Fountain of Hope staff would like to hereby appreciate Bright Hope World for the support that is being rendered to different communities and villages where FHF is making an impact. Many lives are being touched and many souls are coming to Christ, even those on leadership of communities. The projects that are run in these communities are not only transforming the socio-economic situations of communities but are undoubtedly bringing many to Christ. For instance, recently in Chivi the council CEO, who had seen Fountain of Hope touching the lives of orphans and vulnerable children, decided to give up worshipping other gods and turned to the true living God. This is because he had seen these projects improving the lives of people and changing the behaviours of young and old people especially in the community of Makamure. The community of Chirogwe which used not to be enthusiastic about transformation of their community has amazingly joined other communities in running the race of defining their future. It is because of the transformation taking place in these communities that has caused people like the CEO of Chivi to want to worship this God of transformation.
Fountain of Hope staff members have been working hard since the end of September to the beginning of the year 2018 especially in the area of training people to practice Foundations for Farming. Most of these farmers are very convinced that this is one of the best ways of practicing farming such that they are going into villages recruiting other people to follow suit. Fountain of Hope staff members did not even rest during the Christmas break as they wanted people to get as much as possible from the training they had on Foundations for Farming.
Towards the end of December/beginning of January Fountain of Hope had an evaluation process with the communities to find out how the projects have been having an impact in the lives of people. Please find herein below the evaluation summary report for Mandiva community :
Mandiva is a semi-arid community just like Makamure in region 5 of Zimbabwe. The soil is poor sandy soil which has been used for centuries and therefore is no longer fertile and cannot sustain crops. The community receives below normal rainfall almost every rainy season. The youth of the community are jobless as there is no employment in the country. The community of over 400 people has only got two water sources, one of which was done by Bright Hope World. The other one was also rescucitated by Fountain of Hope when they realised that it was not working and people were sharing water from the river bed with animals.
This evaluation was done on the 3rd of January in the village of Mandiva and please find below the summary of what was discussed:
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This season 53 people or families were trained as well as equipped with the maize seed to grow in their fields. This season the number was added from 30 last season to 53 which literally shows how people are very hungry for the program. Two village heads were amongst the people who were trained and they are really leading by example.
Impact
People of this community have suffered hunger and starvation for a long time and are so convinced that this is one of the best ways of fighting out hunger. The increase in number of people who came for training is testimony to the impact of the program. The fact also that two village heads have been part of this training is a sign that even community leaders believe in this program. During the evaluation time the old farmers gave testimonies of how the program improved not only their yield but also their soil texture. Their mindset was transformed as well as they are no longer going to take farming as a casual job but will take it as a serious business. They liked the principles of Farming God's Way which are, On time, At standard, Without wastage and With joy. The community told us that they are now trying to practice these principles in all their businesses.
Challenges
Just like Makamure (ZIM02c) their challenges are more or less the same. The rainy season is not very good and this always compromises the growth of their crops. For instance this 2018 season has already affected a lot because the community has gone for weeks without receiving meaningful rain. Their maize crop which they tried to plant before the 25th November is already showing signs of moisture stress and the probability that it will not do very well is very high.
Recommendations
- The community highly believes in Foundations for Farming and would like to see the program spreading to other people who have not yet been trained
- There should also be an introduction of some drought resistant crops in the community so that people can grow those crops which do not need necessarily too much rain
- Water harvesting initiatives should be encouraged; the community proposed the building of a small dam in the community to harvest rainy water
Mandiva village has got one garden which has 25 beneficiaries who all are really excited by what this garden is doing in their lives. They are all grateful to Bright Hope World for this gesture of love and care which was shown to them. Mandiva is a very dry area which has got very little ground water but we thank God that the borehole which was drilled there has got water to irrigate the garden as well as to provide clean drinking water to the community. Many people’s lives have been changed and transformed by this garden.
