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 )