Fountain of Hope Progress Report August 2018

Fountain of Hope and the leaders of all the communities that are being transformed would like to hereby extend our heartfelt gratitude to Bright Hope World for all the unwavering support being rendered to community projects. We are grateful together with communities that are showing great signs of change even in the midst of challenges that Zimbabwe is going through. Your support is unreservedly lifting up communities out of the doldrums of hunger and poverty and is bringing a ray of hope to orphans and vulnerable children from these communities. There is great improvement of food security in some of the communities that we have been working in for the past three years, an increase of orphans and vulnerable children who are now attending school and also an increase of health deliveries in some of the communities in region 5 of Zimbabwe which we are working in.

Thank you so much Bright Hope World that you are partnering with us in improving the quality of life in these communities. Please find herein below the report on Mtshazo.  

Recent Events

Situation in Zimbabwe

On the 30th of July Zimbabweans held parliamentary and presidential elections and the ruling party was declared winner but the main opposition party has contested the results. Following this announcement tension arose in the capital city that resulted in the death of six people and hundreds more were left injured when the army fired live ammunition on fleeing unarmed civilians. The irony of it is that in November last year when the army ousted Robert Mugabe who ruled Zimbabwe for almost four decades people went on to the streets and hugged the soldiers in celebrations. A few months down the road the army has returned shooting at the very citizens who hugged them! Zimbabweans are yearning for real, tangible, long lasting, positive change not the piecemeal we have seen so far. The church in Zimbabwe is getting united to pray for this great nation to receive its salvation.

All these happenings in the country have affected the economy of the country and we have seen inflation rising up again, goods and services are now very expensive and our bond dollar which is supposed to be equivalent to a US$ has been devalued by over 50%. This has prompted many organisations to decide to open bank accounts outside the country and Fountain of Hope is also doing the same thing.  

Community Leaders Training

Fountain of Hope spent the months of June and July training 25 community leaders and church leaders on how to facilitate a church and community transformation process. These leaders were pulled from all the communities that Fountain of Hope works with. The training took place in the community of Makamure and all these leaders are expected to go back to their communities and work with their communities on how to come up with a 5 year action plan for their communities. The 25 were awarded with certificates after the training and the graduation was attended by the chief and the councillors of the area.  

Mtshazo Community

This is one of the communities that is deep in the remote areas of Gwanda district in Matabeleland province of Zimbabwe. It is so difficult for people in this community to get a meaningful harvest from their fields because it receives below normal rainfall all the time and this makes it difficult for crops to survive. The community is characterized by hunger throughout the year, low pass rates at school, young people jumping the border to either South Africa or Botswana to get employment, a high rate of prostitution, high crime rate, substance abuse especially amongst the youth of the community, and also high HIV/AIDS prevalent rate. Fountain of Hope thrives to bring total transformation in a community that looks to be so impossible. There are not so many churches in this community and therefore there is a lot of work to do to improve the quality of life in the community. Please find herein the report on what Fountain of Hope has been doing in the community and the challenges faced:  

Foundations for Farming

45 people were trained by Fountain of Hope last season to practice this new way of farming. Unfortunately last season the community again received very little rainfall which was not enough to sustain crops. Crops in this community wilted because of moisture constraints. Fountain of Hope would not like to give up training and empowering the people of this community to practice this way of farming because it is one of the ways of breaking the yoke of poverty amongst communities. 

Impact of the Program
This program has not yet had a very big impact in this community because the community has received very little rainfall in both the two farming seasons since Fountain of Hope introduced Foundations for Farming.  

Challenges
• Low rainfall is always the challenge although the type of soil is also one of the challenges. 

Ways to Consolidate the Project 
• Establishing a garden that uses borehole water to practice irrigation on a small–scale basis
• Increasing the number of participants from 45 to about 75 to make more people be involved in the project  

Transformation Centre

The transformation centre has got 35 children who come to school on a daily basis. The children in this community find it so difficult to go to school especially during the rainy season as they have to cross one of the biggest rivers in Matabeleland South Province. This has been causing many children not to go to school all the time hence the community and Fountain of Hope came up with a plan to establish a transformation centre where children who cannot go to school would come to this centre to learn like all other children. The transformation centre has got one committed teacher and it is already recognised by the Ministry of Education.

Impact of the Program
Children who used not to go to school are now catered for. The transformation centre is going a long way in improving the quality of education in the community amongst the infants of the area. Many other communities in the region who have the same problem are beginning to learn from this centre. At this centre children without identity documents are being assisted. 

Challenges
• No permanent source of water at the transformation centre for them to begin agricultural studies at a tender age
• No proper building for the children and this affects them very much when it is raining 

Ways to Consolidate the Project
• Establishment of a garden to provide the children with agricultural skills and to produce green veggies for the transformation centre
• Resuscitating the irrigation pipeline which was established in the early 80s in the community by the then new government of Zimbabwe. 

Comments

The Fountain of Hope team would like to appreciate very much the support that comes from Bright Hope World to this community. 

With much gratitude
Gideon & Jennifer Chishamba (for FHF team)