We arrived safely and without incident.

Everything is priced in US dollars—but at inflated prices. It will probably sort itself out eventually, as it was announced officially yesterday that it is now legal to use any currency. However, it is not likely to do so in short order.

The primary school fees are now US$50 per student per term. (Contrasted with $4-5 per term when US dollars were being converted to Zim dollars.) As a result, we are spending twice as much to support only 120 instead of 400.  280 children will be sent home!

Inflation in Zimbabwe has been unreal. The new largest bill listed for printing on November 23 was for 5 billion dollars. On December 30 they were reporting one for 1 trillion and by the end of January the new 100 trillion dollar bill was almost universally rejected with almost everythign being bought and sold for foreign currency [forex] with the US dollar being the standard.

Click here to see an article on Zimbabwe from the NY Times.

People in Zimbabwe face a bleak and hungry Christmas Season

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

The news from Zimbabwe is not ALL bad—although most of it is heart-breaking. As I write this, a plan of the sharing of power between ZANU-PF and MDC in a Government of National Unity has been signed and is to be announced on Monday. Until it actually is promulgated—and implemented—nothing is certain. The inflation is running in the Million of percent and increasingly basic items are available only if paid for in scarce foreign currency. Many people will starve unless the various willing aid agencies are allowed and able to provide extensive help. We pray that the GNU will provide the framework for the beginning of recovery.

Meanwhile, you ask, what about Old Mutare and the Hartzell Schools? Better news here. Although most of the problems reported in the June posting remain, there is some improvement.
The election charges that Shadreck Mufute had undercounted 10 votes were postponed, postponed, postponed and then dropped. It should be safe once more to mention his name here. We have paid his lawyers’ fees. Meanwhile, he kept the primary school running and Term Two concluded in early August.

Term Three began in Zimbabwe on September 2. Teachers all across the country are giving up and either leaving the country or simply staying home because their pay isn’t enough to even get them to school. At least 70,000 unfilled vacancies (30%?) are crippling education.

However, Shadreck informs us that Hartzell Primary is running and that he had only three vacancies from last term. We are very impressed that these teachers are willing to continue even when the government doesn’t pay them enough to live on. His most urgent need is to find the maize meal and mahewu that he needs to keep the feeding program running. Porridge at 6:30 am and mahewu at 10 may well be all the food some children get in the day (and maybe some of the teachers?). It gets them to school and on time! We also continue to provide school fees for 400 and food for the entire school. We will probably help some with uniforms and school supplies as we have in the past.

Reporting to the sponsors of High School students is much more difficult. One positive—our 32 scholarship students got fed with the boarders at break and lunch during Term Two—a major breakthrough. Naboth Maramba continues to see that they are adequately provided with uniforms and school supplies. Supplies are scarce and sometimes unreasonably expensive. Shoes and math calculators are the most difficult to buy.

The dislocation of children caused when 200 families were driven off the Meikles farm meant that 6 of them had to become boarders in order to stay in high school. It didn’t seem right to stop supporting them because their families were driven from home. Equipping them was very expensive and their fees are higher as well. The Headmaster was on leave during Term Two and difficulties in getting timely firm information continued. We hope that he will be more cooperative this term. The Station Chair and the District Superintendent have promised to work with us. The High School has a teacher shortage, but they are working to fill the empty places.

The most obvious relief crisis is past, but there are many who are quietly dying of starvation or abuse. While our focus has been on educating children and feeding them, we did provide some thousands US$ to help. We are hoping to get some stories and other reports informing us where that help went and what more is needed. Two of our contacts were away until recently.

We have no current information on how the Clare School community is faring. We will report as soon we hear.

Here at home–Very few presentations. We miss the chances to tell the story of the challenges and accomplishments. There is little dramatically new to tell those who have heard the story and a scarcity of new contacts. PS—we survived an IRS audit of our 2006 charity almost intact – this was the year we went to Zimbabwe twice and sent the container, so a lot of charitable expenses.

