Report Following Evaluation Meetings with Community Leaders and Pastors

Fountain of Hope staff would like to hereby appreciate Bright Hope World for the support that is being rendered to different communities and villages where FHF is making an impact. Many lives are being touched and many souls are coming to Christ, even those on leadership of communities. The projects that are run in these communities are not only transforming the socio-economic situations of communities but are undoubtedly bringing many to Christ. For instance, recently in Chivi the council CEO, who had seen Fountain of Hope touching the lives of orphans and vulnerable children, decided to give up worshipping other gods and turned to the true living God. This is because he had seen these projects improving the lives of people and changing the behaviours of young and old people especially in the community of Makamure. The community of Chirogwe which used not to be enthusiastic about transformation of their community has amazingly joined other communities in running the race of defining their future. It is because of the transformation taking place in these communities that has caused people like the CEO of Chivi to want to worship this God of transformation.

Fountain of Hope staff members have been working hard since the end of September to the beginning of the year 2018 especially in the area of training people to practice Foundations for Farming. Most of these farmers are very convinced that this is one of the best ways of practicing farming such that they are going into villages recruiting other people to follow suit. Fountain of Hope staff members did not even rest during the Christmas break as they wanted people to get as much as possible from the training they had on Foundations for Farming.

Towards the end of December/beginning of January Fountain of Hope had an evaluation process with the communities to find out how the projects have been having an impact in the lives of people. Please find below the evaluation summary report for Peniel Centre :

Peniel Centre

Peniel Centre thrives to provide a home, family, hope and a future to abandoned and abused orphans and vulnerable children in Zimbabwe. It takes those children who are in very difficult circumstances and those who do not have relatives to help. The centre currently has 26 children who all come from different difficult circumstances. Thank you so much Bright Hope World for the support and care that you are showing to these children, they have got high hopes for the future. The evaluation of Peniel Centre was done on the 12th January at Peniel Centre.

Impact
The centre is having a great impact in the lives of children who once were abandoned or sexually abused in society. Please find below an appreciation note from one of the Peniel girls - Memory Nyathi :

I am very much grateful to God that I have a loving family here at Peniel Centre. When I came to Peniel Centre I had really gone through a lot of difficulties, without a family and no one to send me to school. I didn’t have a proper place that I called home, so I would stay with different people who would sometimes take advantage of me and abuse me. I still struggle and am ashamed to talk about what some men did to me before Peniel Centre took me.

I thank God that by His grace I was brought to Peniel Centre after all the struggles. Peniel Centre is the only home I have and that’s where I have a family. My family is very big here at Peniel Centre, it has got both boys and girls. We love and care about each other even though we all come from different backgrounds. We treat each other as family and our house parents love us very much.

Thank you Bright Hope World for being our sponsor. I go to school like other children who have parents because of your support - thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, I don’t know how many times I should thank you. I would like to be a business woman after school, live an independent life and be able to help many orphans like me who don’t have a home or parents to send them to school. I thank you very much that you are empowering me to be able to see the reality of the dreams that I have. When I became homeless before Peniel Centre all my dreams were shattered but thank God for Peniel Centre and for people like you, my dreams are being restored and I look forward to the day when these dreams would be a reality.

I love going to church very much because I know it’s God who gave me a second chance to live again in a family and to have loving people like you who are helping us to go to school as well as to have food on the table on a daily basis. Thank you for your love and care.

Peniel Centre is touching and transforming the lives of such children who once were sexually abused after they became orphans. Thank you Bright Hope World for all the support.

Self-Sustainable Projects 

Peniel Centre thrives to be able to produce food on its own and also pass skills to all the children at the centre. Our children are taught how to practice Foundations for Farming, how to run a garden project, and how to run a livestock management project.

Currently Peniel Centre runs two gardens, a broiler chicken project, and cattle and goats projects. All these projects are going a long way in enabling the children to have different skills which will help them in their life after Peniel Centre.

Challenges
Ever since the new dispensation in Zimbabwe, prices of goods and services went up to a point that some commodities have more than doubled their prices. This is a big challenge especially when it comes to the education of the children, uniforms, stationery, shoes, fees and levies have all gone up. Education becomes more expensive especially when the children reach tertiary level. The market for the garden produce sometimes gets flooded thereby suppressing the prices downwards.

Recommendations
-  The centre needs to find volunteer teachers to help the children study at home
- Children should be given entrepreneurial skills through being attached to various business people in Bulawayo
- The centre should consider running a taxi business so that it has a daily income generating project
- The broiler chicken project has to be increased so that the centre can produce between 2500 and 5000 broilers per 6 weeks
- The centre needs new beds because the ones that Peniel have are very old for they have been used since 2008
- Peniel centre must have a wing that focuses on skills development so that those who are getting too old to stay at the centre are given necessary skills to make a living outside the centre

Appreciation

Fountain of Hope would like therefore to appreciate Bright Hope World for all the support that they are rendering to us for without their support we could not have achieved what we have achieved so far. We would like also to appreciate the Church and Community leaders for their co-operation in working with us in improving the quality of life in their communities. Thank you to different churches and pastors in all the communities who are doing a great job of discipling people and communities. Thank you also to the great team that we are working with in transforming Zimbabwe, one community at a time.

Thank you

Gideon & Jennifer on behalf of Fountain of Hope team