Hope for Tomorrow

HFT - Past, present & the hope for tomorrow!

Thank you for continuing to support this program. Your contributions have made it so that these fourteen people have life again! I enjoy seeing them and we have some good discussions together. They have really bonded as a group.

Alice and Lemmy recently shared with me details of their stories that I didn’t know before. When the nurses first found Lemmy, AIDS had progressed to the stage where he could no longer walk. The before and after photos of Alice shown below say more than these typed words can!
















On Thursday I met with the patients that live near Katungu: Lemmy, Alice, Stella, Lucia and Kelvin’s mother. I was able to purchase seed and fertilizer for all of the patients. The season for planting maize is now and the Canadian fund-raising projects have yielded sufficient funds. By March or April 2008 these patients will have maize to eat—providing the rains are sufficient! A new development in the program is that most of the patients will be weaned off the program because they are now healthy!

I’ve been working with the local nurses to create individual development plans for each patient that will result in the patient being able to generate their own income therefore being able to feed and educate their own families.

These are the plans so far:

• Lemmy and Alice were both accepted to Chodort Trade School in Choma. Lemmy will be learning carpentry, and Alice, tailoring. The $35.00 monthly sponsorship money will pay the tuition for the one-year course. Food and accommodation will be paid by Canadian fundraising money. Lemmy and Alice must show their reports at the end of each term to the nurses Tebia and Fortune.
• Lucia will be going for an interview to Chodort next week when we go back to Choma for other business. Payment for this will be the same as for Lemmy and Alice.
• Florence, Caral, Agness, Jelina, Joyce and Stella are all to create their own income generating plans with the help of the nurses. They will not be given their monthly groceries like they have been up until now. Instead the nurses are saving the January through April sponsorships and will give each of them K500, 000 in May, providing their business plans are realistic. Agness plans to sell chitenges and will be monitored by her elder sister who is a business lady in Choma. Joyce and Florence want to set up small shops.
  
• Elizabeth has a large garden near a river. The problem is for her to get the water from the river. I have purchased a treadle pump that Elizabeth can use to increase her business of growing vegetables. She will be expected to pay back approximately half of the loan through the sale of vegetables. The money will be returned to the nurses so they can assist any of these patients as they see necessary.
• Muna is only about eleven years old, so we will keep him on the program if his sponsors can continue.
• Sibeso is the daughter of Florence. With Florence being able to set up a small shop, she will now be able to provide for all of her children, including Sibeso.
• Kelvin suffered a stroke a year ago. His speech and right side are affected. He lives at Kalowa village near Katungu in a small open hut and his family have been finding it difficult to care for him. I visited him a month ago and he was not being well cared for. It was a difficult visit; there is no home care in this rural village. This village is small and everyone lives in mud huts. There are no trained nurses in the area and very little understanding of what to do with a stroke patient. Yesterday, I visited a very well run hospice in Choma where only HIV positive patients go. I will work with our local nurses to facilitate Kelvin's transfer to the hospice, where there is running water, plenty of food, and trained staff! Kelvin will then receive physiotherapy a few times a week. It is so clean and uncrowded. I visited with a few of the clients that are in the final stages—they were very well cared for and felt quite comfortable. If I had funds I would set up a similar hospice in this area! It is so needed!
  

I hope this information has been helpful to inform you where your dollars have been going. As well, to let you know that your prayers have been heard!

Please pass this information to anyone else that may have attended one of our fund-raisers or is just interested! There is always room for more donations as each day the nurses are confronted with issues related to HIV/AIDS and do not know what to do! If anyone knows a philanthropist looking for somewhere to spend money—please send him/her my way!!

May you continue to be people who share the blessings that our God has shared with you!

One Day in Zambia...

0615 – Oops, we slept in! Usually we're up and almost out the door for our morning walk/run by now, but we are out the door by 0630 accompanied by our two dogs—Tripod and Tarra. Most times they don't come with us—we think they are still out with their girlfriends.

0630 – The secondary kids are just getting out of chapel and are on their way to breakfast on their last day of school! They are excited because this is their last day!

0730 – We are home—the mornings are so lovely and cool. About two weeks ago the mornings, even this time of day, was quite hot!

0900 – Breakfast is done! I made a gineau-fowl-egg omelet with green peppers, tomatoes and cheese. Orleen is doing laundry. Winnie is catching us up on news about the mission and Mashel is washing the truck.

