Fountain of Hope Update February 2015

Warm greetings to you from the hot windy weather of Bulawayo…it has really been very hot this season which is supposed to be our wet rainy season. On behalf of our team we are so much grateful to you for partnering with us in bringing hope to the hopeless communities of Zimbabwe.

Recent Events

Art Therapy Camps

We kicked off 2015 by running two Art Therapy Camps for orphans and vulnerable children from the two communities of Mthombothemba and Makamure. The camps started on the 2nd and the 8th of January and 200 orphans attended. It was really heart breaking to listen to the stories of some of these children who nursed and saw their parents succumbing to HIV/AIDS. Some of these children now live with old grannies who need to be cared for themselves while others live with different people who sexually, physically and emotionally abuse them. It wasn’t just the time for us to bring healing as well as increasing the children's resilient capacity but also a moment of crying out to God on behalf of these children.  

Foundations for Farming

The 85 trained farmers from both the two communities were assisted with maize seed before the commencement of the rain season towards the end of 2014. We are so grateful to God that these farmers from the drought prone areas of Matabeleland and Masvingo provinces are very much convinced that this conservation farming is the only way out of poverty and hunger. Our desire is for people of these communities to use their land to profit and come out of poverty through faithfully following the farming God's way lessons.

Land was prepared, seeds were given on time, and everyone was very enthusiastic to work in the fields, even some old people believed in this new way of farming. Unfortunately we received very little rainfall this season which couldn’t sustain the crops (as shown in the picture of the maize field wilting due to lack of moisture). Makamure community received less than 100mm of rainfall in the last four months which is their farming season while Mthombothemba did not even see its rivers flowing with water. We however are not giving up on training farmers in Foundations for Farming for we are very much persuaded that this is one of the greatest revelations from God to get people out of hunger. 

Apart from the fields that are wilting due to lack of moisture in the ground, our community gardens have been doing very well since there is water to irrigate the crops. Some of our farmers at Engunyini dam who practice Foundations for Farming have already tasted some maize and others were able to sell some green mealies to raise up finances for their families.  These farmers and us are praying for more rains to come, so that the dams can have water for the rest of the year to sustain the garden. The level of water in the dam has already gone down but we thank God that there is still water in it unlike other small dams in Zimbabwe which have already dried up.

The other gardens that are using borehole water are also running very well and we hope that the boreholes will not dry out during the course of the year.  

Peniel Centre

The Peniel Centre children are doing very well and thank God that six of them are now in tertiary education doing different trainings which will eventually help them in life. Our greatest desire is to help them be able to be independent in life, work for themselves or even run their own businesses. Apart from these ones the rest of the children who are still in primary and secondary level are all well and going to school on a daily basis thanks to your support.

Our Peniel well watered garden is also doing very well producing veggies that are needed by the centre and also providing agricultural life skills to the children. We are looking forward to see this garden becoming a resource garden for the people of the communities that we work in as well as for other communities we are not yet in. We are looking forward to having Foundations for Farming training sometime in June at Peniel Centre for farmers and church leaders from different communities. This is one of our small ways of improving food security in the country.

Community Children 

We are really glad to let you know that your support is going a long way in improving the quality of life of orphans and vulnerable children from the community of Mthombothemba. The support is undoubtedly rekindling the fire of hope and creating a better future for these children. Please read the brief story below: 

Susan's parents passed away while she was still very small, to the point that she only has a vague idea of what her parents looked like. After the death of her parents she was moved from one home to another as there was no one who really wanted to take care of her. Finally she was taken by one of her aunts who was so abusive to her. She went to school only up to grade seven when she was told by the aunt that she had to drop out of school and work at home to earn a living. She spent two years without going to school although she really wanted to go to school but the aunt didn’t want her to proceed with education.

One day she decided to run away from the aunt with the help of a Good Samaritan who later on turned this girl into his sex slave. He took her far away from the aunt's place and started to abuse her sexually for many days. Fountain of Hope was told about the disappearance of this girl and immediately began to hunt for her, resulting in us finding her. The girl was rescued from both her abusers and one family from Mthombothemba agreed to foster her.

We are so much grateful to Bright Hope World for through your support this girl now goes to school, has food on her table and also a foster family was provided for her. Her dream of becoming a teacher was rekindled again, thank you very much for brightening the future of such children. 

We are forever grateful to Bright Hope World for all the support which is improving the quality of life in the two communities that we work in. THANK YOU.  

Blessings

Gideon & Jennifer Chishamba