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Mr Tich Mabhuku lost three of his children to HIV related illnesses and these children left 12 young children together. Mabhuku is not working and relies entirely on subsistance farming. 12 young children were placed under his care because his children had died and he had to face the daunting task of sending them to school, buying uniforms, paying school fees and feeding them on a daily basis. Where was he to get the money to do all these things since he is unemployed and also lives in a community where people don’t harvest much from their fields?
He and his wife took days and months to pray for something or someone to come by and help them with the needs of the children who were left orphans by their parents. One day he was told by the community headman that there is going to be a garden for those with vulnerable children in the community and he was enlisted as one of the beneficiaries of the garden. He was overjoyed to hear this and kept on praying for the project to be a reality. His prayers were answered one day when he saw a drilling rig coming into their community to drill the borehole and soon after the borehole was drilled, a garden was established.
The garden has been going a long way in helping this family to have fresh green vegetables (they don’t buy veggies like other families but they grow for themselves) which is for consumption as well as for sale. He has been able to pay school fees for some of his grandchildren from the produce of the garden. His wife also dries up veggies as a way of preserving them and therefore there is no time that they don’t have veggies as a family. Thank you again Bright Hope for the support.
The impact of the garden is really enormous, so many households have been helped. The community used to go far away to buy veggies but thank God for the garden, they now don’t have to travel far to buy the green meat. The garden is improving food security as well as removing the barriers to economic self-sufficiency for women in the community as they are now able to sell their own veggies.
Challenges
The market in town is far away so they are forced to sell the veggies amongst the people of the community who also don’t have money to buy and they end up just giving them for free. There is a need for another borehole which will be used for drinking purposes only because veggies need a lot of water during the dry season as do the people. This brings competition between people and the garden and most of the time the garden loses.
Recommendations
- A new borehole should be drilled or the existing one should be upgraded to use a more powereful solar pump to pump more water
- The people recommended a new garden to be established for the Gudo people, which is the other part of Mandiva village which is very much underdeveloped
- The farmers recommended the opening up of a bank account where they will put their moneys together
- The community asked Fountain of Hope to consider providing training on: Business training, Life-skills training, Savings and Loan training, Adminstrative training, Project management training for Agriculture, Training on how to network with other farmers in the region
Many people in this community especially orphans do not have birth certificates and other needed or required identity documents. These orphans live with old grannies and it is really a daunting task for them to get all the required and detailed information that the government will be asking for. This transformation centre's aim is to restore dignity amongst children through the provision of identity documents, pycho-social support and educational assistance.
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Tinotenda's mother died the day he was born. His father had already died some 5 months back leaving the mother dying of TB infection. After the death of his mother Tino was left in the custody of his maternal grandmother who did not bother to apply for a death certificate for her daughter who had died. Tino therefore grew up without a birth certificate up to the time he went to school. He went up to grade seven still with no birth certificate but things became difficult for him when he was about to go to high school.
The school demanded a birth certificate which he didn’t have and thank God that Fountain of Hope and its partner Bright Hope World came in to help this young man to apply for the birth certificate. Fountain of Hope went as far as the district and hospital where he was born and the community where the father came from to gather all the necessary details for this young boy to have a birth certificate. After all was gathered an application was made to the registrar general for a birth certificate to be granted to this young man and thank God the birth certificate was granted.
He now goes to high school with other children with all dignity knowing that he is a living being who is also counted in the nation of Zimbabwe. When he was at primary school he was not allowed to play soccer with the rest of other children mainly because he didn’t have a birth certificate but thank God he now can be involved in any sporting activity at school. He can travel anywhere across Zimbabwe now because he has an identity document.
Many young people are suffering the problem that Tino went through especially orphans and vulnerable children. We have so far assisted three children to acquire their identity documents.
Challenges
The process is very long and very expensive as one has to get a lot of witnesses. Some of the parents and grandparents do not have identity documents themselves and many times one has to start with parents first before going to the child, making the whole process long, expensive and also laborious.