0930 – The filing and sorting of jobs to do is done and we head to Kalomo. Oops, the bank machine is not working; we get the mail and we head to Choma. We pick up Edgar (Good Hope teacher) and Lucia (HIV patient) at the Twin Fountains/Kabanga intersection.

1030 – We do some banking—the bank machine works in Choma! I buy a crochet hook for Winnie and I'm bombarded by the fruit and veggies street sellers. I now know who to buy from and I get a really great watermelon for K10,000 instead of the K20,000 that the guy initially asks. I also buy apples, bananas, tomatoes and carrots the same way. I usually tell them now that if they give me a good deal today, I'll come and find them next time! It works quite well. I find these veggies a better price than at the SPAR, the supermarket.

1100 – We drop by St. Malumba school to pick up Camody, a deaf boy who lives at Mawaya compound in Kalomo. He is such a fine looking boy with the loveliest smile you'll ever see! He signs his greeting to me and of course he has to teach me how to greet properly. We tell the Aunty who looks after him that we want him to be ready to go in one hour. Next, we take Lucia to Chodort trade school for an interview for a tailoring course.

1130 – I do my grocery shopping at SPAR. We buy about K340,000 of kapenta that we'll use for sponsored kids and for grannies. Kapenta is like dried sardines and have plenty of nutrition in the form of calcium, oil and protein. I buy our groceries, too, and a treat for all of us for the road home (a bun and a drink).

1230 – We pick up Lucia; she's passed the interview. She's glad! This is our third patient to be accepted here—two for tailoring and one for carpentry. They are one-year courses towards a government certificate. We need to find housing for these three, but Chodort says they'll help. Lucia is a sister of Mashel who works with us. Her husband, Kelvin, is also HIV positive; we are trying to find a hospice for him.

1300 – We pick up young Camody so he can return home; school is over for the year!
1315 – We fuel up in Choma because Kalomo is out of fuel. We've heard that the gas station is shutting down. Not nice!

1330 – We stop at Martin's hospice to check it out for Kelvin, one of our HIV positive patients from Kalowa. Martin's is a Catholic run hospice mainly for HIV positive patients. It's the cleanest health care facility I've seen in Zambia. I was here about ten days ago and some have remembered me and now know me by name. I'm waiting for Sister Bertha to return so we can get Kelvin in here. Apparently they offer physiotherapy three times a week; that could be so helpful to Kelvin! One young gal (seventeen years old) is like a corpse. There is nothing left of her—skin on bones, mouth gaping for air, eyes bulging out, only minutes left in her—a very sad situation. Her twenty year-old sister was with her, the parents both died many years ago. This girl is a mother-to-child transmission case. I could hardly get any words out to comfort the sister, but I squeeked out, "I'll pray for you, young lady—this is very difficult". The sister nodded and looked quite afraid. She is the only living relative for the young girl and had to quit her second year at UNZA (economics student) to attend to her dying sister. Such are the cases for many people in Zambia. The irony of this is that Lucia is sitting in the vehicle quite well, because she was able to receive care early, thanks to the sponsors—the Chijides in Canada.

1500 – Back in Kalomo, we pay our Zamtel bill and then swing by the new Barclays bank to see if the automated teller is working. We're just curious—it's not working! We take Camody home, but since we've never been to his house, he has to direct us. It's amusing taking directions in general from a Zambian, and this is more fun because he has no speech! When we arrive at his hut, his granny is so excited, she is just dancing! And out comes a wee brother—about four years; he grabs his big brother and hugs! It's so cute!

1530 – While in Kalomo, we spot Brivery! He's one of the Kalomo High School sponsored students—one of the brightest! He's a double orphan and the choirmaster for the KHS church choir. He is so talented and has such a charming smile! A grade 12 student stole his suitcase last week, so I had brought a hockey bag in the truck, in case we had time to go to KHS. But, even better, Brivery is in town; he is surprised and delighted at the gift!

1540 – Along with Brivery are another bunch of our KHS boys. They show me the next term's fees and say goodbye to us until January!

1600 – Home again, Winnie and Mashel are ready to leave as we unload groceries. Kabulo shows up—he's a sponsored college student. We've been working on making a profile for him. He's a national volleyball champ and wants to send his 'resume/profile' to some American colleges to see if he might be eligible for a scholarship. Derrick comes by—he's a boy who sold goats to pay for his education. Derrick is a very shy boy from a village very far away, Simalundu. He makes a deal with Richard to get three goats and will have his two young brothers care for them out at the village. The income from these goats won't come until about a year and a half. He intends to use the goat money so that he can pay for his brother's education because they are soon reaching grade 8 where fees must be paid. Derrick is only in grade 11.

