Editor’s note: The following is from the Zimbabwe Project Team in Vernon.
Cramped travelling over miles of dusty and bumpy roads to partake of the opening celebration for a refurbished rural school library, building a play centre for a group of delighted preschoolers, being welcomed into a small village with singing, dancing and poetry recitals by the villagers. These are just some of the amazing memories this year’s Zimbabwe Project Team has returned home with.
The team spent three weeks in Zimbabwe visiting villages and projects supported by Zimbabwe Project Canada (ZPC). From the preschool in the city of Harare (Zimbabwe’s capital) where the team built the play centre, to the remote mountain villages, there was much for the team to see and learn about in the three weeks they spent there and those weeks were very full with activities.
In the villages, the team visited ZPC-supported projects such as the poultry, goat and pig raising projects where funds to build pens and purchase the first animals and their food had been provided; sewing projects where ZPC assistance provided sewing machines and materials; gardening projects that were assisted by the drilling of a well in order to keep the gardens flourishing and provide much needed food for the villages.
And at each site visited, the gratitude of the Zimbabwean people was tangible, in the huge smiles on their faces and the joyousness they exhibited. Zimbabwe is one of the most economically depressed countries in Africa, and as well has the highest number of children orphaned by AIDS of any country on that continent. Consequently, many residents in the rural villages care for the orphans even though they struggle to feed their own families. It is for this reason that the ZPC endeavours to assist villagers to create projects they can run and manage and that will provide income and community development for the well-being of the entire village.
Each year, the project sends a team to Zimbabwe to visit the existing projects, receive proposals for new projects and to reconnect with our many friends there. These are trips of a lifetime that leave lasting memories and forever change the way participants view the world.
For more information, visit the website at www.zimbabweproject.com or contact Angela at 250-503-1129.
Donations to the project’s work may also be made online.
