We worried, then, not just about her but also about all those children. So Tinashe spent days ferrying her back and forth to the hospital and breaking through the bureaucracy there to make sure she didn’t languish. Despite our best efforts, however, Linah died in mid-September. In Zimbabwe, proper funerals and burials are important, and Phillip and Tinashe made sure that Linah’s did her justice. They drove the Zimkids car carrying her coffin from the funeral parlor to Linah’s home, and spent the night with the children and neighbors to pay their final respects, leading the group in an all-night round of traditional African drumming and dancing. The next day, they drove the family to the cemetery and dug the grave in which Linah was buried. Ever since, we’ve been working 14 year old Roseline who now heads the family to make sure that her brother, sister and cousins ages 8 to 1 are cared for, fed and remain in school.
That’s one part of what Zimkids is about.
The other part, of course, is about the positive changes we are making in the lives of the children we serve, and we’re seeing it most vividly these days with our newest Zimkids, the 50 three-to-seven olds in the pre-school program we began last year. They include Nokuthula Mpofu, age 4, whose parents both died of AIDS. She lives with her grandmother and seven other family members in three rooms. Since the grandmother is frequently ill and has no source of income, Nokuthula depends on the preschool feeding program for regular nutrition. Or Wayne Ncube, whose father died and whose mother abandoned him on the doorstep of an aunt when he was three months old. Mentally ill, the aunt can barely feed herself, not to mention Wayne. Or Lotrica Ngwenya, 6, born HIV positive. She lives with an aunt none too happy to have been left with the burden of a sick child after her parents died.
We just had our first “graduation” of our pre-school kids, complete with graduation robes (required by government) and the children are thriving: eating at the Centre daily, mastering computer games, and learning to read and write.
The rains have come so we planted our field. We bought more seeds to add to our garden and with the raining season around we have to start working on the outside garden. We planted carrots, cucumbers, chomolia (kale), green pepper and onions. Some of the seeds were put straight in the greenhouse while some of them were put in the nursery beds outside the greenhouse and will be transplanted as soon as they are seedlings.
The vocational training programs for the older children are moving along well, and our oldest children, who are awaiting the results of their high school exams, are working hard to master new skills. We’re hoping to find the money for some added space in order to begin a sewing program which will also generate income for us and for the young people we train through the sale of school uniform skirts made by our kids and priced affordably.
Finally, Tinashe, our director, just spent two months in the U.S., his first trip to America, and we had an amazing few weeks traveling across America thanks to our accumulated frequent flyer miles and the generous hosts around the country to thank many of you for your support, making new friends, and establishing relationships with new schools. The latter is important not just or fundraising but because the Skype conferences between our Zimbabwean children and their American counterparts are so important to awareness and understanding on both sides.
We end yet another year, then, with our hearts full of gratitude to our supporters and our amazing kids.
Happy holidays!
Wayne lives with neighbor when his aunt disappears.
Professor (actual name) is ready for 1st grade.
Lotrica is not quite sure of this outfit!
Director Tinashe with Town School 1st grade children, San Francisco.
Tinashe preparing for a TV interview in Alaska about ZImkids.