Update from Fountain of Hope 

Recent Events

Foundations for Farming

The people of this community believe and have embraced Foundations for Farming as a way that can break the cycle of poverty in this community. The 30 people who were trained have been going around in the community recruiting others to shun the conventional way of farming which the people have been used to and embrace the new technique of farming. They are completely convinced that this is the way to go despite the challenges of climate change which are making the rainfall pattern to be unpredictable. This season the community only received less than 25mm of rainfall but this hasn’t yet detoured the people, they still planted something in their fields despite the unfavorable weather conditions. This community that is soldiering on despite challenges has cascaded the programme to another community called Nemauzhe.

One of the old ladies in the community had this to say, “Our soils are poor and the rainfall pattern is not very good, we cannot continue to follow our conventional way of farming, it has not made us to bear much fruit, it has rather increased hunger in our community. Thank you so much Bright Hope World and all your partners for introducing this new way of farming, our children will not perish of hunger anymore as long as we practice this way of farming. We would like to ask you to join us in praying for rain every year so that we may harvest much from our soil. Thank you again for opening up our eyes, we are now using this way of farming in our garden and our tomato plants are doing great”.  

Nutrition Garden

The garden was established to improve food security in the community as well as to increase household income for poor families. Our greatest appreciation goes to Bright Hope World for making it possible for the community to have a borehole as well as a garden. The borehole is not only used to water the garden but it provides the precious white gold to the members of the community. The garden has been a blessing to the children whose parents are beneficiaries of this project. The people desire to see the expansion of this project since the garden is too small for the whole community that is fighting the effects of poverty and hunger.  

Livestock Project - Chickens and Goats

The heatwave and dryness that the community has been experiencing over the past months left the community sadly with no grass or leaves for livestock to survive. The community has already seen a number of animals dying because of hunger and lack of drinking water. People are praying for rain to fall in this community so that animals may have food to eat and water to drink. 

In the midst of all this one of the widows from this community who literally survives on the livestock that she got from Bright Hope World, is not sitting on her laurels; she sold some of her chickens in order to buy stock feed for her goats and cow. She is an inspiration to all other people from this community, many of them are following her footsteps in trying to buy stock feed for their animals. Chickens are the only ones that are not so affected by lack of food as they are able to go out and eat anything that they find on the ground. 

Personal Stories

Mr Kufakunesu used to work in Beit bridge at a tobacco factory and lost his job when the economic situation began to drop down. He came back to stay with his family in this community of Mandiva where his family expected him to work and fend for the family. Unfortunately, there was nothing that he could do in the community, as there are no factories or any employment opportunities for him and his family. Thank God for the garden in the community where he was enlisted as a beneficiary; he now is able to work for his family in the garden. The garden is helping him to be able to pay school fees for his three children. If it had not been for the garden his children would be finding it difficult to go to school or even to have enough food to eat at home. Surely the garden is going a long way in bringing smiles on the faces of the children and families in this community. Thank you so much Bright Hope World.   

Current Issues and Challenges

The perennial drought that the community and the whole district has suffered has left many boreholes drying up. The Mandiva borehole was not spared, it has been affected by the drought and also by an increase in the number of people who need drinking water in the community. The borehole is now the only source of water for cows, goats, chickens, and people as well as the garden. The demand for water increased so much in November and December that the community has agreed to let the garden suffer as from January 2020 if the situation remains dry like it is now.  

Fountain of Hope is doing its best to help the people of this community come up with solutions to the challenges that they are facing. Some of the solutions that they came up with are as follows:
- Stopping running the garden so that water is shared only amongst people and animals 
- Encourage people to scale down their herd of cows and goats and use the money to buy stock feed 
- Encouraging shop owners to bring stock feed to the community so that people buy this commodity in the community and not outside the community or in town where they would need transportation which is currently very expensive. 
- Drilling one or two more boreholes to augment the water that is currently harvested; one borehole to be specifically for animals and the other one for people 

Comments

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)