SO, HERE WE GO -

I first went to Zimbabwe in May 2011 as a volunteer with Cosmos Healthcare, a small Christian health and development organisation based in Perth. They send 2 medical teams to Zimbabwe each year to provide medical services to areas with very little access to health care. I went as a general helper and educator. Suzanne Reynolds, a registered nurse from Busselton, was also a part of the team.

Long wait, bag, bottom and bureaucracy: ▪ Many people have to walk very long distances

to reach our clinics and they can wait up to 5 hours to be seen by a doctor or nurse.

▪ Before going I had been told it would be a good idea to take some fabric shopping bags

as the people would appreciate them. I was overwhelmed by the response to such a

simple gift. ▪ At one place where we camped I was sitting cutting up vegetables for our

dinner and a cheeky young boy came and took my glasses off and ran off. The view of his disappearing rear end was a bare bottom as the seam on his shorts had come undone and he had no undies. (He brought my glasses back.) I wished I had a needle and thread to fix his shorts! Bureaucracy can wait for the rest of the story.

Last year in May, Suzanne and I went back to Zimbabwe with a Cosmos Healthcare team. Lovely people, mainly in Nannup and Busselton had made sewing kits and donated material for me to take. I thought that, rather than give out bags, I would give them the material to make one and a sewing kit to keep. I was NOT prepared for the response to this!

Of course our primary reason for being there was to offer medical services so I was not expecting to have much free time—but as it happened the local authorities wouldn’t recognise the training of one of our nurses and after exhausting all avenues we had to admit

defeat. ▪ Bureaucracy! Good-oh thinks me—while really feeling

sympathetic toward the nurse! This meant we could share all the general running around and have time free to sew bags! We started at the first place with 8 ladies. It wasn’t long before we were making trips to the local material shops (cheap fortunately) and spending evenings cutting out bags. We would give them a small bag to make while they were waiting so they could finish it and know what they were doing and then they took home the material for a large bag. It can be difficult to communicate when they often don’t speak English and we definitely don’t have much hope with Ndbele but I had done a sheet with pictures plus directions in Ndbele as we don’t have spare translators. With that and a lot of waving of hands we managed very well and they all helped each other. Suddenly instead of it feeling a bit like them and us, we were all in together and there was lots of laughter and we did manage a few basic questions like “Children? How many?” Like playing charades really. They were so proud of their bags! At one place a lady walked 20km on sandy tracks with a baby on her back to come to our clinic. She made her small bag and then walked home—and reappeared the next day with the full size bag made as she wanted to show us.

January 2013

An update from Louise...

Fort Rixon, Zimbabwe, Community Project

WHAT ARE THE LADIES IN THE PHOTO DOING? THE STORY STARTS WITH:

▪ A LONG WAIT ▪ A SUPERMARKET SHOPPING BAG ▪ A BARE BOTTOM ▪ DIFFICULT BUREAUCRACY

Suzanne and I and 2 others had decided to stay for a few more days after the Cosmos mission was complete hoping we would be able to find something helpful to do. Tatenda Toera is a local registered nurse employed by Sizolwethu, the local arm of Cosmos Healthcare. One of the communities he visits is Fort Rixon which is 70km out of Bulawayo (where we were based). We went with Tatenda and were able to go to the primary school and give health education. We also decided that we would take some material to make some bags. The school is another HUGE story—you might like to read our newsletter to find out about that!

The headmistress at the primary school had given us a classroom to use for the sewing and there were about 12 ladies. Fort Rixon isn’t a village as we would think of one where the dwellings are all together, they are spread over a big area, which is why the people have such a long walk. I don’t know how the word spread but ladies started coming. (Occasionally we get a man.) And they KEPT coming. At one stage I said we could take no more but the headmistress was enthusiastically telling children to go and get more desks! Finally we had 48 ladies—plus a lot of young children—all stuffed into the classroom! There was a buzz! The local pastor’s wife joined us. The local chief came to check out what we were doing. I was furiously cutting through as many layers as I could at once with some cheap plastic handled scissors.

Even so, we had no hope of providing enough material for everyone to take home a large bag to make. As it was we ended up with a queue lining up as at the end I still had some pins. The ladies were lining up to be given about 8 pins each to take home! We felt bad that we weren’t able to give them all material so told Tatenda that we would get more material if he would bring it out to them the next time he came. Tatenda told the ladies that if they would organise how it was to be done that he would bring the material. One of the ladies immediately found some paper and started writing down ladies’ names. She spoke a little English and came and asked me if only the ladies there could put their names down for material or if other ladies could join the “sewing club”. Wow!

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Tatenda Toera

The group has become a wonderful place where ladies come and support each other. Tatenda says their Christian lives have grown and it is situation where he can give health and life skills education in a non-threatening environment. The women have “come alive”. Patience, a wonderful Christian lady volunteer has been coming out from Bulawayo with Tatenda. She is a qualified tailor and has been teaching, encouraging and being God’s loving heart to these women. The group now has 70 ladies coming and they were keen to have some hand-operated sewing machines—there is no power. Seven machines have been donated and the ladies take turns to use them. They were so overjoyed when they arrived! They are now enthusiastic to go further and hope to be able to get a contract to supply school uniforms and start to make an income—and they would love more machines! We know that God is the one behind this project. We certainly had NO intention of going to Zimbabwe to start a sewing business. We are trusting him to continue the beautiful things that are happening— and we want to supply another 20 machines—or more!

The machines are available in Bulawayo and are $85 each.

YOU CAN BE A PART OF THIS EXCITING PROJECT THAT IS CHANGING THESE LADIES LIVES! If these ladies are able to earn an income then it changes the future prospects of their children, too. Zimbabwe badly needs a new generation of children growing up with hope and the chance to make a difference in their country. Donations can be made through Harvey & Partners Accountants in Busselton who are allowing us to use their Trust account. Deposit details are as follows: Harvey & Partners Trust Fund Account BSB 086-565 Account 684478784 Transaction Description Fort Rixon and if you would like to give $85 for a sewing machine, mark it Ft Rixon SM. Please send us an email (using contact details below) so we can send a receipt.

We will be producing a newsletter once a quarter and if you would like to be on our email contact list please let us know. Louise Furniss furniss5@bigpond.com or Suzanne Reynolds cleomacsr@gmail.com

Please let us know, too, if you know of any group that would like us to speak—and please ask if you would like to hear more of our other wonderful story—

the school at Fort Rixon!

The sewing machines in use!

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Fort Rixon Community Project

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† Living Foundation ZIMBABWE