A Welcome to our Website!
A Welcome to our website! This is an account of our projects in Zimbabwe and how we are trying to give the children there a chance at a good education. We feel that education will give them a chance for better lives and provide them with the abilities to guide their country through what is now a very perilous future.
The following article by Peri Stone-Palmquist is an excellent, though flattering, summary of our work. It originally appeared Aug. 18, 2003 in The Ann Arbor News and was reprinted with permission in Io Triumphe, the alumni magazine of Albion College, in 2004.
“The school fees were too hefty— so they found the money.
Food was too scarce— so they found the resources for a meal a day.
A dream for a library was floundering— so they found the books.”
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”Morris and Ann Taber make things happen. They empower others to make things happen. And they just so happen to focus their energies and commitment on the children of Mutare, Zimbabwe.
The way they describe it, things have just happened—opportunities have just dropped in their laps. “We haven’t been proactive,” Morris insists. “We fill in their needs.” Indeed, their ministry—which now involves many eager volunteers in the U.S.—has its seeds in a tourist trip in 1997. “Animals and Africa had always been on our list,” Morris said. “We said, ‘The price is right . . . let’s go.”
Their youngest son, Steve, said he remembered thinking at the time it seemed an unusual choice for a vacation destination. But it did make sense. His parents were avid travelers, even taking their grade-school age sons on an 11-week tour of Europe in a recreational vehicle in 1969. And they often visit unusual places, such as Mongolia and Siberia. Yet, he said they’re also frugal people, the kind who don’t indulge in impulse buys and have saved diligently for the opportunity to travel. “They weren’t going to settle for a fancy safari in Kenya,” he said.
Their subsequent service in Zimbabwe also makes sense to Steve, who remembers his parents talking about wanting to do such work when they retired. “I knew they wouldn’t be the kind to retire to Florida and play golf.” They feel it’s their duty to give back, he said. “It fits in with their religious convictions. This is what God wants us to do—that’s the driving force.”
The Tabers’ first trip back to Mutare—after the tour teaching position at Africa University. When Morris noticed his students couldn’t afford books, he raised $29 for each American history textbook he was using.
Ann, a retired school librarian, offered her help to nearby Hartzell Primary School for ages 5-12. The school didn’t have a library, but Ann figured she could collect books to put in the classrooms. Under the vision of a headmaster intent on a library for his students, however, Ann became involved in something much larger.
Their “modest appeals” for reading material snowballed into an outpouring of support. Churches and community donations brought 1,200 books to the school. Hartland Consolidated Schools donated 4,000. Greenhills School collected nearly 30 bags of books.
When the Tabers first arrived in Mutare in 1997, the would-be library was a small room with a hole in the ceiling. Today, the library has its own building with more than 9,000 holdings [12,000-2005]—a testament to the community’s own initiative and Ann’s work.
The Tabers have left their mark in other ways as well.
In 1999, Ann said she noticed about 20 students sitting under a tree and wondered why they weren’t in school. The headmaster told her they couldn’t afford the fee—about $5 in U.S. currency at the time. “I was surprised they’d be sending these kids home,” Ann said. The headmaster told them about 125 children couldn’t pay—and the Tabers quickly found the money from a U.S. friend to meet the need. Now, more than 400 elementary students are sponsored. They’ve also helped find funding for school uniforms, computers, supplies and the $200 fee for 20 high school students.
Quickly attached to the beauty of the country and its people, the Tabers returned in 2000, 2001 and 2002— on their own nickel.[And in 2003,4, and 5] During [their] most recent trip, the headmaster reported that 800 of 950 students came to school with some degree of hunger. “So I asked how much would it cost to feed the entire school?” Morris said. A check to cover the approximately $25-a-day cost for an enriched liquid meal launched the lunch program—one the Tabers hope to continue as long as there is need and funding. Once the program started, school officials said attendance spiked. “It’s very satisfying to know you’re helping that many people.” Ann said.
Part of what makes that possible is yet another offshoot ministry. The Tabers buy arts and crafts from artisans while in Zimbabwe and then sell them back in the U.S. They use the money to cover the items’ cost and shipping and then donate the rest back to their many programs.
And now, as they hatch plans to support a Mutare orphanage and send more books and supplies, they’re in the process of establishing an official nonprofit organization, tentatively called The Zimbabwe Children’s Fund.
“They’re amazing,” said Melanie Lee Carey, pastor at their church, First United Methodist of Ypsilanti. “I can’t keep up with them—they do so many things.” Carey said the Tabers have really connected their vision to how the church can make a difference. “They’ve been able to get lots of people involved.”
Terry Joiner, a church member and pediatrician in Ypsilanti, said he’s hoping to travel with the Tabers on their next trip to satisfy a curiosity the couple has instilled about Mutare and see what he can do in terms of health needs. “They make it easy to reach out,” he said.
Bill Secrest, a colleague who has known Morris for 20 years, said the couple serves as a conduit for the wealth in America. Secrest has supported the Tabers’ work from the beginning—writing a check on the spot when told about the school fees. “I don’t know too many people,” he said, “who are willing to risk everything to help other people.”
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Just prior to publication of this edition of Io Triumphe, the Tabers and other volunteers filled a 2,300-cubicfoot shipping container with items that are now bound for Mutare, Zimbabwe. Ann writes that the container was packed with books for the Primary School Library; medical supplies for two mission hospitals; supplies for an orphanage; toys; videos; a Rototiller; and supplies, including clothing, school supplies, blankets and books, for a missionary who runs a program for street kids. [Note: It arrived in June, 2004. Another will go in late 2006]