Fountain of Hope Progress Report August 2018

Fountain of Hope and the leaders of all the communities that are being transformed would like to hereby extend our heartfelt gratitude to Bright Hope World for all the unwavering support being rendered to community projects. We are grateful together with communities that are showing great signs of change even in the midst of challenges that Zimbabwe is going through. Your support is unreservedly lifting up communities out of the doldrums of hunger and poverty and is bringing a ray of hope to orphans and vulnerable children from these communities. There is great improvement of food security in some of the communities that we have been working in for the past three years, an increase of orphans and vulnerable children who are now attending school and also an increase of health deliveries in some of the communities in region 5 of Zimbabwe which we are working in.

Thank you so much Bright Hope World that you are partnering with us in improving the quality of life in these communities. Please find herein below the report on Mandiva.  

Recent Events

Situation in Zimbabwe

On the 30th of July Zimbabweans held parliamentary and presidential elections and the ruling party was declared winner but the main opposition party has contested the results. Following this announcement tension arose in the capital city that resulted in the death of six people and hundreds more were left injured when the army fired live ammunition on fleeing unarmed civilians. The irony of it is that in November last year when the army ousted Robert Mugabe who ruled Zimbabwe for almost four decades people went on to the streets and hugged the soldiers in celebrations. A few months down the road the army has returned shooting at the very citizens who hugged them! Zimbabweans are yearning for real, tangible, long lasting, positive change not the piecemeal we have seen so far. The church in Zimbabwe is getting united to pray for this great nation to receive its salvation.

All these happenings in the country have affected the economy of the country and we have seen inflation rising up again, goods and services are now very expensive and our bond dollar which is supposed to be equivalent to a US$ has been devalued by over 50%. This has prompted many organisations to decide to open bank accounts outside the country and Fountain of Hope is also doing the same thing.  

Community Leaders Training

Fountain of Hope spent the months of June and July training 25 community leaders and church leaders on how to facilitate a church and community transformation process. These leaders were pulled from all the communities that Fountain of Hope works with. The training took place in the community of Makamure and all these leaders are expected to go back to their communities and work with their communities on how to come up with a 5 year action plan for their communities. The 25 were awarded with certificates after the training and the graduation was attended by the chief and the councillors of the area.  

Mandiva Community

Mandiva is a densely populated community in Chivi district of Masvingo province. The community is very keen to see development taking place in the village. Unfortunately the village head, Mr Mandiva (pictured) himself who used to lead the way forward died the week that this evaluation took place in this community. Fountain of Hope is very grateful to this man who opened a way for us to work in this community. He once wrote a letter to Bright Hope World appreciating them for the good work done in his community. We hope and pray that the man who is taking over from him will continue to run with the idea of developing the area. This community has got so many young people who are not employed and Mr Mandiva’s desire was to see Fountain of Hope creating community based employment for these young people so that they remain in the community and develop their area. 

Foundations for Farming

53 families altogether were trained to practice farming God’s way (Foundations for Farming) and it is our pleasure to report that this is the community which had the best farmer in the district of Chivi (pictured below). This farmer who became the best farmer is actually a widow who worked in her field with her children and grandchildren. This has prompted the whole community to want to be part of this training. The chief and the councillor have been asking Fountain of Hope to consider extending the support to the other villages around Mandiva community. 

Impact of the Project 
• As alluded above the project is bringing life and hope to widows who are now able to have food for their families
• The people of this community have got hope that they can still use their sandy soil to produce enough food for their families and the community
• There is complete joy and peace in the community because of food 

Challenges 
• Erratic rains and poor soils are the main challenges for this project in this community
• Unavailability of grass for mulching poses also as one of the greatest challenges 

Recommendations
• The community recommended the addition of other members from surrounding villages to be part of this program
• Trainings should begin early August so that people have ample time to plan and prepare their fields while there is still much time
• The community should have a community field where people grow crops to support orphans and vulnerable children
• Fountain of Hope should consider introducing small grain crops in the community which are drought resistant
• Water harvesting small dams should be established in the community  

Gardens

The community has got one operational garden at the moment which is supporting 25 families. The community has been proposing the establishment of a second garden in the other part of the community so that people from the other area would benefit from that garden. This is one of the communities in Zimbabwe that is so geared to fight hunger and starvation out of their area and the gardens are some of the means that they are using to combat the scourge of hunger. 

Impact of the Garden
The impact of the garden is really enormous, so many households have been helped. The community used to go far away to buy veggies but thank God for the garden, they now don’t have to travel far to buy the green meat. The garden is improving food security as well as removing the barriers to economic self-sufficiency for women in the community as they are now able to sell their own veggies. 

