Cora Lieto Waddell

Dear Friends,

Lucy and Cora ( 4 days old)

Greetings from Port Lincoln - Australia.

God continues to  bless our family, this time with a new addition to our family,Cora Lieto Waddell was born 12/09/12 she weighed 2.9kg . I had a c section ( planned ) and she came at 37 weeks, obviously earlier than planned but this was due to my high blood pressure. Cora spent some time in the incubator as she was jaundice but now she is a  (normal ) colour and has plenty of energy. We did have to be re -admitted back to hospital when Cora was 2.5 weeks old, due to a stomach problem, but after tests we got the all clear and just have to keep and eye on things.

Cora is now 5 weeks old and putting on weight, she has lovely dark blue eyes and a  cheeky grin. A community mid wife has been coming to the house each week to check  on Cora's weight etc and today the nurse said she was going so well she wont need to come and visit again, so that's really good news.. Cora will get her first immunisations before we head back to Mwandi at the end of October and I will carry on getting the rest of her immunisations from Namibia as we did for Lucy.

Lucy has taken a few weeks to get use to having some competition for her parents attention. But she does love Cora and always giving her allot of hugs and kisses.Lucy has grown up some much during the time we have spent in Port Lincoln and fitted in so well at Sunday School, Creche, Kinder gym and playing with friends children. I do feel quite sad that we are going home to none of these activities except pre-school. We just continue to pray that Lucy is adaptable in all ways to the culture that surrounds us in Zambia.

We are so thankful to all our family and friends for the support they all give us while we are back in Australia . We could never afford to stay here for an extended period without living with my parents and we really appreciate everything they do for us. We are very blessed with great friends all around the world and wonderful parents. 

During our time in Port Lincoln we both have continued our Mwandi work daily, visiting Church groups and catching up with previous visitors to Mwandi. Its been great to see our friends of Mwandi and meeting new friends that wish to visit the OVC Project in the future.

Pastor Mudenda, Rev Wezi Manda have been working hard to keep all programs running smoothly at the OVC project in Mwandi , during my absence. Other staff members have been doing a great job and I most certainly really look forward to be heading home to see  staff, volunteers and children at the project. We are blessed with good people serving the Lord at our project.



This month we had printed a Mwandi OVC Project fundraiser 2013 calender. The photos are of the children who attend all of our programs at the OVC Project. If you are interested in buying a calender or willing to sell some for us then please let me know. We are selling them for $15 each plus freight/handling. The photos were taken by a professional photographer and good friend, Tim Berry who visited Mwandi in 2011 with his wife.

Visiting Mwandi UCZ Mission in 2013 - If you are interested in coming to visit us at the OVC Project in Mwandi 2013, please start planning now as quite a few people are visiting next year and staying in the OVC visitors house. If you want information about coming to visit Mwandi UCZ Mission please contact me on uczovc@gmail.com 


Prayer Points

• For safe travelling home to Mwandi for our family from Australia at the end of October.
• Continued financial support to the OVC Project to keep all program running.
• All children who are suffering from HIV and the effects of HIV/AIDS.
•  For Coras body to grow stronger each day and for the rest of our family to keep strong, encouraging and humble to what ever the Lord places on our path.

I thank you for your continued love, prayers and support. 


Until next time,
  Take Care

Fiona, Ruairidh, Lucy and Cora

Only 4 weeks to go

Dear Friends,

I hope that your well and having a good day.

Lucy and I are currently in Australia getting all ready for the birth of baby Number 2. My blood pressure was getting quite high whilst I was in Mwandi so I came here to Port Lincoln a few weeks earlier than planned. At least my blood pressure is settled now and my health is good. Yesterday, I went for a scan and the baby is growing well and due on the 19th September.

Ruairidh will be back here a week before the birth so please pray for his safe travels back and forth from Zambia to Australia.

Our web site has a new look please have a look and let me know your comments. www.mwandiovc.com

New Table Saw

Always busy at the Project with the running of all our programs and we have been extremely blessed to receive wonderful support to our Carpentry Project with finances for three industrial machines, as mentioned in previous blog : Three phase planner, table saw and thicknesser . These machines will help generate income for the centre and cover the costs of power for the project on a whole. They did take me some time to source in South Africa, but they  are strong, reliable, easy to use and spare blades and parts are available in South Africa if ever needed. They have finally arrived now at the project, the building is not quite complete but as you can see the machines are installed but the building is yet to be plastered and painted.