Recommendations
- An awareness to be done to the whole community on the importance of birth certificates, death certificates and all other identity documents
- All birth records should be kept by the parents so that in case the parent dies without a child having a birth certificate the card would be accessible to those who want to help
- Schools should be asked to accept such children while Fountain of Hope and its partners are assisting in the application of the document
- Psycho-social support and all kinds of counselling should be given to such children for they wonder why they are treated differently at school and also in the community. Some of them are very talented in soccer etc but will not be allowed to play at school and also in all community soccer clubs mainly because they don’t have identity documents.
- The community should lobby the government to help such children
250 indigenous road runner chickens and 60 goats were given to the community under a revolving animal loan program. Most of the people who received this support are those who have orphans and vulnerable children in their homes. The main purpose of this project is to provide poor families an opportunity for economic development by empowering them to own livestock for their families. The community head of Mandiva appreciates this initiative very much because it has been difficult for people to find something to sell especially during drought times.
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Chiedza and her family were given a batch of 10 chickens to rear and then move on to the next person after 8 months. Her desire was to start a fish project so that she could raise funds for school fees out of selling fish but she didn’t have the capital to start the project.
It did not take long before her chicks begin to multiply and within a short space of time she already had enough chickens to sell and raise the money to start the fish project. Amazingly the chicks did not stop multiplying even when she started selling them. She gathered all her money and was able to start her fish business. She did not have to borrow any money from someone else but had enough after selling the chickens that she was raising. She is now able to pay school fees for her two sons who are going to school.
This is one of the impacts of the chicken project. It is going a long way in improving the quality of life in the community of Mandiva. The goat project unfortunately hasn't had as great an impact in the community because many goats died last rainy season when the community experienced floods. Goats do not like water so they contracted diseases at this time which killed many of them including also cattle in the community.
Challenges
Goats are not very friendly to wet weather. The market for most of the produce in the community is in town including the road runners. There is no veterinary services close to the community so they need money to get to the nearest vet services.
Recommendations
- The community should lobby the government to bring vet offices in the rural areas
- The community should provide accommodation for such people in the village
- Goats need to be strictly cared for especially during the rainy season and therefore people should build very strong pens which keeps water away
Zimbabwe's unemployment rate is at 90% and this means that most young people in the nation are not employed and that includes Mandiva village young people. The young people of this community approached our Village Community Development Committtee to be assisted with an income generating project, hence the grinding mill business was chosen. The project has not yet started because of the transition that took place in the nation of Zimbabwe.
Impact
No impact can be talked about because it has not yet started but any project that helps the youth will automatically stop a number of problems that the youth are facing and some of the expected impact of this project are as follows:
- It will reduce the number of youth who just roam around the community without something to do
- It will help to reduce the youth who are involved in sexual activities as they will have something that they will be doing
- Those youth or young people who already have children will be able to pay fees and buy food for their children and family respectively
- Will empower young people with resources to sustain themselves and their families
Challenges
According to the CEO of Chivi district the business that the youth have chosen is not a viable one because it needs a constant supply of maize for milling. The community is in region 5 which suffers hunger perenially and therefore it is not all seasons that the people will have maize to grind. The youth need something that gives them income on a daily basis. Running a grinding mill is a seasonal business especially in Chivi, Mandiva village because people will only have maize soon after the harvest time. When the rain season is not good the business will be not operational up until the next harvest time hence this makes it not a viable project.
Recommendations
- A taxi or Kombi business for the youth is better than a grinding mill because people travel almost on a daily basis
- A fishing co-operative and that means having a boat to operate in Tokwe-Mukosi dam
- A grocery community shop in the community
- A grinding mill which is supported by a community grocery shop
Fountain of Hope would like therefore to appreciate Bright Hope World for all the support that they are rendering to us for without their support we could not have achieved what we have achieved so far. We would like also to appreciate the Church and Community leaders for their co-operation in working with us in improving the quality of life in their communities. Thank you to different churches and pastors in all the communities who are doing a great job of discipling people and communities. Thank you also to the great team that we are working with in transforming Zimbabwe, one community at a time.
Thank you
Gideon & Jennifer on behalf of Fountain of Hope team