Zimbabwe’s Children Need Our Help!

Children at Clare School

It is very appropriate in this Thanksgiving Season that we share our deep sense of thanksgiving to you who have enriched the lives of so many children in Zimbabwe! Your eager willingness to help (and that of countless others, as well) has both inspired and pushed us to keep the projects moving and growing. For your encouragement, support, and prayers, we are blessed and thankful!

We have hoped that the long sought after agreement reached in September for the two parties in Zimbabwe to share governmental power would lead to better times for the country and its people. We kept putting off a posting to our website, in order to see how this new sharing would work out. As you know, it hasn’t happened and terrible conditions continue to grow worse. Cholera has become a major health issue as clean water supplies break down.The inflation is surreal! They cut 10 zeros from the currency in August, making 10 billion equal to one new dollar. However, the inflation continues such that a single order of prescription drugs could now cost 24 million in the new money one week and double that the next!

Communication with the high school administration has been very difficult. Telephone lines are down and the email there is not functioning. Indirect communication has run into problems as one or another has been on leave. We have developed a new line of communication and funding through the Office of the United Methodist Conference Projects Coordinator. His email actually works!

The schools in Zimbabwe have become a disaster area. With inflation at the rate of billions of percent, the teachers’ salaries aren’t enough to even pay transportation costs to get to work—hence many have left. Hartzell High has not been quite as hard hit in that respect, since many live on the Mission grounds. However, quite a number have left, leaving the school shorthanded. Moreover, scarcity of food has made it difficult for the school’s boarding program to function. Our day students did receive half board meals during Term Two and another nine became emergency boarders when their family homes were burned by political zealots.

We have been told that the Form Four and Six students have taken their national Ordinary and Advanced Level exams as scheduled. Many schools around the country have not even managed that. However, money is so short that there is no guarantee that anybody will agree to grade them—so we are not very hopeful that their marks will be available by the time we get there early next year.

We have been successful in getting the students’ needs supplied in terms of clothes and school supplies taken care of by a retired headmaster. That is a success story! One of our best students who was determined to attend nearby Africa University, managed to get himself admitted, and we are stretching to find ways of keeping him there after this first semester. Methods of paying fees at all levels change from day to day as everybody is struggling to keep their schools, universities, and homes going.

We thank you for your patience, your support, and your concern for these students who are facing a time of extreme challenges in their young lives. We are planning on going to Zimbabwe in January, 2009 and we will post more information on conditions there after we get back in February. We continue to work with the $200 per year figure for sponsorships. We need sponsors for the new high school students entering in January. If you would like to do this, please email us at morris@taber.net. Reminder–Please make the check out to Ypsilanti First UM Church and mail it to us at 2856 Renfrew, Ann Arbor, MI 48105.

God’s Blessings, Morris and Ann