New Planner

Unloading new machinery

 How God continues to bless us and our community with our amazing vocational training centres. Thank you so much to those who have given to help our Carpentry Centre for the three phase power, the industrial machines, buildings and tools.

Blanket distribution 2012

We have been blessed to have teams and individuals come to help us teach staff new skills,  doing allot of work  at the project and share their faith with staff, volunteers and children at the Project. Thank you all . 





 Our Nutrition program has increased its number. We are now feeding 280 children 6 days a week. We hope we are able to sustain this number and even add more as we receive funding.

Nutrition Program

The garden at the project is growing some lovely vegetables, although the season is late this year we are now producing allot of fresh vegetables for the feeding program and for sales to the community to help sustain the garden.

In past years we have been hit terribly with frost in the winter months, but fortunately this year we only had a few tree's burnt and not the vegetables. On the weekends the High school students that the project sponsors, come to help do weeding and planting in the garden, the students also are learning as they are working as our gardeners are close at hand.

The projects runs a 6 month Agriculture training course for 10 x Orphans and Vulnerable Children from the community, (5 in school and 5 not) ,so we can run the training on the weekends. The aim of the course is that these students learn the importance of food security in their households by the growing of vegetables .

I ask you for your prayers for:

• The good health of our baby, Lucy, Ruairidh and myself.

• Financial support to come in for all our needs at the project. 
• Local Staff and volunteers who are working at the project. 
• Visitors who are coming to Mwandi UCZ Mission to help teach, help and share their lives with our community members.

 Thank you for your love and support and I hope to be able to report more in a few weeks.

May God continue to bless you

Much Love

Fred( Fiona )

Winter in Mwandi

Dear Friends,
I hope your well and had a good weekend.

We are now experiencing cooler weather here in Zambia. Still compared to other years it is very mild but I know its going to come in allot cooler soon.

Our pregnancy is going  well and I am becoming the size of a small whale !!! each day the past week I seem to have grown so much. I am now about 28 weeks and after a recent trip to south Africa we had a 4D scan and the baby is growing nicely.. I aim to head back to Australia around the first week of August, but I am taking each week as they comes. If i keep growing at the rate I am I wont fit in the seats on the plane !!!. 

Lucy loves helping down at the farm

Lucy is becoming quite the chatter box and loves going out "Tiger Fishing" with her daddy and helping down at the farm. Since pre-school was on mid term break a few weeks ago she is so happy to be back at pre-school each day. Lucy's new love is coloring in and Mummy and Lucy spend hours each day coloring in. Good thing Ruairidh brought her a few new coloring in books last week when he was up in Lusaka.

 The river is dropping dramatically and Rury is loving it as there seems to be good fishing now out on the river. Each morning all the village fisherman glide past our house in their makoro's to head out and drop their nets in hope to catch some nice size fish to sell. The fish are still quite small that they are catching so all we hope is that the fisherman are using the legal size fishing nets.

Our Carpentry centre has been so blessed with awesome support enabling us to purchase industrial machinery for the centre. We are still in the progress of getting the machinery from South Africa to Mwandi but we are hoping to have it here within the next few weeks enabling us to generate income for the projects electricity and helping us produce some wonderful carpentry products for sales. We have been building a secure building to protect the machines and the roofing should be complete this week. We have now three phase power to the carpentry centre and its all go. What a wonderful blessing to have support to enable us to move forward with this program.

New addition to our Carpentry Centre

Sewing club graduation was held last week of June with invited guests from different sectors of the community there to give the students their certificates and encourage them in their future endeavours. We are starting the new class of 14 students on Wednesday the 4th July. Very exciting to have many people interested in this new intake.


The 5 woman who are our first micro-finance program clients are doing well and after being monitored every few weeks we are seeing that their businesses are busy and they are making uniforms for a school out from Mwandi and some church choir uniforms.


The projects annual Blanket distribution happened in June as the cold weather hit. This time of year our children really suffer especially those who are HIV positive. Due to wonderful support with this program we were able to purchase 650 at Zambezi textiles in Livingstone and distribute to the most vulnerable children of the Mwandi,Skuzu and Sooka community.

Mubiana our store man recently went for some training in Livingstone and has come back with some good ideas to help us improve on our stores department.  

OVC Garden

One of our big worries during the winter period is that our vegetable garden gets hit by frost, thus far we haven't had any frost but the gardeners are keeping the area very wet and watering the garden very early in the mornings. The garden is looking amazing and we are seeing allot of different varieties of vegetables coming into fruit, although it seems we are a month later in production than previous years. 

