This vast community of 19,000 people and 37 villages is so grateful to Bright Hope World for bringing transformation in the community. It is happening one village at a time and sooner than later this whole community is not going to be the same again. There are great signs of change already taking place and the people of this community are taking a leading role in the transformation of their area. The community is taking a proactive approach to change, they bring solutions together and look at them as a community. Please find herein below some of the projects that are happening in Makamure community:
This farming season 2019 to 2020, 151 farmers were trained from this community of Makamure to practice Foundations for Farming in their fields. Unlike other communities, this community received between 35 and 47mm of rainfall and the crops that they put into the ground managed to come out and are still doing well. The community is praying for more rain and for their crops not to die for lack of moisture. This community is very exited by this new way of farming to the point that even those who are not in the program have joined in and are practicing Foundations for Farming in their fields. The community is now known in the whole district for growing crops using Foundations for Farming.
Gardens are being established in this community to improve food security as well as to improve household income. The main garden that we did in the village of Madzivire of Makamure has amazingly given birth to two more gardens in the community. Madzivire garden is one of the best gardens in the whole district of Chivi because it has been providing the beneficiaries with vegetables even during the lean season when other gardens would not be producing. The 105 people who are benefitting from this garden managed to sell their produce throughout the year and therefore food security in this community was improved. Please read the testimony below from the chairperson of the garden:
“Before the garden was established in this community, our life was really a difficult one. It was completely impossible to make ends meet in this community since there was no other way of making an income. We are so much grateful to Bright Hope World for assisting us to start and run one of the best gardens in the whole district of Chivi. Thank you for helping us to have a good water source, our borehole has got plenty of water for the garden as well as for drinking purposes. The garden is a blessing to us as a community because this is the place where we meet to discuss community development projects. We used not to meet in this community but the garden became a very good platform for the community to meet and talk almost about anything. It is the place where we are all growing together in Christianity as the word of God is also being preached at the garden.
We are grateful for the Foundations for Farming training that we are receiving, they have gone a long way in making us improve the texture of soil, our land which is generally infertile now is so rich that one can produce very big tomatoes from it (see photo).
We are praying for means to take our produce to the market because the nearest town is a bit far away from us and our community is very remote. Thank you once more for the support”.
2019 was a great year for the community of Makamure because their two schools, both of which have over 1500 students, where blessed with running water courtesy of support from Bright Hope World. The primary school was established in early 1930's while the secondary school was established in January 1981 and they have never had running water since their establishment. Due to the problem of water, these schools always had unqualified teachers who unfortunately did not improve the quality of education in the community. Thank you Bright Hope World that with running water at these schools more qualified teachers are going to join the schools and thereby increase the school pass rate annually.
The chief of the community who attended the commissioning of the water taps at the school was so appreciative to Bright Hope World for this great gift to their area: “On behalf of my people, the government and Ministry of Education of Zimbabwe, I would like to appreciate this gesture of love and generosity that has been shown to our community, this project is going to go a long way in making our schools great in the region. I am really persuaded that through this project our schools are going to compete with schools in towns as we are going to attract qualified teachers who will come to our schools and take them to another level. Thank you so much for remembering us in this remote area, we will not remain remote anymore. Your love has challenged us to stand up and surely we are going to stand up and do something for our community”. (Chief pictured drinking water from the tap at the school).
The transformation centre is going a long way in providing psychosocial support to the orphans and vulnerable children of Makamure community. School fees are provided for 37 children from this community who live with their old grandparents or those who are from child-headed families. We thank God that those who have completed high school are given the opportunity to go for skills training. Three of the young people from this transformation center are now training at one of the agricultural training colleges of Zimbabwe and are expected to come back after the training to make their community green.
The community is so grateful for the borehole that was funded by Bright Hope World which provides plenty of water for the garden, and for human and animal consumption. The animals of this community are better than animals from other communities because they have had plenty of water to drink during this drought year.
We are doing our best to train the community on how to make their livestock survive even during such difficult times. The goats mainly survive on shrubs but unfortunately the shrubs have dried up due to the little rainfall that the community has received, so those with goats and cattle are forced by the situation to buy extra stock feed from town to feed their animals.
We thank God for our Agriculturalist who is doing a great job of training farmers and the people of the community to be able manage their livestock project. He has created a calendar for them to follow as to what they need to vaccinate their livestock against each and every month.
The challenges remain the same in most of these communities in region 5 of Zimbabwe where they receive little or no rainfall at all per season. The solution to this challenge is to harvest water through many different ways in this region so that people may begin to irrigate their fields. In Makamure, Fountain of Hope is going to do research on how much water is in the river bed and whether the water may be harvested for both drinking and productive purposes.
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Fountain of Hope staff members and management would like to hereby register our heartfelt appreciation to Bright Hope World for all the love and generosity that you are rendering to communities right here in Zimbabwe. We are very confident that though we operate through very difficult circumstances, these communities are not going to remain the same. Your support is breaking barriers, making people realize the potential they have, it is building bridges in communities, people who used not to talk to each other are now able to talk and work together, and above all the support is making Christ to be known in these communities.
We are so persuaded that through the grace of God we are slowly stopping desertification of communities and will eventually make these dry communities ‘GREEN’. We have seen great changes already in Makamure which used to be a completely dry area but now people are driving from far away places to buy green veggies from this community which was once very dry and dusty.
Thank you that through your support orphans and vulnerable children have got a home, family, hope and a future at Peniel Centre. Thank you that through your support some schools are getting qualified teachers because your support improved their living conditions at these schools. Through your support communities like Mtshazo which used to live on food hand-outs are going to work in their fields and producing food on their own through the Foundations for Farming program.
“May the Lord bless you and keep you; may the Lord make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you; May the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you PEACE”
Thank you so much
Gideon & Jennifer Chishamba and the team (pictured)