Uniting Church in Australia - Port Lincoln

Fiona D ixon-Thom pson, A ssisted V olunteer in M ission

Mwandi United Church of Zambia Orphans & Vulnerable Children Project
PO Box 70, Mwandi via Livingstone, Zambia, Africa
Email: redfred1972@yahoo.com

Newsletter No: 36 – March / April 2008

Dear Friends,

I am sorry that this newsletter is a little late.

Life has been really busy, quite stressful over the past month, but it has been full of productivity.

Rury has been very busy at the Agriculture project making more chicken houses, doing a lot of new fencing and
repairing old fences. His vegetable garden is booming, and each week we have seen many more improvements for
the project.

We still have not been able to have our blessing here in Mwandi. We do not have the money to have a celebration
to invite the amount of people that would expect to come and we don’t want to hurt people’s feelings if we have
something small. At this stage we have no choice but to have something small. Don’t worry, I shall keep you up
dated with our plans. When we are not so stressed and more relaxed it will be the right time.

Keith and Ida, Rury’s parents, had to travel back to Scotland for the past month to have meetings with the Church
of Scotland, so we have been looking after Mubita. He has a nanny during the day and we look after him in the
evenings. He is a good little boy and now he is settled he sleeps all the way through. He is such an attention
seeker and runs around the house screaming, laughing and clapping. On the first day he was here, he put the TV
remote in the dog’s water dish. ☺

There have been no more deaths in the village from crocodile attacks in the past 7 weeks so that is good news.
There was a croc on our lawn last week eating a dead dog. The river is going down and the cooler weather is
here. Don’t get me wrong, we are still wearing t-shirt and shorts, but I have to put a jumper on in the early
mornings and evenings.

As I write this, the kids are outside playing the traditional drums, playing soccer, volleyball and the girls are
swinging their hoola hoops. There’s a lot of noise and laughter here today. It’s Saturday and that is always a fun
day, the kids have their showers and then play a lot, have devotions, eat and then play more.

The feeding program now has 205 children on the board. We have quite a lot of young babies (6 months) who have
been referred from the Hospital formula program. The mothers bring in their babies for breakfast at the Drop in
Centre then come back at lunch. Some of the mothers come every day and are very committed, others are taking
time to get used to the program.

Our children are looking healthier each month. This is thanks to the balanced diet they are receiving 6 days a
week, the bread, milk and multi-vitamins they receive. A lot of children are receiving counselling and this helps
the body as well.

Over the past few weeks, Inutu and I have been visiting each of the sections (suburbs) in the village. We support 6
sections (Mwandi) and 2 outlying villages. Because Inutu is working at the hospital we are going on her off days.
It’s a slow and draining process. We sit with the families of the children who are on the feeding program and
assess how the families are looking after the children. I really want to know if our children have relatives who are
able to support them. Some of the guardians are very old and most of them are sick.

Some of the stories we are hearing are sad and others encouraging. It’s so sad to see how many people in our
community are HIV/AIDS positive and are guardians to many children on our programs.

After us visiting all of the sections we will be able to assess “What we need to do next” for these children who
have no-one to look after them once their guardians have died.

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Fiona / Mwandi Support Team, PMB 58 Port Lincoln, South Australia 5607
Email: robwater@bigpond.com.au
We have found that there are quite a few children who do not eat anything apart from what we are feeding them
for lunch each day. So we have asked them to come to the Project for breakfast of bread roll and tea each day. A
lot of the children who have nothing totally rely on friends, neighbours and other people in the village just to give
their families a little food to keep them alive from day to day.

We went to one family; we feed 3 boys aging 10 to 15 years on the feeding program from this family. The boys are
looked after by their grandmother who is 77 yrs, their great grandmother is 94 years and they (7) live in this little
hut. The grandmother tries to do piece work to keep all the boys, her daughter and her mother alive. This family
totally rely on the kindness of other people.

Yesterday we visited about 10 homes and we found 2 families with similar problems. These families all rely on
OVC for food, clothes and blankets. These families just live from day to day and the guardians are so thankful to
the OVC Project for keeping their families alive. A lot of the women get very emotional when we talk about the
future for these children and how they will survive when these aged guardians die.

Our love and prayers will keep them all going from day to day. Your support keeps the kids feed and healthy.

Our dear friend Mr Matakala passed away last month, he was our only male volunteer for so long, and he also sat
on our OVC Management Team and Social support Committee. He is sadly missed.

