Zimhope- Mission in Zimbabwe - Recently Updated Pages

Mission in Zimbabwe

ZimHope — Wed, 06 May 2009 08:36:54 CDT

Hi!
My name is Genna McMahon and I am 16 years old. Recently, I went over to Zimbabwe for 3 weeks to do mission work. I was really shocked by the poverty, corruption, and injustice i saw there. I have created Zimhope to raise awarness of what is going on over there, and to tell the stories of people I met and got to know over there. Many story's of children who are orphans or sqatters living in poverty have their stories told here. See the site map below.

Site Map

Slums	Squatters	Khayelehle Children's Home
Abson- in the arms of Jesus	Mollen, Monalisa and Moreblessing	Princess- life under a rubbish bag
Abandoned Babies

More updates soon- you can contact me at genevievejoy@live.com.au
P.S one of my friends, Jessica, has made a really cute wetpaint site about her monkeys, so go on and vote on your favourite poses here.

Squatters- their poverty

ZimHope — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 03:21:28 CST

Who are the Sqautters, and how did they get to be homeless?
A year or so ago, The Zimbabwean government, (Zanu Pf), decided to clear
out the country's slum areas, in order to make their cities cleaner. They *said*, that this would a be of benefit to poor people living in slum areas because alternate housing would be built for them.

In July 1005, the government began these clean-out operations.
They arrived in slum areas with guns and dogs, chasing people out of their homes, using brute force when nessesary. They then set the peoples property's on fire. Many of the people were then instructed to hop on a bus, and the buses then drove to remote, rural areas, simply dumping them, and leaving them to fend for them selves.
Others were able to go to relatives or churches to find help. One such church, in Bulawayo, (which I visited), had hundreds of newly homeless people sleeping in the main bulding the night after the raids. A few nights late, police broke into the church at around 2-am, and forced all the people who'd taken refuge there to board a bus- these people were then dumped in various locations.
Where are they now?
In july of this year, I visited many of the squatters. Most seemed to live in large groups, with as many 8 or 10 sleeping together in tiny, cramped spaces, in little corrugated-iron huts, under rubbish bags, ets. They are without basic nessesities such us running water, electricity, and blankets. With 85% unemploment in Zimbabwe, there is no hope for most of them to get jobs and work their way out of their situation.
It's important to understand how desperate these people are. My team and I visited them, distributing items such as blankets, bags of grain and beans, shoes etc. On several occasions, we ended up leaving a place with hundreds of men, women, and children chasing after us. I remember on one occasion a young mother with a little baby girl was begging me to give her a blanket. Her baby was cold at night, and she was sick. You know what? I really, really, really wanted to give her a blanket.......there were none left. We could never help everyone we met, because there were always so, so many people. And as if being cold at night wasn't hard enough, many of these people are beginning to
starve, and almost all of the sqautter babies and kids we met were severely malnourished.
There is some people in Zimbabwe working to help these people, however.
Epowerment programs, where the people are given resources and taught skills such as candle-making, are helping a few to set up businesses. There are some places, including a few churches, where squatters can go to recieve medical treatment, and many squatters will spend whole days walking to get to these places. For many, though, none of this help is availiable.
Read the stories of sqautter kids;
Abson Princess

How to help

ZimHope — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 02:26:44 CST

There are lots of ways you can help people in Zimbabwe. There are many organisations doing meaningful work in Zimbabwe that you can support financially. When I went over there, I saw several of these ministries in action. One of this was being organised by a friend of ours in Zimbabwe who is in the process of establishing a home for abandoned babeies. To learn more about this go to www.abandonedzimbabies.org. Many other missional organisations are doing incredible work in Zimbabwe, and in other poor countries around the world. Getting behind these organisations is a great idea.
To find out about some mission work being done in Zimbabwe by the Australian Church of Christ. visit http://http://www.omb.org.au/omb/, then click on "partnerships", followed by "zimbabwe".
Also, pray. Pray for peace and stability in Zimbabwe, pray that children in Zimbabwe will be shown the love of Jesus Christ, pray that the rich and powerful in Zimbabwe will defend the rights of the poor and vulnerable, pray that ZImbabwe will be blessed with a just government.