1730 – Fighton Munduli, a secondary sponsored student, is at the door. School has ended and we had agreed to drive Fighton, Mvulu, Timmy and Royda to their villages. Their villages are close by, but they have all their world belongings in a trunk and it's just too heavy to carry the dozen or more kilometres to the village.

1930 – We arrive home and there is about 20% power for a wee while, Then, no power. But… with the wee bit of power we heated up a can of mushroom soup and we have buns and cheese and apples.

2030 – We are both in bed after doing a bit more filing and entering of data. Richard is trying to see if winding up the flashlight 120 revolutions per minute will make the light stay on for thirty minutes. Actually, he's trying to see if that noise will drive me crazy—it does!

Power is still off. Yesterday it was off about twenty-three hours!

What do you do when the power is off and the battery on the laptop dies?

You go to sleep! We do!

Graduations in Zambia

Last Saturday we attended another graduation. We arrived at 1400 hours—as the invitation stipulated. We were early! The school boys were trying to set up a tent—for the honoured guests, I suppose. It was comical to watch the tent-setting-up for a few minutes. It's like I try to do when I go camping. I pick up a piece and look at it from all angles and then Richard tells me what to do! Except in this case—there were about twenty school boys looking at many pieces (and no Richard!). Anyway, about an hour and a half later, it was all set up! In the meantime Richard and I went to Seven Fountains Farms and had a visit with Rod.

When we returned, it turned out we were some of the honoured guests and Richard was the one to present the pre-school kids with their certificates. Zambian graduations involve lots of celebration—for little kids and big kids! When each graduate's name is called the mommy, aunty, brothers, sisters, cousins, friends (just about everyone it seems), jump out of their chairs and hoot and whistle and dance to where the graduate is. They present cakes, candies, cookies, gifts of all kinds and pick the wee kid up (and sometimes the big kids) swing them around and then the families dance back to their chairs.

When the grade 9's were receiving their diplomas—it was the same! Such a lot of excitement. Our friend, Mr. Gollie—who is not so well mentally—was there and he was really wound up, singing and dancing. The Administration announced to the audience to not laugh at him. They said if we just ignore him, he'll go away. And he did, eventually. In Canada, security would have been called and I probably would have seen him the following Monday in the hospital. I think I prefer the Zambian way—it works—at least for Mr. Gollie.

Back to the graduation—family members danced to the front for many of the graduates—except for some of our sponsored students, like Samson Hasuulwe. Unfortunately, Samson (He's the tall boy in the photo—how did they know that when they named him!?) has no family (except Isaac who couldn't come). Samson tried to look strong, but I think he was saddened that he had no mom or dad there for him. We brought him home with us and had spaghetti and chocolate cake and presented him with a windup flashlight/radio (thanks Barb and Ed!). He was really excited and we had a real nice visit. Later when Richard took him back to the dorm, he was seen hooting and hollering all the way to the door because he'd had a fun evening and he had a nice gift!

I like the graduations here—except for being in the honoured guest spaces! We are not comfortable at all with that. I took many pictures that I can hopefully send later this week using a different computer!

Building People, Schools & Communities

The goal is to work with the community to build a school. In Zambia the government is not able to provide enough schools for the Zambian children. So there are many communities and NGO's that work together to build. World Vision has an office in Kalomo and they have built some classroom buildings at Namwianga and in the surrounding communities.

We are currently building at Siabalumbi, a village about fifteen kilometres away, and at Katungu which is about thirty kilometres away. We are building teacher housing at these communities as well, since that is a requirement before the government will provide us qualified and salaried teachers. Richard was out at Katungu this morning assisting to haul river sand for the second classroom block that we are building.

Zambia is a struggling country, but we do see slight improvements over the past few years. HIV, malaria and lack of infrastructure (due to corruption and debt to other countries) has slowed progress.

Zambians are grateful for assistance provided, but we always struggle with situations of how to screen—how to provide help without creating dependence or being tricked. We rely heavily on our Zambian friends and on our growing experience. We are learning day by day to effectively use the resources that are coming from our Canada. Thanks to many Canadians, many Zambians are saved from hunger and are able to go to school.