I ask you continue to pray for our baby and my health remains strong through the last trimester, that the OVC Project receives continued financial support to keep our programs running.


May God continue to bless you all


Take Care
Fred ( Fiona )

Water for the schools in Mwandi

Hi,

I hope that you are all fine .

Our pregnancy is going well and I am growing larger by the day. I am really showing early this time, I am now 21 weeks. My back has been causing me issues but at this stage I am still coping "just ok " !!. We are heading down to South Africa next week for the 22 week 4 D scan.  Lucy is coming with us so it will be a hectic few days in Jo burg.

The weather is getting cooler so this means we need to search the cupboards to find our winter clothing. I always worry about our children this time of year as it must be so cold sleeping on sand/mud floors and allot of children get sick.

The river is starting to slowly drop so that means the fishing will be really good out on the Zambezi in a few weeks time  " So Ruairidh says" I am not really into fishing.Just enjoy eating the fish.

Lucy is talking so much and is she is such a ratbag, last week I purchased some paints in Namibia and so over the weekend we painted and she loves it, she is still enjoying pre-school too.

Its been pretty full on the past month. My Dad has been here in Mwandi with a team of 6 men for the month in April/ May , doing allot of work around the mission.

The guys are mostly farmers and have been working very hard to achieve allot of jobs. The main job they completed yesterday was to install a new water pump and 6 water tanks on towers around the Mwandi Basic School and the new Mwandi UCZ Day High school. 


Running water is something we most certainly take for granted in the west but here its a miracle to have running water , especially at both  the schools. Everything seems to be going well and no leaks thus far !!!!

The guys have also built a new water tank for our new block of land at the OVC and erected a strong fence for security. Its awesome and we are so thankful for the hard work they and all our visitors do for us at the OVC Project.

Lucy has loved having her Grandpa around and she has been giving him plenty of cheek when she can.

A few weekends ago at the OVC Project we had "The OVC Project African Cup" Soccer Competition. What a hoot nearly all the children got involved and played several matches before reaching the finals , if they were good enough.
There are some brilliant soccer players in our village and some of the children at OVC project are exceptionally good players.

Egypt won the competition and then they played the staff who won and then the staff played the " OVC Project ALL STARS" and they beat the staff.

It was a great day had by all and thanks to our friend Stephen Clarke who organised everything for the day. The children were so tired at the end of the competition. The winners won a Arsenal coffee Mug and Can of Coke each and all held up the team trophy very proudly for photos.

The feeding program is always busy with allot of noise and children of all ages coming each day for lunch. We feed children from 6 months to 16 years and the program is one huge family atmosphere.

 The carpentry Centre is now at the stage were the students are making furniture, doors etc for staff and people in the community to purchase . The aim is that a percentage of the sales will go to the project for the tuition and tools etc and percentage will go to the students so we are able to purchase tools for the students when they complete their year of training. To enable them to start up their own businesses. They are doing a great job and we are proud of their achievements.



We have received allot of applicants for College and University starting in July 2012 and January intake 2013. If any of you or your bible studies, work mates would like to support a student in College or University please contact me. Every course differs in price but generally any thing from $1500 to $2500 per year per student. So if there was a large group of you , it most certainly wouldn't break the bank. It is a dream come true for those students who make it to this level of education and it gives  encouragement and hope for other students who remain in school here in Mwandi . Please contact me for more details if you are interested : uczovc@gmail.com


Well that's all from me for now. Please keep us in your prayers especially:

- Financial support for the project 
- The trip to South Africa and that all is well with our baby
- Our visitors coming and departing from Mwandi that they all have safe travels.
- Our children keep warm as possible during our winter


Thank you for your support and love.
Till next time
Fred ( Fiona )

Easter in Mwandi

Dear Friends,

Sorry I haven’t blogged like I planned to do. This past month was all over the place.

In the end Ruairidh spent quite a bit of time in hospital in South Africa, but now his foot is healing really well and I don’t hear too many complaints at all. His toes look so well and I am sure it will take time for the colouring on his skin to go back to normal. I thank the Lord that he was looked after so well by hospital staff and by friends in South Africa.

Our pregnancy is going well and I am GROWING by the day. Morning sickness isn’t as bad so that is a relief. Ruairidh and I travelled to Lusaka a few weeks ago for our first scan and everything looks great, heartbeat going strong and the Doctor said that we have an active, large baby. We flew up and how much easier that was than driving up. We rushed around and purchased a few items for our projects and flew back to Livingstone the next day. It was like date night for us and it was so lovely. It was weird not havingLucy with us. In Lusaka we managed to buy some Easter eggs so Lucy could go on a egg hunt through the garden with Mubita this year. She takes after her grandmothers and loves chocolate...