Abson

ZimHope — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 03:45:19 CST

Abson

We met Abson in a small squatter camp just outside of Bulawayo, a place called Springfeild. We'd be visitng squatters all day, giving out food and blankets and things, and we weren't in very good moods. (at least I wasn't), mainly because I was sick of giving supplies to a few families, while huge mobs of desperate people chased us. It felt like we were doing so little good as there was lots of need.
Anyway, we got to where Abson lived and it was just like every where else. Lots of thin, dirty kids and a few women. We gave out some nesseceties, and played with the little ones. Me and another member wanded round behind their houses (well, not houses, just little shelters), and we saw a baby boy sitting in the dirt. The little boy wasn't moving, or making any noise, and when I started to talk to him he didn't respond. He was covered in flies, dirt, and even blood, and hadn't had his nappy changed in weeks. I called out to Mum, as I was really schocked by his condition, and couldn't figure it out. She came over and we got to work changing him. What we saw made me really angry....He hadn't been changed in so long, his skin was peeling off, and he hadn't had any water, so his kidneys were failing. (Mum is a nurse, and she said that must be why he was so bloated and bleeding) He was clearly in a lot of pain.
We fixed him up as much as we could, and tried to find out why he;d been so neglected. (The other children weren't exactly well-off, but their mothers did keep them clean and look after them as well as they could.)
We wanted to know why Abson was any different. What we found out was that his mother died of AIDS, and his father simply left. His family, apparently because of superstitious beliefs, had left him to die alone in the sun.
We begged his grandparents to take him to hospital, but they made lots of excuses (too busy, too old etc) We couldn't take him ourselves coz in Zimbabwe only relatives can admit children too hospital. In the end, we bribed them 2 million zim bucks ('bout $10 Aussie, a lot to them) to take him.
Abson died a few days later. I am just glad that he died in a cool hospital, instead of in the sun, and I believe that he is with Jesus now, and not in pain any more.
There are lots more little ones like Abson out there, but there are also people working to help such children. If you want to have a look at some of this work, go to www.abandonedzimbabies.org

Mollen, Monalisa, and Moreblessing

ZimHope — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 20:39:08 CST

Mollen, Monalisa, and Moreblessing are sisters and they live in a childrens home in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. They are about 6, 4, and 2 years old. I fell in love with all 3 of these girls when I spent a few days at Kayelehle Children's home where they live. They were noisy, affectionate, smart, and full of energy. Mollen loved to play with my hair, teach me clapping games, and have piggyback rides. Monalisa gigled all the time, and repeated things I said to her. She started to learn English words very quickly! More (short for Moreblessing), was a lot like Monalisa, giggling and giving me hugs.
It was only after I got to know the 3 sisters that I found out about their past.
Shortly after More was born, their mother died of AIDS, and their father abandoned then in the apartment they lived in. For the next few months, Mollen, then only 3 or 4 years old, somehow managed to keep Monalisa and More alive, finding food for them, caring for the baby. She must have grown up very, very fast. Eventually, neighbours became aware of their plight, and reported their case to their police. They were then taken to the orphanage.
At first, Mollen was extremely over protective of her little siblings, but she somehow was able to relax and become a happy child again.
All 3 girls are surprisingly well-adjusted , considering what they've lived through.
They wear raggedy clothes, eat just 2 simple meals a day, and own no possesions of their own, but in their country, they are blessed to have nesseceties such as shelter and food. They are full of joy, always playing and smiling!

Khayelehle Children's Village

ZimHope — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 23:09:02 CST

Khayelehle is an Ndebelle word meaning "Beautiful home". It is an orphanage located in a rural area just outside of Bulawayo. They raise chickens and cows to provide the children with fresh eggs and milk, and they also grow crops such as maize. Most of the children's parents died of AIDS, and some of the children are HIV positive themselves. The children are blessed in that their lives at KCV are stable, with enough food for them all to eat 2 meals a day,
and with overseas sponsors ensuring they have the opportinuty to go to schools.

Some of the kids who grew up at KCV are now working there, some looking after a new generation of orphans, or working the KCV farm. Others have gone on to go to university and study trades. Because there is an 85% unempployment rate in Zimbabwe, it is difficult for many of them to get jobs at the moment, however they are all very hard workers, doing casual jobs whenever they can.

To be continued
If you would like to read the stories of some of the children I met at the orphanage, click here.

Links

ZimHope — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 20:23:09 CST

You can help babies who have been abandoned in ZImbabwe. To find out how, go to www.abandonedzimbabies.org
Other great links about fighting povert in general are www.worldvision.com.au
and www.micahchallenge.org.au, and if you're youngish. (i.e. teen or young adult) then you should defenitely think about taking this months Challenge.
to learn more about some important work friends of mine are doing in zimbabwe, go to http://www.hnlc.org.au/lifeline/

Guestbook

ZimHope — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 17:27:18 CDT

Please sing my guestbook by leaving a comment, and let me know what you think about my site.

