Mthombothemba Community Update from Fountain of Hope

This community is one of the communities on the outskirts of Bulawayo town. Those people who cannot find accommodation in the city come into this community to stay hence there is a squatter camp in this community. Children are dumped or left to suffer on their own at the squatter camp. This community is one of the areas that has produced many prostitutes in Bulawayo as well as street children. The community is very rocky which makes it difficult for people to do meaningful farming. This has led to the community living in poverty for many years but thanks to Fountain of Hope who came to this community to bring forth a turn around. 

Fountain of Hope operates in this community mainly to prevent the spread and reduce the impact of HIV/AIDS and poverty in the community. We endeavour to shine the light of Jesus Christ through improving the quality of life in this community which used to be a criminal community in Matabeleland North province of Zimbabwe. We are glad to report that this community outshines other communities in terms of farming even though the land is not very good for farming. Cases of criminals has amazingly dropped by 80%. HIV/AIDS prevalent rate which was higher than the national one has also dropped and there are very few deaths due to HIV/AIDS related illnesses and this is because of the projects and dialogues that Fountain of Hope did in this community.

Please find herein below the brief report on some of the projects that we are running in this community:

Recent Events

Foundations for Farming

Mthombothemba community was the first community to receive training on farming God’s way and 75 people have been trained formally by Fountain of Hope. Most of them had done so well this season but unfortunately the rain was not favourable and therefore crops did not grow to maturity. The community only received 43mm of rainfall the whole farming season and has just received another 27mm in June 2020. The rainfall that we received was not at all enough for people to produce something out of their fields. 

We however are so grateful to our agriculture officer for coming up with other farming options for the community so they could get something for their families. The new technology that some of the farmers in Mthombothemba resorted to involves the use of plastic bottles to irrigate their crops. The whole of this season some pilot projects were run in the community using this new technology that will go a long way in making people have something out of their fields even if the rainfall is not much. The plastic bottles are filled with water and are used to irrigate the fields.

We are grateful to God that many communities from dry regions of Zimbabwe are coming to learn from the people of this community on this new technology of farming. We started with maize and are working on growing into cash crops like watermelons. Our farming season is not going to be determined by the rain but by how many plastic bottles we have. This system of farming is not only going to improve food security in the community but is going to go a long way in cleaning the environment since all the dumped plastic bottles will be used in the fields for irrigation purposes. We thank God that many organisations are already learning from this community and surely with such innovation it is possible to turn a dry land into a green zone.  

Nutritional Gardens

These gardens are not just there to add nutrition to the people’s daily food but are now sources of income for the people of this community. We thank God that the people of this community have realised the value of these gardens and each and every village of the community is now praying to have one garden of their own. There are 18 small villages within four big areas of Mthombothemba and so far Fountain of Hope has established five gardens in this community with the hope of establishing more gardens. These gardens are going a long way in improving the quality of life of the people of this community, please see a brief story below:

Sihle
Sihle is a single parent who has five children. The father of the children left Zimbabwe at the beginning of the millennium for South Africa and has not come back since. This lady was left with no source of income and the husband who she thought was going to send money back home from South Africa disappeared into thin air. Due to the excessive challenges that she went through, she became seriously ill and spent some time in the hospital. Soon after getting out of the hospital, Fountain of Hope assisted her children through the Transformation Centre program and she was eventually given a garden. The garden is going a long way in enabling her to have food at home as well as finances for her family. Her children are able to go to school through what she gets from the garden.

Transformation Centre

This transformation centre has 80 children now who come to be fed on a daily basis as well as to be encouraged and challenged to create a better future for themselves. The centre helped 13 youngsters this year to acquire their identity documents as well as sending 40 to school and one to wniversity. Please see below the story of one of the girls who was helped: 

Anelka
Anelka’s mother died when she was only 3 years old. She and her sister were left in the custody of their father who resides at the squatter camp in Mthombothemba. The father survives on doing piece jobs for people in the community. Unfortunately the father is an alcoholic and therefore does not come home all the time to check on his children. Sometimes he goes away for weeks, leaving the girls with no food and without someone to take care of them. We thank God for Mthombothemba Transformation Centre, that these children have got a place where they get food to eat on a daily basis and this enables them to participate in school like all other children. This year before lockdown, this girl and her sister through the support off the Transformation Centre, got their identity documents and this means they have now the right to participate in all public events at school. 

Education Assistance

This support goes to children who come for assistance at the Transformation Centre. The aim of this support is to break the chains of poverty and create a bright future for orphans and vulnerable children in and around the community of Mthombothemba. Some of these children live with very old grannies who cannot work in the gardens while others live at squatter camps where they literally do not have a place of their own. Please see the story below of one of the young people who are being helped by this support: 

Mabhuti
Mabhuti’s mother is mentally retarded and is always in and out of the mental institution. The father is originally from Malawi and does not have a home of his own. They live in a one room tin hut on the outskirts of Bulawayo in the community of Mthombothemba. The father lives by getting piece jobs in the farms around the community of Mthombothemba. He has not been getting these menial jobs mainly because of the drought that we have been experiencing in Zimbabwe for the past two years. The man cannot afford to send his children to school let alone to give them food as well as buying school uniforms for them. We are grateful that Fountain of Hope has been helping this family through the provision of food as well as sending the children to school. These children are the hope of the family, we envision a better future for this family through the provision of education to Mabhuti and his siblings.

Livestock Production

This project is run to improve people’s livelihoods through the running of family based livestock projects. We started by running a goat project which was changed into a chicken broiler project. People sold their goats to start a chicken broiler project. The project has met a lot of challenges in Zimbabwe due to the changes in currency and the economic challenges that the country has been going through. Some of the farmers have actually gone broke due to these challenges, a few are still running the project. Two of the farmers were able to build their own houses from the money they got from selling their chickens. Please see herein the photo of the house that one of the farmers is building through this project. 

Current Issues and Challenges

- Many children being raised in a squatter camp
- Many of these children are fatherless and therefore do not have identity documents
- The community receives very little rainfall every year therefore making it difficult for people to rely on rainfall
- Due to high unemployment many young people spend their time abusing drugs
- The mission boarding school in the community is too expensive therefore making it difficult for ordinary community children to attend this school
- Children walk for over 10km one way going to school on a daily basis 

Recommendations

1) The community suggested the establishment of a borehole in Makwibila squatter camp as well as a garden in the same village so as to make these people have clean water for drinking and also for gardening 

2) Establishment of an informal school at the Transformation Centre to help children who have dropped out of school to be able to learn 

3) Expansion of the garden at Engunyini so as to involve other villagers in the project