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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In Crisis Zimbabwe Asks: Could Mugabe Lose?

“…A presidential election is scheduled here for March 29, and [mother of three] Gladys Sithole said she hoped this time Mr. Mugabe would finally lose. Now 84, he is a former guerrilla fighter who has led the nation since independence in 1980. ‘Mugabe was a hero of the liberation struggle, sure,’ she said. ‘But now there is an even bigger struggle, the struggle to survive, and he is killing us.’

“She may conceivably get her wish. Mr. Mugabe is burdened not only by Zimbabwe’s persevering misery, but also by two formidable rivals. One is Morgan Tsvangirai, a well-known opponent with trade union support; he won 42 percent of the official vote in 2002, when inflation was a mere 139 percent. The other is Simba Makoni, a onetime cabinet member backed by influential figures in the governing party itself; these dissidents are no longer willing to wait for Mr. Mugabe’s death to initiate the succession.

“Could this actually be the end for one of the world’s most enduring and complicated political figures, by most accounts a ruthless, vengeful man, revered and reviled, who has presided over one of Africa’s most epic economic debacles? If Mr. Mugabe did somehow lose, would he withdraw quietly? Would disputed elections propel Zimbabwe, like Kenya, into chaos and killing?…”

Full article on the New York Times site here

Click here to see pictures.

To see a video of the “Good News – Bad News” taking place in Zimbabwe click here.
Having just returned from our annual volunteer trip to Zimbabwe and Old Mutare, it is time to share what was and what wasn’t accomplished. As always, we rejoiced in getting back to this beautiful country and wonderful people. As always, we were warmly welcomed and repeatedly thanked for the ongoing projects and new help that the continuing generosity and support of so many here in the US have made possible. Visitations of schools and pastors in the nearby deep rural areas, highlighted both the needs and vitality of the programs there. Their willingness to share what little they had touched us as we were given a meal by a staff-parish committee in a very remote area of the Honde Valley and were sent back to Old Mutare with a whole stalk of bananas, 3 pineapples, some corn, and a large packet of tea in the “boot” of the car.

Clare School [in an very poor area about 25 miles north of Old Mutare] has become an important new area of activity as the result of its visit by the November ’06 VIM team. The friendliness and determination in the face of such obvious need captured the team’s hearts. Resulting gifts and the instruction to “use it where you think best” created a new set of tasks for us to perform. When we visited them, the teachers proudly conducted us around, displaying the accomplishments empowered by these contributions. They spoke of their ongoing plans to improve what had been a rudimentary farm school for 200 children, but which is now serving 628, in addition to new preschool and high school programs. Thus we were shown their tiny library, made possible by 200 boxes of books in the 2006 container, the repaired and now operative pump providing pure water for the children and even irrigating a nearby plot whose crops will help support the school. We saw that over half of the children now have uniforms instead of rags to wear and many have shoes, as well. The textbooks are much appreciated, and a new grant will enable the purchase of more. Other programs are providing support for orphans and food for the kids. In all cases, more help is still needed badly, though the progress made since we visited in November ’06 is obvious.

The teachers, staff, and community are putting a lot of their own energy and resources into stretching our support. While supervised by professionals, much of the labor is being provided by the community itself. We toured their new classroom block. Last year they had put up the brick walls themselves. Two major donations enabled the roof, windows, and doors, with funding made available for them to pour the floors and plaster the walls once the necessary bags of cement can be obtained. Meanwhile, the children will be under cover when the rains come.

The need for more classroom furniture—especially desks–is obvious and the staff has located metal frames-from broken desks, that they are purchasing with their own funds. A collection we delivered from the Sunday School children at Clare UMC, Clare, MI will purchase the wood needed, and locals will then build about 30 three-child desks. This is addition to 20 purchased with VIM funding last year.

Activity at Hartzell Primary School was very satisfying in that all the projects seem to be going well—except for the computer lab and sewing classes—with the electricity on during only one school day in the three weeks we were there. [“Power-shedding” has become routine because the government cannot buy enough electricity for the country.] A woodworking program is on hold because the teacher identified for it decided to emigrate.

About 500 show up for porridge at 6 am, while the mahewu fortified drink serves nearer 800 at the 10 am break. We have asked for some form of a feeding program be during the month long Christmas break, to ensure that the neediest survive to start the new year. Almost all were in crisp uniforms and relatively few bare feet were visible. The students continue to perform very well on the 7th grade national exams, with the pass rate exceeding 95% every year in the tests that will determine their eligibility for high school. We like to think that the library and computers have helped. Obviously, the teachers are doing a very good job, despite their wages having fallen so far behind inflation that a month’s pay is now worth less than US $12, while prices are as high as ours. Everybody’s focus is on finding enough food for simple survival and on finding the funds to keep their children in school.

