Update from Gideon & Jennifer

On the 21st January 2016, Fountain of Hope Foundation (FHF), church and community leaders of Makamure had a meeting at Christian Fellowship Bethel Centre to evaluate the programs that Fountain of Hope has been running in the area together. 29 people altogether from all the villages gathered with FHF staff members. Our desire as FHF is to involve the people that we work with in making decisions for the future; hence we needed to run this evaluation process with them.

Some of the areas we looked at together with the community are as follows:

Foundations for Farming

Foundations for Farming was introduced by FHF in Makamure community at the end of 2013 and trainings have been done ever since the introduction of this conservation farming. Over 100 people have been trained so far in both Madzivire and Mandiva villages of Makamure and farming inputs were distributed to these people who were trained in each farming season. Unfortunately people of these communities have not received good rains in these seasons but are very convinced that this is the only way of farming that can make them produce something out their fields.   

The community appreciated Fountain of Hope for introducing Foundations for Farming in this community, for they have tested and tried it and are very much convinced that it is the best way of farming. They gave a testimony of Mr Madhuviko (pictured herein in his miracle maize field) and Mr Chigowi whose maize is thriving well even though the community didn’t get meaningful rainfall this year. Their well mulched fields managed to contain the little moisture that was brought up by the little rainfall and that little moisture is enabling the crop to thrive under the scorching sun. To the people of this community Foundations for Farming is really a miracle and they are convinced that it is the only way that can take them out of hunger and poverty. The community chief who was represented by Mr Jimmy Madzivire appreciated FHF for training and for donating maize seed all these seasons to them so that they could start using the new way of farming, which they have named “digha udye” which literally means, “dig and eat” and it actually means that if you don’t want hunger in your home practice Foundations for Farming. 

Challenges
There has been very little rainfall received in this community for the past seasons and this has caused most of the crops planted to dry up before reaching maturity. Conservation farming is very hard at the beginning and its always a challenge to old people who care for orphans and vulnerable children as they are sometimes not able to go and work in the fields.  

Borehole & Garden in Madzivire Village

The community leaders appreciated FHF for helping them to see some of their community visions being fulfilled. They appreciated the drilling and installation of the borehole as well as the establishment of the garden. The borehole is going a long way in providing safe drinking water to the whole village of Madzivire and the garden is benefitting people from the seven surrounding villages. The village head who was present appreciated this love and care and communicated that there has been very few cases of water borne diseases in his area ever since the borehole was established.

The borehole and garden projects also helped the community to clear a road and through FHF to put up a bridge at one of the rivers which was a problem for people to cross into these seven villages. The community now can have minibuses reaching them and they no longer walk for 25km to get transport into town. Business people are beginning to get into their community and establish their business, all this happened because of the borehole and garden projects. THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR INITIATING THIS PROJECT, says Mr Jimmy Madzivire (standing in for the councillor, the MP, and the District Administrator).

Challenges
The community has been experiencing drought for the past two years and this has eventually caused the river bed to dry up so there is no water for the garden. Due to unavailability of water the garden which used to bring smiles to 95 families is not operational currently. The borehole was only drilled in Madzivire village and there are six more villages without boreholes who are struggling to get safe drinking water in Makamure area especially now that the community has not been receiving meaningful rainfall.  

School Fees for Orphans and Vulnerable Children

The community once more appreciated FHF and Bright Hope World for their love and generosity which they have shown to 32 children from Makamure community. Some of these children had already stopped going to school but the money which came from Bright Hope World enabled them to go back to school. The chief of the area appreciated all the people who showed this gesture of love; this is one of the ways of developing a community. “What kind of a future can we have as a community, if our children are not going to school? Thank you FHF and Bright Hope for your love; our orphans and vulnerable children managed to go to school this term because of the support that came from you”, says the chief

Challenges
It was noted that some of these children whose fees were paid come from child-headed households (like these in the photo) and there is literally no one to provide parental guidance to them after school. They also struggle to have food since we are having a serious drought season, and without enough food, it might again be difficult for them to go to school always. There are also more children who are dropping out of school due to the drought that we are currently experiencing.

Feeding Centre

Fountain of Hope runs a feeding program which we now call Children's Transformational Program which is meant to holistically transform the lives of orphans and vulnerable children. We currently are feeding 25 children twice a week and this is really going a long way in reducing malnutrition and in assisting these children to be able to go to school on daily basis. A psycho-social camp is going to be run by our team this first term of the year to provide more hope and smiles to these children. 

Challenges
Due to drought these children now need to be fed not just twice a week but throughout the whole week. Since Mandiva village is one of the villages in the country that is heavily affected by drought, there are now more children in need of food assistance. 25 is just a drop in a bucket.

Goat Project

60 goats have so far been distributed in Madzivire and Mandiva villages of Ward 19 (Makamure area of Chivi) and 20 vulnerable families have benefitted. We envision that these families will be able to sell these goats once they have multiplied so that they can buy school uniforms and pay school fees for their orphans. They have already started to multiply in some families. 

The community thanked Fountain of Hope and Bright Hope World for initiating the small livestock project with them. This is the perfect animal project given the drought situation that the community is in. Cows have been dying because of hunger, but goats unlike cows can survive on small bushes, trees and scrubs. They also provide good milk to little babies if they are kept very well by the owners. Goats increase so fast under good management. 

Challenges
Due to the drought in the area, wild dogs have been coming to people's goat pens to attack them. A few young goats were eaten by wild dogs. There has also been an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in the area but none of the goats were affected by the disease. 

After all the above discussions, the leaders of the community and the members of Fountain of Hope took their time to praise God for the transformation that has taken place so far. They praised God for the borehole drilling, the establishment of the garden, and the road network which the community worked on and which allows cars to reach their community. They praised God for the children whose fees were paid this school term and some of them were able to go back to school after a long time of being out of school. They praised God for the farming God's way trainings that were done by FHF in the community and the seeds that were distributed to the farmers. Praise was given to God for the unity which is so tangible amongst churches and members of the community. They prayed at the end for rain to come and for people to have enough food this drought year. 

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PARTNERSHIP 

Gideon & Jennifer Chishamba