ZMF-C Works in Zambia

We live at Namwianga because that's where Ruhtt and Shepherd Mbumwae live. Currently, Ruhtt and Shepherd and their three children are in the US, while Shepherd is on a study leave. Shepherd teaches Computers at George Benson College and he does the book keeping for Zambia Mission Fund - Canada (ZMF-C) projects. Ruhtt takes care of the ZMF-C student sponsorship program and the construction of community schools.

While they're away, we also get to maintain and use the wonderful garden in their yard! Along the right side and overhanging, you can see bananas (not yet ready). In the far back left are mangoes (almost ready). We also have oranges (almost ready), guava (almost ready), lettuce, onions, green beans, rape, squash, cucumbers, strawberries all at various stages!

Other projects of ZMF-C are orphan care, shipping of large containers from Canada, and an HIV patient program. Rod and Sue Calder live at the farm called Seven Fountains farm and manage the two ZMF-C orphan homes. Seven Fountains Farm was acquired by ZMF-C a few years so that we could have a rural environment for the orphans and so that perhaps one day (if the farming economy improves), the farm can help finance the orphan homes. Seven Fountains farm adjoins Namwianga Mission and the farm buildings are only seven km from where we live, so we are in constant contact with our working partners, Rod and Sue Calder and their family.

Some others involved in ZMF-C include Nancy and Wilson Siazilo, who run the second orphan home at Seven Fountains Farm, and Kadonsi Kasiya, who is our neighbour at Namwianga Mission. Besides teaching at the Secondary school at the mission Kadonsi also assists with supervision of our community school teachers and many other things, so, we keep him busy!

Richard and I look after approximately one hundred fifty sponsored students at the moment. Timmy is one of them. We pay their school fees, review their report cards (as any parent would!) and ensure that those who are day students have enough food to eat. Most of the students are boarding students and that is a good thing!


The day students typically live with their granny or an uncle or an aunt because most of our students are orphans. We provide some food to the grannies and families of some of our kids. The photo shows Granny Kanana, who cares for our sponsored students (her grandkids) Cynthia and Woodgate.

We also attend our 'kids' graduation when we are able to get to them and if they tell us they are happening! Last Saturday we attended the graduation of Cynthia Sing'ombe and Kafuna Kalunga. We were the parents for Cynthia as she had no one else and while Kafuna had an uncle there, he was excited that we were there for him. They both received watches as a ZMF-C graduation gift and let me tell you, they were excited!!

Immigration!

Immigration is always such a big deal here, but we are learning a few things, and a few things are changing—at least in the city. Lusaka has a very open office with no partitions. They have large posters explaining their values; with this, there is supposed to be a more open and respectful system. That is exactly what we found one month ago. Bribing still occurs, but the supervisor, who sits in plain view of all, can see easily if anything like that is transpiring.

Our papers were processed quite quickly last month in Lusaka. The hold-up with our process is that this is the first time there have been 'agents' of ZMF-C requesting a visa. So, Immigration needs to investigate whether ZMF-C in Zambia is a legitimate organization. This is where the smoothness breaks down. Anne Sampa is trying hard to expedite the process—but already there has been a delay due to the Immigration office needing time to find a letter that needs to be sent to Kalomo, so the Kalomo office can investigate the activities of ZMF-C. Why would they need time to find the letter?! Who knows? TIA!

We felt it would be better to go to Lusaka to have our passports stamped rather than Kalomo, because they are very much thinking we are 'secret agents' in Kalomo and not just 'agents'! Kalomo is a suspicious group!

November in Zambia

In Zambia the rainy season has officially started. Mr. Crispin Daka has won the chocolate cake for guessing the day the rains started. However, he has not come to collect yet because of a few issues—one being I've not been shopping in a while and I don't have icing sugar or enough flour! But, eventually he shall collect!

With the rains, the start of the planting of maize begins. Maize is the staple for this area of Zambia where many folks cultivate with oxen and a hand-held plough. This photo was taken just behind our back yard on the mission. There is no rototilling business here—it's mostly oxen in the rural areas unless you farm lots of land. There are some tobacco farms with Zimbabwean farmers around here who farm massive amounts of land, kind of like at home. The maize will be ready in March or April, if all goes well with the rains. Last year the rains quit too early in this area so many people are already facing hunger. The hunger situation will worsen through December, January, February and March.