The library continues to be a beehive of activity, proving its value in so many ways. Ann’s “baby” is proving its worth. In our visits to two of the four primary schools that received enough books to start a library from the September 2006 container, it was noted by teachers that their year-end tests already showed significant improvement in reading comprehension. Imagine the difference the continuing and cumulative impact will make over the next few years! Imagine what a large-scale program of collecting books in the US to start primary libraries across the country could accomplish! We are looking for a someone or a group who is willing to accept this challenge.

We met the ten 7th grade candidates for high school scholarship places. The assumption was that at least four boys and four girls would score high enough on their exams to earn places at the high school. With results expected in early December, we will then pair the winners with their sponsors. Meanwhile, the results for the seven high school students who took their O Level exams will come much later and they won’t know whether they can continue on to A Levels [pre-university] until February or maybe even March.

The high school scholarship students gathered, as usual, for picture taking, receiving and sending sponsors’ letters, and the distribution of small presents and a very welcome gift of money to each one. For the first time, there were no complaints about clothes or supplies. The exchange rate this year is allowing us to make their clothing allowance a bit more generous beyond the absolute minimum. We are so grateful for efforts of retired Hartzell Primary School Headmaster, Naboth Maramba, in seeing that they have what they need in a timely manner. We also finally persuaded the High School Head to allow our day students to have food with the boarders during the two mid-day breaks. This was a part of a major discussion with the Head and High School Scholarship Committee about how we could help more needy children there.

As usual, we had filled our suitcases with analgesics, vitamins, and some supplies for Old Mutare Hospital. As usual, they were nearly out. Depositing 880 million Zim dollars with a medical supply house, has allowed the hospital’s Matron and Doctor to obtain some of the more urgent items on their want list. This method has potential for increasing help in this critical area.

The breakdown of the car we had borrowed from Tawana and November Mtshiya in Harare caused us much stress, expense, and time as we frantically tried to get the car repaired before we had to go back to Harare to get our flight back to the US. The difficulty came in finding the parts for the repairs and, after several leads which turned into wrong parts, false leads, etc. we ended up having to leave the car in Mutare still waiting for repairs. We dreaded telling our friends the news, but there was nothing else we could do. We still haven’t heard that it has been fixed.

Another stress and “downer” was a new rule for shipping our crafts to the US. Morris had to fill out a form giving detailed information about what we were sending and why, how we got the money to buy the crafts in the first place, and how and when the profits would come back to Zimbabwe. The request had to go through our bank in Zimbabwe. When we left, the permission still had not come and we did not know if it ever would come, so the crafts were sitting in the shipping warehouse waiting for the papers to move through the bureaucracy.

It was a jolt to come back from a country whose stores were almost empty, whose people couldn’t afford the cost of a can of baked beans, let alone any luxuries, and whose money was virtually valueless, to our usual Christmas buying frenzy here in the US. We had a huge stack of Christmas catalogs and store ads waiting in the mail for us and all the newspapers and magazines. are urging us to buy, buy, buy.

As our Christmas season moves into high gear here in the US, we need to continue to remember the people of Zimbabwe as they face a Christmas of desperation, hunger, and extreme poverty.

Children and teacher at Clare School

It has been a long while since we have updated the news about our work in Zimbabwe, which the very generous contributions of many continue to make possible.

General:
1. $5,000 was sent [mid-August] to UMCOR earmarked “Food for Zimbabwe” This is to help the efforts of various agencies who are attempting to alleviate the severe food shortage millions are facing there.

At Old Mutare:
2. During Term Two—May to June—the fee payments, feeding programs, and salary supports continued as usual. Extras included a very major purchase of textbooks and school supplies that the inflation-strapped primary school had not been able to provide.
3. Also, with Naboth Maramba taking charge, the sponsored high school students are now actively supported in their needs and have received uniforms, shoes, and supplies. Although retired, Naboth’s great heart and concern for children getting an education continues to be an inspiration!
4. A vacation feeding program operated from August 20 for those coming to the primary school early to help with various work projects. The two regular feedings—breakfast and breaktime will begin when Term Three starts in early September
5.100 girls and 113 boys at Hartzell Primary are receiving uniforms for Term Three.
6. 401 primary students will continue to have their fees paid this term.
7. $500 has been donated towards getting a woodworking program started.

At Clare School:

8. Contractors are working out the details that will put a roof on the new two-room classroom block at Clare School before the rains begin in a couple of months. Five classes are meeting outdoors.
9. We are told that the library room is being actively used.
10. 30 three-seat desks were built for children to use.
11.120 uniforms and 40+ pairs of new shoes went to needy children in May.
12. The pump for the borehole [well] was repaired. The school had been without clean water for some weeks and there was no money to import the needed parts. Now there is enough water that the school plans to begin an irrigated garden for food.
13. Consultation is underway to see what more can be done here, as there have been substantial special gifts for work at Clare.

This is not a complete list, but it gives the flavor of the wonderful accomplishments made possible through the generosity and support of dozens of people! Some have been contributing regularly since we began in 1999, while others have just recently heard and become involved. Blessings on all of you! You make it possible!

The two of us will be in Zimbabwe from October 31 to November 23. The work continues!