-Zimhope

Princess and her younger sibs

ZimHope — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 02:54:14 CDT

I met Princess and her 3 younger brothers
when we were visiting squatters near a town called Plumtree in Zimbabwe. Princess is 10 years old. She and her family live under a rubbish bag propped up on sticks.
They have very little. The only clothes they have are the ones you can see, and because their "house" is so
small and flimsy, they cook outside on an open fire. Only 1 of the school-age kids goes to school, because the cost of education is so high.
Princess has to look after her family during the week, because her mother works as a maid, and only comes home at weekends, while their father also works to make money in whatever ways he can, while trying to build a more permanent dwelling for his family.
Despite their poverty, they are actually some of the luckier squatters. When Mugabe destroyed slums in the city, residents were told to choose a rural area, any rural area, and then were driven out in trucks and dumped in thos spots. Many were not accepted by local cheifs (most of which are pro-ZanuPf), and so were forced to move on, and those squatters are unable to create a good life for themselves. Princess' family, whilst facing extremely harsh conditions, and having very little, have been accepted by the local cheif, and as such have been able to start setting up a proper home, by growing veggies and raising chicken, and with their father working on making bricks to build a home.

Little Boy

ZimHope — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 02:06:35 CDT

This page is about a young squatter boy I met in Zimbabwe. I couldn't pronounce his name (too long and too foreign), but I got to know him a bit. Here are some photo's, of him, of the tiny house he shares with his mother, grandmother and baby brother, and of his family.

Abandoned babies

ZimHope — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 03:50:31 CDT

While we were staying in Bulawayo, we visited a hospital called Mpilo. Visiting hours were between 5 and 6 pm every day, and we arrived a few minutes before 5. We were told that we were not allowed to actucally enter the hospital till 5 exactly. We counted down the last ten seconds, til we were allowed to go in, along with the other visitors. When we
finally did get inside, our guide (a local pastor) took us to the abandoned babies ward. It was only small, but it had apparently housed more than 20 babies at 1 stage. When we were there, most of the babies had been taken to orphanages, so there were only 6 left. They were all boys. The conditions in the hospital were terrible. The babies nappies had not been changed for hours....because there were no nappies left. One of the babies had had an accident in the hospital, and had been badly burned. The babies cried a lot, and seemed desperate for interaction.
We played with them, and brough a couple of bundles of cloth nappies for them. We cleaned and changed them. The nurse on duty warned us not to leave the nappies there, as they would just get stolen.
I found another abandoned baby in a different ward. He must have been only a week or 2 old, coz he was tiny. And he was a lot tinier than my nephew had been at birth. I could see his ribs clearly. He was starving, but I wasn't sure why. (seeing as he was in hospital.) I found out later that they were spoon-feeding him.
Joshua's now 10 or 12 weeks old, and a lot healthier than he was when I saw him. That's because some people from outside the hospital have been visiting him every day, feeding hime. Hopefully, Joshua will soon be taken away from the hospital and into a loving home. But the home he is going too is still waiting for approval. (More details at www.abandonedzimbabies.org.)
Babies who grow up in hospital do not do very well. Their growth and devlopment is stunted, they are often sick, and they don't recieve much love.
Most of the babies are their because theire parents have died or AIDS, or else can't afford to feed them.

Slums of Africa

ZimHope — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 02:55:29 CDT

Although the government
brutally cleared many slum area's in 2005, there are still large numbers of peole living in these places now. Although there conditions are slightly better than that of the squatters, they are certainly not good. As you can see in this pic, they have no electricity and cook their meals outside. They live in small, rundown dwellings, often with large, multi-generational families sharing just 1 or 2 rooms. and the slum neghbourhoods are so cramped that several families often share the one small bulding. (The size of which would be smaller than the average Aussie bathroom). In most cases, the whole family sleeps together on one bed, without any blankets, and the children go to school every day cold and hungry. AIDS and other illnesses are common, and many children are left orphaned.

Lots of poor families support themslves by selling things. For instance, we met many people who sell fruit and veggies at small, roadside stalls. Unfotunately, running such stalls is illegal, (unless you are able to pay large sums of money for a lisence). The people running them often get arrested by police, have their goods confiscated, and are fined. Getting proper jobs is nearly impossible for most people. (Unemployment in Zimbabwe is at more than 80%), so they have no choice.