The second photo is of a male singing group that cycled from Simakakata (approximately 20 km) to Siabalumbi last Sunday where we attended. Siabalumbi is where we have a community school. In order to connect better with our communities, we have a schedule of attending a different community each Sunday. Simakakata is the blind community; they have an active singing group (all of whom can see!). Two of our sponsored students are in the singing group. The tall boy in the blue shirt is Killan. He is in grade 9 at Mwaata High School; both his parents are blind. I really could take this boy home; he is just too sweet! He is such a help for his parents and his whole community. Kelvin is to the right of Killan; he lives with his family a few kilometres from Simakakata. He is a very nice boy; he did the song leading at Siabalumbi this Sunday.

Today, Richard helped the Katungu community haul river sand for school construction. Then we visited with a Victoria couple, the Dills, who dropped in to the orphan home. We had a great visit; it was nice to be able to connect with home for a short while.

Tomorrow we are off to Lusaka to do visa/immigration stuff and of course some shopping. I really think that by the time we receive our official status, we will be on the plane for home!

Baby Richard

The 'aunty' Charity in the photo is holding baby Richard, the newest addition to the Calders' Orphan home. He was born approximately one month ago and was brought to the orphan home by his granny accompanied by the mother. Since the Calders were away, Charity and I went to the village where the baby comes from to investigate why this child could not remain with its relatives. Apparently the mother of the child was refusing to nurse the baby and the family had witnessed her throwing the baby. The granny had a huge concern because this mom is suspected of killing a previous child. The granny went on to say that that child had been doing well but was found dead one day with the mom, blood running from its mouth.

I spoke with the mom, Gertrude, and she responded in Tonga. The information was translated for me but it was loose pieces of information incoherently strung together. She had no explanation for her behaviour. The granny says Gertrude goes through spells where she "faints" and where she is "busy, busy". She also has times where she chases men. The granny asks, "What can we do?" I suggested the best that could be done is for her to visit the clinic, be provided some medication (depo provera), and get an HIV test. Beyond that there is not too much available. The only psychiatric medicine at the clinic is valium and drugs like risperidol are only available to those who can pay and likely would only be found in Lusaka. The other problem would be in getting her to take it regularly even if it was accessible.

The baby came to the orphan home with the name Mapenzi, the Tonga word for trouble. I suggested that we change it to something more positive, like Richard. The aunties went for it!

We will follow on the progress of both mother and child. Gertrude just happens to be the sister of one of our sponsored students, Glenger. I ran into Glenger yesterday and pretended to not know of her history. He said it is difficult to describe Gertrude in English. He says she has troubles. He also gave the same story of the death of the previous child. I told him his new nephew, Richard, is now at the Calders.

Storms of Trouble

I believe that the rains have begun here. Yesterday afternoon we had a strong thunderstorm, and Mutala may have got the worst of it. We had just received the email from Shepherd about the money spent on the school at Mutala, and then the storm took more than half the roof off their school. It also damaged one teacher's roof and others in the Mutala community. We went out to see the damage about 17:00. I believe that they may have had a small tornado, even though the people here do not seem to be familar with tornadoes.

In Saskatchewan, our tornadoes are associated with thunderstorms, strong winds, and often hail, and that is what they experienced here. The head-teacher said that they had rain and hail, and that the ground was completely white. She said that the winds were swirling in all directions and then the roof flew off the school. The roof flew about sixty metres and got hung up in a mango tree. Even the trusses from the middle section of the school were torn off and damaged. They had to pull iron sheets and pieces of wood down out of the mango tree. I am sure that the roof would have flown farther if it had not hit the tree. Luckily none of the children or teachers in the school were injured.

Smart happened to be home from his school in Livingstone. He said that everyone in the community was frightened and ran for their homes. He said that they had not experienced anything like this before. Anyway, Smart spent the afternoon repairing part of the remaining school roof, repairing the teacher's damaged roof, helping other community people with their damaged roofs, and salvaging the materials from the mango tree.

Then last night we had another strong thunderstorm and the head-teachers' roof was completely torn off her house. Everything she owned was soaked. She spent the evening at Wilson's home. Anyway, before I arrived there this morning, the community had most of her roof back on the house.