Lucy stayed home in Mwandi with Keith, Ida and Mubita. You know we were so sad leaving her behind but when we went to drop her off she says to me, waving her hand “Go Mummy Go” and then when we picked her up the next day she didn’t want to come home with us. She was so happy and loves spending time with Keith and Ida getting spoilt. I swear it took her two days to catch up on her sleep.

Lucy is still enjoying pre-school and looks so cute in her uniform. She never stops talking and making us laugh allot. She has a great sense of humour and also has given us some wonderful tantrums too. Every morning when staffs come to collect keys she says good morning to everyone, knows names and which offices they work at when we go to OVC. She has it all worked out!!!

Palm Sunday, Lucy went with Keith, Ida and Mubita up to the MTN phone tower for a parade through the village. Quite a few of the different denominations from the community took part in the service, the UCZ boy’s brigade drum band played and there was singing, dramas and “Jesus ‘on a donkey. I couldn’t attend due to being in bed with a bad back. But it sounded a great service and wonderful that allot of different Churches worked together to make it happen.

We have been very blessed at the project to receive some wonderful support allowing us to purchase some heavy duty carpentry machines. We are currently building an area to protect and secure those machines near our carpentry centre. The three phase power was connected today so it’s all go. The students at the centre are having a week break but when they return we are starting to start our sustainability program for the carpentry centre. Please pray that the students are able to utilise the skills they have learnt so they can share the funds made from the sales of equipment for the project and themselves. We are not going to give them their share in money but in hand tools so, when they have finished the course they will have tools to start their own businesses.

Mutinta with Lifaliza and Mutafela

Our children are all now on School holidays for one month and our children are home from Special school and the kids look great.  This holidays is always busy with allot of children around the project, wanting to play soccer all day or watch DVDs. Most of the other holidays during the year the children are busy working the fields.

Child on the feeding program with new clothing

This week all the children on the feeding program received clothing as well as 430 children from the community. We distribute clothing each month to the community but only to the children on feeding a few times in the year as there are 270 of them and we try to give them all a top and shorts/trouser/skirt each. The past few mornings has been cool so they will be needing those extra clothes to keep them warm.

Our advertising  for our Micro finance Sewing program was a great success and many woman from the community applied for the loan and machine. After a selection process we selected 5 to get to the next stage of training. If those 5 ladies do well with the training then all paper work will be signed for  sewing machines and loan. My prayer is that these 5 ladies are able to be good business woman with mature approaches to the business enabling to pay back the loans and help secure food, clothing and education for their families.

We always need sponsors for our Education Program and ask if you wish to be a part of our children’s lives by helping them through school please let me know so I can send you the information.

With Easter approaching us tomorrow it’s a time, I feel of Reflexion and Resting. I mean not to be sleeping all weekend but resting our minds away from work and worries and reflecting on the whole events of Easter. The living sacrifice that God gave of his son, Jesus for us so we could be cleansed and renewed.  I know as Christians in our heart  of this sacrifice each and every day in our living and our testimonies, but I always feel that over this weekend and during Lent that this time allows us to take it allot deeper and spend time reflecting and praying about our ever growing relationship with Jesus.

So may you have time to turn off from work and your worries and spend time going through the events of Easter and how it impacts on your life and through this humbling act become closer to Jesus our Saviour. May he know you understand that Living Sacrifice that was made for US.

Please keep us all in your prayers and be safe over this long weekend.

Clothes Distribution to Community members

Till next time

Blessings,

Fiona ( Fred )

Celebrations all round

Hi,
I hope that you are all well.

The past few weeks have been quite full on to say the least.

Firstly I found out I was pregnant  as I was feeling so sick most mornings and throughout the day.

And then CHIPOLOPOLO Zambia football team won the African Cup of Nations so the whole country was in celebration for a week. 

It was incredible to see how everyone was so proud of the team members and how the business community and government gave to those players in appreciation of winning. What a party Zambia had...

Last week it was Lucy's 2nd birthday and we had friends come out from Livingstone to celebrate Lucy's birthday. She didn't stop running around and eating.

She is still really enjoying Pre-school and shared a birthday cake with the children in her class on Monday and all 38 children had huge slices of cake and they thoroughly enjoyed it. 