• The garden unifies the community since most important decisions are now made at the garden 
• People are able to talk about life issues at the garden
• Dignity of the poor people has been restored as these people see themselves not as poor but as business people
• Children of the poor are able to go to school through the sales from the garden 

Challenges
• There is need for a better market for the garden produce
• Many communities/villages are asking for gardens to be established in their areas
• Water has to be shared between the garden and daily human consumption 

Resolutions
• The community would like to see another borehole being established in Gudo area of Mandiva community in honour of the community leader who had a vision of seeing his people drinking safe and clean water
• Another garden to be established in this village as well to cater for people from Gudo village 

Transformation Centre

This transformation centre's aim is to restore dignity amongst children through the provision of identity documents, pycho-social support and educational assistance. We have not paid school fees for the children from this transformation centre this year but managed to run two psycho-social support programs for them bringing healing and support to 100 children. Appreciation again is given to the registrar general who came to this community to help some of the parents and guardians to get their identity documents so that they could help their children to have the needed documents for them to continue with education. We have seen four children going back to school after obtaining the documents and thank God for the schools who accepted these children. Our psycho-social support program did a great job of helping these children to be prepared for education. 

Impact of the centre
• Parents and guardians who did not have identity documents have got the documents in place
• Four school drop-out children are back in school
• The children are taught farming skills in the garden and most of them are planting crops for their old grannies 

Challenges
• Some of the children need school fees especially those who live with ailing grandparents
• The young adults need skills training since some of them are no longer going to school
• Apart from training, the young adults need to be empowered to start their own businesses that can make them to survive the hardships that we are going through as Zimbabweans 

Recommendations
• School payment for some of the children especially those that are going back to school after spending years out of school
• They also need to be provided with all the support they need to be able to cope with the new way of living (they need books, both exercise and text books)
• The grannies to be empowered to understand the importance of education 

Livestock Management

250 indigenous road runner chickens and 60 goats were given to the community under a revolving animal loan program. Most of the people who received this support are those who have got orphans and vulnerable children in their homes. The main purpose of this project is to provide poor families an opportunity for economic development by empowering them to own livestock for their families. The community head of Mandiva village before he passed on appreciated this initiative very much because it has been difficult for people to find something to sell especially during drought times. The project is making people to find something to sell at home whenever they are pressed with drought. 

Impact of the Project
• Families are able to sell either goats or chickens in order to buy school uniforms for their children
• Some are even able to pay school fees for their children with the money that they are raising from selling goats and chickens
• Families that used not to have livestock now have livestock like other families
• The project has helped people to have the knowledge of livestock management as they were trained by Fountain of Hope 

Challenges
• Goats are not very friendly to wet weather.
• The market for most of the produce in the community is in town including the road runners.
• There is no veterinary services close to the community so they need money to get to the nearest vet services 

Recommendations
• The community should lobby the government to bring vet offices in the rural areas
• The community should provide accomodation for such people in the village
• Goats need to be strictly cared for especially during the rainy season and therefore people should build very strong pens which keeps water away 

Milling Business for the Youth / Youth Empowerment Initiative 

Mandiva community has got a number of youth and young people who are out of school and who are unemployed. The late village head wanted all these young people to find something to do because some of them were beginning to be involved in drug abuse and young girls are involved in prostitution in order to make ends meet. Fountain of Hope had responded to the village head’s plea to run a milling company for the youth but the District Administrator and the CEO of Chivi District advised us to reconsider the project. They told Fountain of Hope that it is a very good project but its something that can be done in other communities where people harvest much every year. They told Fountain of Hope that there are already more than enough grinding mills in the district and most of them are not making profits at all. Their advice was to consider running a mini-bus project because it is viable and people always travel.  

This project has not yet started but will have a very great impact in the lives of the young people who are out of school and will create more projects. The community would purchase a mini-bus for $8,000 and the total loan would be repaid in two years. 

Personal Stories

Gardens

Mr Busvumani is a villager of Mandiva community. He was once employed as a security guard but due to the economic meltdown that Zimbabwe went through, one day this man found himself without a job and even money to buy food for his family. All his four children are still very young with two of them who are not even going to school. When he lost his job, he did not know where to start for there are no other sources of income in the village of Mandiva. He sold everything that he had acquired while he was working and still this did not take away the problem they were in.

When this man was told that there was going to be a garden in the village, he was the first person to register to be involved. In the first six months of his involvement in the garden he was able to sell crops that enabled him to pay school fees for his two children who are in school. He did not only pay school fees but was able to buy food for his family. He may not be formally employed but the garden is going a long way in helping this man to fend for his family and also to have money in his pocket. His desire is to see other communities around being helped to start to run such gardens.  

Comments

Fountain of Hope foundation is so much grateful to Bright Hope World for all the support rendered to this community.

With much gratitude
Gideon & Jennifer (for FHF team)