So... what do we do to help out? The community has already sorted through the salvaged materials to see what can be used. They are preparing a list of materials that they will need to put the roof back on the school. I told them that I would write to ZMF-C to see how we could help them out with this difficult situation. I have not promised them anything, but I think that we should be able to partner with them in some way to put the roof back on the school. This morning I also received news that one of the teacher's houses at Katungu had lost its roof last night. Mr. and Mrs. Symia spent a good portion of last night in the school and tonight will take shelter in the unfinished duplex. Their house is one of the very small houses at Katungu. They have salvaged the iron sheets, but the timbers need replacing. I have purchased five timbers for the house at a cost of K140,000, and I have suggested that the community needs to be thinking about how to finance the repairs. I have some wood perservative and some roofing nails left over from another job. They will also need some tie wire and a little cement.

This situation makes it very clear to me that any construction that we do, as ZMF-C, must be done very well. We need to insure that we use only quality materials and that we hire good builders. I am afraid that if we take short-cuts to save money, that it will end up costing more in the end. I am not saying that we have taken short-cuts in the past, I am just saying that we need to be sure that our construction is done with quality.

And now I need to run to transport the head-teacher back to Mutala from Wilson's home. It is now 16:05 and soon it will be dark.

Finding Febby

Febby, the little girl with the huge smile, is Barb Slywka’s sponsored student. She is in grade two at Green Acres school. Febby lives in Mwaya compound which is a part of Kalomo. Mwaya is the same place that Obert lived and where Calistos and his brother live. It is a very poor neighbourhood, mostly mud houses, mud floors, most people are unemployed. Such is the case with Febby’s family. Febby’s mom, Virginia, had two children Gift and Febby. After Febby and Gift’s dad died, their mother married George. George and Virginia now have a two month old son. George has had work on and off, but because he has no formal training, he is mostly out of work.

The family has been surviving recently by selling ground nuts for K500 a packet (approximately eight cents). They sell a few packets a day and then shop for small fish or something affordable for their meal. I had a look inside their little mud shack and they had about three cups of mealie meal and nothing else to eat. They had some interesting sacks of old maize roots that Virginia said she will grind when they are down to nothing. I delivered mealie meal, beans, kapenta, oil, and salt on this day and also bought a bunch of ground nuts for K1000 each!

So… does it pay to sponsor a child for education? I’d say so. At least a few, like Febby, will have a chance for a future!

Photo to the right—Richard, Febby (of Febby & Robson) and I, spontaneously, join in playing a game with the kids at Mutala school.

A Happy Work Day!

Two friends, one lame and one blind from Simakakata, the blind community, are happy today! This community received a donation from the Regina Church of Christ—seed and fertilizer. After the seed and fertilizer were given to the community Mr. Shebby (right side of picture) shared with me about a course for handicapped people where they can learn how to make brooms and baskets. A few weeks ago Mr. Shebby told me that he’d been consulting with another NGO in Kalomo for a lengthy period over funding for the course and was getting pretty discouraged. He said it would cost 1.6 million kwacha for four people to attend the week long course in the Copperbelt region.

Mr. Shebby walks to our house a couple times a month from his village, approximately fourteen km away. He is always accompanied by someone because Mr. Shebby is blind! Last week one day, during one of our visits I asked him if there was any action with the NGO. He said, “No.” I said the amount was too much for ZMF-C to handle. Immediately, he asked, “How about 800,000 kwacha and only two of us from Siamakakata go?” What could I say? He said that when two of them return from the course, they will make brooms and baskets and from those profits send two more! This group of people are so encouraging to be with! They always make me smile! They are courageous, grateful, hard-working and respectful, and give thanks continually.

After I gave Mr. Shebby the K800,000 and he signed (with a thumbprint!) in the receipt book, he got on his knees on our patio and said a prayer in Tonga. He is a humble and grateful servant. When the toilets were being built at Simakakata, guess who got the last one? Mr. Shebby—he put his other community members ahead of himself. This is what leaders in the church will do!

Nephias Graduates

Last week was graduation time for the college here at the mission where we stay, and Zambians know how to celebrate!

The fellow with the pink tie is Nephias. We had the honour and pleasure to attend the graduation as Nephias’s Canadian representatives. The Canadian Sponsorship helped Nephias to graduate from Secondary school and he is ever so grateful.

Nephias tells his story of seeking education with tears in his eyes. Nephias thanks anyone and everyone who helped him accomplish his dream. As a teacher, Nephias looks forward to helping other relatives through school! Nephias and his nephew, Superior, spent a lot of last weekend with us—visiting and eating “Makuwa” food. (i.e. beans and bread, salad… meals don’t have to be fancy for guys like this!)

Congratulations Nephias and to all the sponsors who had vision enough to support ZMF-C pupils.