We give thanks to God for enabling us to continue the work of ZPT through another 6 months and we are thankful to our supporters for faithfully sending funds for the various projects and ministries.
The needs are as great as ever with a very hot February and March causing widespread drought conditions. This means that our partners on the ground will need help to buy supplies of maize meal to give to those who have not been able to grow any again this year.
The economic situation is still chaotic, and the Zimbabwean currency seems to be once again spiralling downwards, A 100g packet of instant coffee is now over $1000 Zim Dollars!
Many families can no longer afford the school fees charged by their local state schools.
We have had reports recently through from Trymore Mateyanganga, James Kambudzi, and Gideon Chishamba.
Trymore reports good progress on the new Community Development Centre, the walls of the main hall are completed and the roof trusses in place, they are hoping we can help them to buy the corrugated roofing sheets they need to get it weather tight, although we do not have funds to meet this need at present. The centre is currently used for the youth training programme, ladies sewing classes and the orphan feeding programme, as well as Bible teaching and Sunday worship.
Gideon reports on the Chivi district Clinic they have been working steadily on. They recently had Government inspectors to look round who were very impressed with it all. They did however leave a list of tasks to complete before they are willing to staff it. They require separate living accommodation for the nurses and want to see installation of a solar power system, increased water tank capacity, plus a list of fittings and requirements to get it to the correct standard. Gideon estimates the cost of the work, excluding the nurse’s accommodation, to be $5000 (USD), which we have committed to provide.
When this is finished it will serve a district with a population of around 19,000 people, at the moment people from this area have to make a long journey to the nearest hospital or alternative clinic. This could be very costly to pay for transport or face an arduous journey walking or by donkey cart.
Also, in the Chivi district is Pastor Chigowi’s Orphanage project, they have plenty of land but no water. A borehole would make it possible to irrigate the land for their own use as well as generating income and would make it possible to mould their own bricks to construct buildings and supply drinking water. They estimate the cost of the borehole at $6400 (USD) and we have committed to cover initial costs of drilling the borehole.
Gideon has been setting up Transformation Centres to assist Communities to care for the orphans and vulnerable children in their villages. These children are often raised by grandparents or other relatives and it is a heavy additional burden to bear for those with little or no income.
At one of these, the Mthombothemba Transformation centre, currently feeding 120 children every day, they would like to instal a large polytunnel to grow vegetables throughout the whole year for their own use and possibly to sell any surplus that could provide funds to help pay for the children’s school fees. It may seem strange to think of installing a polytunnel in what we think of as a hot country, however where these have been used recently in Zimbabwe, they have seen dramatically increased yields. A polytunnel provides a much more even all year-round temperature, controls the humidity and reduces drying out. They have obtained an estimate to put one up for a cost of $5950 (USD) and we have received donations to fund this project. Please pray for the Lord’s blessing on each of these projects.
James Kambudzi /Tariro Yeupenyu
In spite of a broken leg James Kambudzi has been able to oversee the work of Tariro Yeupenyu (Hope for Life) and is thankful to report that 30 goats have been distributed to 3 local churches to support orphan families, needy families have been helped with Maize distributions, 50 Bibles have been purchased and distributed, Training sessions carried out in Foundations for Farming.
They would value prayer for:-
- Healing for James’s broken leg. He was in great pain but has just had a new cast and the pain has reduced.
- Protection for goats and herders from snakes, hyenas and diseases
- Unity on the TY Board and new members to be identified with the right attitudes and skills
- Identifying the right people to help when so many are in need and this year’s harvest has largely failed
- Collection, installation and effective working of the oil pressing machine
- New challenges in the form of cancer in children. Cancer, HIV and Covid have a left a number of orphan-headed households who are vulnerable to hunger, abuse, and school drop-out.
We are getting many requests from partners in Zimbabwe to help families pay for basic state school fees. Local schools demand fees to help with running costs and like everything else, these costs have risen sharply recently. We reluctantly made it a policy not to fund these requests as the implications would be huge to fund education for the many needy children in all the communities that we have contacts with year after year. We have spoken about perhaps setting up a designated fund to sponsor one or two of the most needy. We would value prayer for this situation as it is a huge worry for families to see their children denied education as a result. We do, however, continue to provide help with school fees for the widows we support.
We give thanks for Tools With a Mission arranging for another consignment of tools to be sent over for Trymore & James projects at Mt Darwin and Gideon’s Youth Training Scheme.
We are thankful too to for the Ministry of the Trinitarian Bible Society, they have just approved another grant of Bibles and scripture portions in the Shona and Ndebele languages. Please pray that these will arrive safely and clear customs without any hold ups.
Please pray for the Preachers Training Conference over Zoom being held on Wednesday 1st June when Roger Prime, Derek French and Mark Drury will be helping the pastors understand and make use of the training books Pray, Prepare, Preach recently shipped to Zimbabwe and distributed to a number of pastors.
We would value prayer too for us as a Christian charity, we are urgently looking for someone to join the team of Trustees who could take on the main day to day administrative responsibilities. Since the founding of the trust in 2011 our current secretary Roger Prime has devoted much of his time to this work and his wife Gill has also played an important role in keeping in touch with and ministering to the 3 Pastor’s widows we care for Chipo, Agnes, and Loveness. Roger and Gill have indicated that with their increasing ages the time has come to hand over the administration of the Trust to a younger generation to secure the long term continuation of the work. Please pray for the Lord to provide those who can take on these responsibilities.
The next Trustees and supporters Prayer Meeting on Zoom is planned for Monday 25th July at 7.30pm
We acknowledge the Lord’s goodness and continued provision to enable us to channel aid through to our brothers and sisters in Zimbabwe and thanks again to all our supporters for your prayers, gifts and interest.
Donations can be made to our Account with CAF Bank:
Sort code: 40-52-40
Account name: Zimbabwe Partnership Trust
Account number: 00100168
Online donations can also be made at give.net/20174075
Roger Prime