Lemmie (A young man (20 years) who had polio as child) is now helping at the feeding program every day (Male
volunteer) and now with his new Zambian made wheel chair he is coming to OVC without any one pushing him.
He is just so excited and doesn’t know how to thank our good friends who sourced this chair for him. He said his
Mum cried when she saw that he was moving around the village in the thick sand with no problems.

Lifaliza is walking to OVC all on his own these days, with no crutches or anyone holding his hand. He is growing
and very active. He still does not play with other kids and doesn’t talk. He says a few words, but not a sentence.
We are currently looking for a home for him (orphanage) as he needs some serious care. Last month his twin sister
was raped by her uncle. Our child counsellors have spent quite a lot of time with Lifaliza and his sisters and this is
not the first time Namachana has been raped by her uncle. We are trying to re-locate the girls as well. It is
something we would never dream of doing is splitting a family, but at this stage if we don’t Lifaliza will do the
same as his uncle because he doesn’t know any different. He needs a lot of care and medical help. I was very
worried about him the other day, he just screamed and screamed and laughed and laughed, we all love him so
much and we worry about him a lot.

The social worker is coming to visit Mwandi soon to assess the situation, because in the past counselling sessions
this week he has been playing very strangely and its obvious things are not right at home. Inutu and I visited his
grandmother and talked at length about the importance of looking after children, but it still didn’t sink in. She
leaves the children for days with no care and they live with the uncle still. The girls and Lifaliza come every
morning for breakfast at 8 hrs, for lunch and then take food home. The other day the girls were given their rolls
for breakfast and they put the rolls in a bag. I asked them where the rolls went and they said their grandmother
had told them to take the food home for the uncle and her. So the girls and I sat down and I was able to tell them
the food was for them and for their stomachs only.

We all love Lifaliza and his sisters so much, all the feeding assistants are always looking out for them. We gave
Lifaliza and the girls a new outfit each last Saturday and I had never seen them so happy. There is so much I could
tell you about this family, mainly all bad, but please know that there is hope and now Lifaliza is strong we can run
away if someone tries to hit him, and he can enjoy the feel of running water and play with toys at OVC. We just
need to pray a lot for protection for them all.

The nights are becoming colder and our blankets campaign is up and running for winter 08. $15 will buy a warm,
Zambian made blanket for our children. Last year we were able to support 500 children with blankets and we aim
to again this year. Please help us keep our children warm this winter. Most of the children who are vulnerable in
Mwandi sleep on a reed mat on the floor of the hut or some just sleep straight on the floor on a hessian bag.

Our bakery has been struggling over the past few months due to the ever increasing costs of bread flour. The cost
continues to rise and quite a few bakeries in Livingstone and Sesheke have closed down. We are only managing to
cover costs, but because the nutrition is so important for our community we need to stick with it and keep
working hard.
We are only hoping that nothing major happens to our appliances as we don’t have the income to cover any repair
costs at the moment. I have written to the big company that supplies the country with Flour and they have been
able to give us a small discount. At least it is something as it all helps at the end of the day.

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Fiona / Mwandi Support Team, PMB 58 Port Lincoln, South Australia 5607
Email: robwater@bigpond.com.au
The Sewing centre building now has power, burglar gates and all ready for painting. Which we shall start middle
of May. We are really needing funds buy sewing machines and furniture. Our dream is to start training in July. We
will have 10 machines and a few electric to the students can learn to sew on the different machines. We will also
teach the students how to run their own business as part of the sewing course. The community are very excited
about our sewing centre and the up and coming carpentry centre (yet to be constructed) to open.

The kitchen is looking fantastic; the tiling has been completed on the walls and the floor. Charles did a great job
and we are all proud of him. The roof has been replaced and all painted.

We have built a wall across a ¼ of the way on my verandah and now we have another bed room at home. This will
be a help when we get a lot of volunteers.

We are currently building a roof over the containers (40 ft long), to extend our store room at the OVC project. It
is going to be fantastic to have more storage space. This month we are having some volunteers coming from
Ireland and we will all work hard to start organising the contents of the containers. I know it’s hard to imagine,
but we have 2 containers lined up with the existing outer walls of the store room and we have a space in-between
of about 3 metres.