Sadly on the weekend Ruairidh burnt his right foot badly from spilling hot oil while cooking on the bbq a shoulder from one of his pigs from the farm. He has had to go to South Africa for further medical treatment. He is recovering and due for surgery tomorrow ( Friday 2nd March ) Please pray for quick and strong healing for those toes especially. We miss him allot.

Last week Ruairidh , a team from the Local fish farm here in Mwandi and dignitaries from Zambia and Namibia released thousands of fingerling's into the Zambezi River , the tributary we live on called the Silombwe. Because there is still a fish ban in place the idea is that those fingerling's can grow and replenish the breeding stocks in the Zambezi. They also released an amount at Shackleton's Lodge at Sooka and plan to gradually release thousands more through out this month. The local fisherman have agreed not to net in the areas were the fish were released and so far they are sticking to their word.

At the project this month we started distributing clothes for the community. We distributed 430 pieces of clothing to the most vulnerable children of the community and will do so each month. These clothes that we distribute came in the container from Australia and we hope they will last for 2 years. The students from our sewing club also make clothes for the children as part of their training.

We have started advertising this week for people interested in applying for Micro - credit scheme loan through the OVC Project. We are starting with 4 sewing machines with spare parts and materials . We will interview all applicants and the selected 4 who will have training on running business, budgeting, book work and machine maintenance. Each month they will be visited to see how the Businesses are going and give more training where needed.  I pray that these programs will go well in our community and the successfully applications earn enough money to pay back the loan. Through these new business , if those 4 families can sustain food security in their own homes then that will be a great achievement.

Feeding Program is busy and noisy as usual with kids coming for lunch and  playing football and just being kids. The visiting doctors were able to run health checks on all the children on feeding , pre-school children and a community school in Sooka. The doctors also wormed and put fluoride varnish on all those children's teeth. Even Lucy got some...
Our children are healthy and that is such a blessing. We are thankful to all who support our programs enabling us to keep our children alive.

Please remember share the word with your friends and family about our project and at the moment we are needing support with our Education programs and our Feeding program. 
Contact me if you need further info uczovc@gmail.com 

Till next time, please keep us in your prayers.

God bless

Fiona ( Fred )

GO CHIPOLOPOLO

Hi,
Its been a pretty busy few weeks with us heading up to Lusaka last week for project shopping  and research for our Agriculture sustainability project this year. Lusaka has developed so much over the past 5 years, its amazing the amount of money that is going into construction of shopping malls, offices and motels. The traffic is crazy and it takes hours to get from one side of town to the other these days. It really is a happening city and a very expensive place to stay. You can pretty much get anything you want or need it just takes a long time finding the shop which sells things you want.

Arriving home it was good to see that Mwandi had received some nice rains during the week and the river has risen quite alot. It wont be long now that the River is right up to the edge of the lawn at the front of the house.  The maize crops generally are very patchy and stunted but I am sure there will be some harvest on most crops. We certainly have not had much rain this year (so far).

Big excitement all across Zambia during the Africa Cup the past few weeks and on Wednesday evening Zambia won against Ghana 1-0 to make it into the Finals. Sadly many people died in Zambia during the celebration and many injured so we hope and pray that this Sunday in the final people are careful and peaceful whether we win or loose. It is great excitement for the country and people are putting great expectations on the CHIPOLOPOLO  players to bring the Cup to Zambia.

At the project we have finished distributing school uniforms, stationary and shoes to all the children we sponsor with Education Support in the community and everybody seems very happy to be at school with new items.  We have an amazing amount of applicants for college and University this year. Really good to see but we don't have the funds to support all them through to their chosen school.

This week we have a team of paediatric doctors here from the States and they will be conducting health checks on all the children who attend the feeding program and preschool. The team will also be running First Aid Training for the staff at the OVC Project.

Our staff eating area is nearly complete and looking great and we are starting to make blocks for our recreation centre that we hope to start building in March.

A new class of 8 sewing students has started for the 6 month course and they are very enthusiastic and that is great to see. I pray that it continues and they can make the most of this short course.

Lucy is attending pre-school most days and really starting to settle into it. She is such a ratbag and is saying alot more words each week.This weeks word is NO!!! For the first few weeks of Pre-chool I would sit in with her, now I leave her and she is doing just fine. Lucy will be 2 at the end of February.

I have been teaching Sunday School for the past few weeks and its really good to be back teaching the kids. I have had around 20 each week and they are gradually getting used to my  accent. Always a challenge.!!!!


I pray that you have a great week, thank you for your love and support.

Till next time,
God Bless you
Fiona ( Fred )