Ann and Morris

Many of you have received some news reports that I have forwarded some time back. Some have not. Keep ALL of Zimbabwe in your prayers! Murder, beatings, burning, starving are common words in the news.

Conditions are terrible and getting worse–the food distributing NGOs have been told to stop–but appear to be going ahead anyway. In our case, we have been releasing money to N— and retired Headmaster, M—, as they work through ecumenical church people to purchase food and supplies for displaced [those who were burned out and chased off Meikles Farm near Old Mutare] . They have used $1,300 for kapenta, cooking oil, blankets, etc. It is not easy, because helping these people is seen as a political action against the government. We are very grateful to those of you who provided some of that money.

Six of our high school scholars were from among the displaced families. As a result, we had to make emergency arrangements for them to board at Hartzell High School so that they could continue in school. Unfortunately, that meant buying a lot of equipment–trunk, blankets, Sunday clothes, etc–all expensive and difficult to obtain. I turned over $1,200 to C—- for that purpose. I will deal with their fees, when that bill comes.

The Primary School continues to operate, and the usual 400 are having their fees paid [the rate is now 2 billion each!] and S— is keeping the feeding going though it is not easy–a loaf of bread was selling for 1.2 billion dollars on Friday. Prices are increasing on the average of 10-15% each day. Though not easy, i am getting money to him for both the fees and the feeding.

Money has also been sent to the Bookshop to pay for needed texts and supplies for both Clare Hartzell Primary Schools. over 250 uniforms are being made for the two schools by a local company, as well.

The need continues for emergency help. We are confident that people of good will are working to provide that help if we can provide the funds. in addition to the contacts that N— and his Conference Projects office has with the Ecumenical efforts in Mutare, S—, and others are organizing a more long term effort for help and relocation.

If you would like to help in these efforts, you are welcome to do so. Make out the checks to Ypsilanti First UMC or simply FUMC and send them to us 2856 Renfrew, Ann Arbor, Mi 48105.

There are many calls upon all of us for help in so many areas. Please don’t feel pressured in this case. We are fully able to continue. However, we did feel that we should report, especially to those who sent money without being asked, as to what we are doing.

S—’s court date for allegedly undercounting 10 votes for Mugabe in the March 29 election is now set for this Friday, June 20. We paid for his bail and lawyers’ fees for the first time.

May peace and justice prevail!
Morris and Ann

For those who are following the presidential vote situation in Zimbabwe.

This is the first time that I have seen the concrete data behind the MDC’s claim of outright victory. These are the figures that the MDC is working with.There is no guarantee of their accuracy, but if they are, then Tsvangirai won outright, with no need for a runoff.

Where does it go from here? ????

Pray and hope,

Morris

To see the MDC presidential poll data click here

From “Zimbabwe Situation”

Zimbabwe is a deeply religious country. Daily discussions of the country’s crisis end with Zimbabweans, black and white, saying: “We can only pray.” So when the leaders of Zimbabwe’s churches unanimously warn that the country faces “genocide” unless the international community intervenes, it is an important moment.

The clerics were speaking more than three weeks after a presidential election whose result President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party refuse to disclose, almost certainly because he was soundly defeated by Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). A recount of 23 parliamentary seats is under way in an apparent attempt to restore Zanu-PF’s lost majority, and a wave of violence and intimidation has swept the country ahead of any possible presidential run-off.

“Organised violence perpetrated against individuals, families and communities who are accused of campaigning or voting for the ‘wrong’ political party … has been unleashed throughout the country,” said a joint statement by the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference and the Zimbabwe Council of Churches.

“People are being abducted, tortured, humiliated by being asked to repeat slogans of the political party they are alleged not to support, ordered to attend mass meetings where they are told they voted for the ‘wrong’ candidate.”

The religious leaders call for voter intimidation to stop, adding that there is “widespread famine” in the countryside, that basic goods are unavailable or too expensive and that there are no medicines to treat people injured in the post-election violence. But their message to the international community is an uncomfortable reminder of previous occasions on which the world failed to act in time.