Staff & Children in front of the new 21,000gallon
Tank for the OVC Project
My father has just been for a visit to Mwandi with a group of 3 guys
installing the water project at the hospital and building a huge water
tank for OVC project, install irrigation for OVC garden, erect the
generator shed, installing a back up submersible pump and build a
garden shed. Its all go as you can imagine. The guys all worked long
hours, some nights laying cement slabs for the buildings up until 9
pm. Through many trials and tribulations they achieved a heck of a
lot of wonderful things for the OVC project and mission. The team
was so good to have around, even though my father and I argued most
the time, we had good laughs and it’s always gave each other a hard
time (the Australian way) And of course talked a lot about Australian
Rules football and how it’s the best sport in the world.
(“Should be in the Olympics”)

We are very lucky to receive the donated tank, generator, water pump, and garden shed for our Project. We
thank the companies, Rotary Clubs, friends and the guys who came to Mwandi to install & erect them for us.

The water project at the hospital is a huge project, so Dad and Leith stayed on another week longer than they
booked, but due to fittings and pipe problems they were not able to complete the project. We had employed 10
local men to dig all the trenches and they have carried on with the work. Within the next week a lot of the work
will be completed.

The OVC garden is booming just in the two weeks we have had the overhead sprinklers. Now the gardeners can
spend time planting out more of the garden instead of watering most of the day.
I am excited for the next few months, as we will be able to extend the size and variety in the nursery. Let’s hope
and pray that insects keep away, grasshoppers are just dreadful at the moment.

The generator is a Cummins Diesel generator and is all set up ready to go if we

have a power shortage. It’s an amazing machine. We purchased a battery for
the grantor and we need to keep that charged, diesel in the generator and we
are set. We are very lucky to be able to have been given such a wonderful back
up system for our power.

We are making plans to build a house for Rury and myself for when we get
married at the end of the year. We will be starting the build in Aug – October
this year. The Pugsleys, Kevin Freeth (a local builder from Port Lincoln) and
another great friend Graham Giddings will be coming over to do the building
The Cummins Diesel generator is
and teaching some young lads and ladies from our Community here in Mwandi set up ready to go when required
how to build with wood. More details in next months newsletter.

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Fiona / Mwandi Support Team, PMB 58 Port Lincoln, South Australia 5607
Email: robwater@bigpond.com.au
The Education Support Program still needs support for Mwandi Basic, Evening classes and college students.
Please if you can support our Orphans and Vulnerable children in school it really gives them a bright start in life.

Our school support is so important to our children of Mwandi and all members of the community appreciate this
program so much. We had all the Sesheke students in for weekly meetings over the recent school holidays. We
share with them a word from God and ask them about their problems they are facing at home and at school. We
encourage them to aim high and study hard. We now have 4 students in college. 2 are completing in the next
month. Our aim in to have 7 in college this year. We are sending another student in the next month; we are
waiting for the course to begin at the beginning of June.

Please contact Jane Carey or myself if you want information about this program or want to support a child in
need with their education. Your support with this program is greatly appreciated and needed.

Heather returns towards the end of May, it will be really good to have her back in Mwandi to spend time teaching
our trainee book keeper and trainee secretary. We had advertised for along time to employ trained staff, but due
to the lack of accommodation in Mwandi, we had no applicants. So we have employed young girls from Mwandi
that are willing to be taught.

Rev David Howie had to rush back to Australia for a family funeral, but now he is back running a sports program
for the youth in the community.

We are expecting quite a few volunteers over the mission over the next few months. This is exciting stuff. We
hope and pray that the volunteers get here to Mwandi safe and sound, feel welcome and are able to teach our
staff and children new skills and work hard ☺

Urgent needs for the OVC Project:

Treadle sewing machines for the sewing centre
Furniture for the sewing centre
Support for the Feeding Program
Blankets for winter (500 is our aim)
$250 each (We need 10)
$2,000
ANY Support is greatly appreciated
for this very important Program
$15 each

PRAYER LIST:
Please pray for
 Rury and myself and our increasing work load;
and that we are able to get some support to get away for a few days this month

 the safe arrival of Heather; Keith and Ida; and

volunteers who are coming to Mwandi to share skills and love

 the aged and sick guardians who are looking after many orphans in our community

 that we get the financial support we need for our feeding program and other small programs

Well my friends, I could write and write about all the things that go on here day to day.
But please know I appreciate your love and support.
May God continue to bless you all.
Till next time
Lots of love
Fred ( Fiona)

Mwandi Orphan Sponsorship Program

C/- Jane Carey
Box 2773 Phone: (08) 8684 2173 Lifalaza
PORT LINCOLN SA 5606
AUSTRALIA Email: ajcarey@internode.on.net
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Fiona / Mwandi Support Team, PMB 58 Port Lincoln, South Australia 5607
Email: robwater@bigpond.com.au