“If nothing is done to help the people of Zimbabwe from their predicament, we shall soon be witnessing genocide similar to that experienced in Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi and other hot spots in Africa and elsewhere,” they warn. “We appeal to the Southern African Development Community [SADC], the African Union and the United Nations to work towards arresting the deteriorating political and security situation in Zimbabwe.”

This directly confronts the issue of what other countries can, or should, do to prevent abuses of the kind happening in Zimbabwe.Britain is in a particularly difficult position: Mr Mugabe has cast Mr Tsvangirai as a puppet of the former colonial power, and British criticism can be seen as making the 84-year-old autocrat’s case.

But Gordon Brown and now the Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, who called on African leaders this week to isolate Mr Mugabe, have clearly decided that tactful silence is no longer an option when the Zimbabwean leader, in the Foreign Secretary’s words, is “clinging to power and beating his own people to death to ensure he retains it”.

There is very little that Britain, its European partners, the UN or even the African Union can do about Zimbabwe if its neighbours are not prepared to act, but here there is at last some hope for Mr Mugabe’s battered opponents.

Breaking southern Africa’s conspiracy of silence over Zimbabwe has now had a tangible effect: yesterday Beijing said a shipment of weapons bound for the landlocked country may head home after the vessel was turned away from one port after another. First South African dockers refused to unload the vessel, upon which it headed for Mozambique, then Angola.

There are tentative signs that Zimbabwe’s neighbours, many of whom have absorbed millions of economic migrants due to the ongoing crisis, may have run out of patience with the erstwhile liberator in Harare.

CHURCHES IN MANICALAND
PASTORAL STATEMENT ON HARMONIZED ELECTIONS MARCH 2008

We call upon all people to:
• Exercise your right to vote freely according to your conscience and to vote in peace.
• Be assured that your vote is private and the choice you make is known only to you.
• Respect the right of others to vote according to their own choice
• Refuse to participate in intimidatory behavior
• Focus your behavior on the ethics of equality, truth and mercy.
• Pray that the people’s desire for a peaceful electoral process will be honored in our country.
We call upon all political party Leaders and all Candidates to:
• Refrain from using force to gain votes for your party.
• Desist from using unemployed youth in intimidatory and destructive activities.
• Urge your party members to respect the right of others to vote for whom they wish.
• Present your party’s platform in a non–violent manner and promote dialogue as an alternative to force.
We call upon law enforcement agents to:
• Ensure that there is no one above the law in Zimbabwe.
• Carry out your responsibilities without fear and without prejudice
• Be quick to respond and intervene in situations of violence and use legal and peaceful means of controlling violence.
• Bring to justice through the system approved by the Constitution those people who have broken the law, including those who have done so in pursuit of party politics.
We call upon our youth and the unemployed in our country to:
• Recognize that you are the backbone of this country.
• Use your strength to build the Zimbabwe you hope for.
• Refuse to be used by others who want to bring chaos and violence to the community.
• Press upon other youth the need to refrain from behavior that is intimidatory, violent, and disrespectful of people and their property.
We call upon agents of the news media to:
• Be accessible to all political parties contesting the elections and report their views fairly.
• Be responsible for the dissemination of truth during this volatile time.
• Be committed to professional journalistic ethics as they are articulated and promoted world-wide.
We call upon all traditional leaders to:
• Refrain from being partisan.
• Be instruments of peace and justice
• Continue to be custodians of our cultural virtues and traditions, by fostering a spirit of tolerance, co–existence.
We call upon the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to:
• Ensure that polling booths and their environment are managed in such a way that voters can cast their ballots without intimidation
• Make provisions for adequate access to polling stations so that all registered voters can cast their votes
• Ensure that all people who handle ballots and ballot boxes do so with due honesty, integrity and respect.

As church leaders in Manicaland we are available to all people regardless of political affiliation for counseling, prayer and discussion on the future of our nation. We invite you to pray that God may use each one of us as instruments of peace during these coming elections and after.

The Zimbabwean

Loaded down with so much money he can barely carry it all, but this young Zimbabwean isn’t on his way to buy a bike or a computer. All that cash might just buy him a loaf of bread.

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