Today, we went to visit our UUMC group, Comfort Mafararawika, along with two other groups, Visionaries and Kwadzana, all second-year groups.
After about a 90-minute drive in a van with rather hard seats, we arrived the town of Mafararawikwa, to the southwest of Mutare.
Where we pulled off the road into sort of a dirt track leading into a field, the groups lined both sides of the track, and we drove in between them. They were holding signs with our names on them, the names of the churches we were associated with (in this case, it was just UUMC) and singing. It was quite the welcome. We gathered under this baobab tree (I had to zoom out to less than 1x zoom to capture it), which Google thinks is 300-600 years old:
Here are some videos of our welcome:
Each group had some rousing group cheers, which we didn’t capture, but all three groups together had one, which went like this:
We are connected!
We are safe!
We have hope!
I think at this point, we were presented with gifts from the groups. Erika and I were each gifted an article clothing (shirt for me, dress for Erika), and then we were gifted an enormous banner saying “Thank you, University UMC”, along with a doormat saying “UMC”. We’ll have to find a way to show the congregation what the kids have made for us.
Then we heard stories from the kids. (A note on names: we’re doing our best to transcribe them, but we have probably missed some.)
Another note: you may notice a certain sameness to the kids’ stories. That reflects the experience of extreme poverty in Africa (or, at least, the 11 or so countries in which Zoe is active). They get a write-up, even though it can be repetitive, because (a) we flew 28 hours to see our partners, and (b) they’ve waiting two years to tell us their stories.
Engrace, Visionaries
Before Zoe, she slept in a house (inherited from her parents when they passed) with no doors, windows, or floor. Five siblings shared one blanket, which was not sufficient. She had to drop out of school before she learned more than her vowels, a e i o u.
Her siblings school uniforms were faded, which was a particularly painful memory for her. Everybody had to beg for food. She did fieldwork day jobs, and was paid one cup of millet and a half-cup of salt, which had to serve as her family’s supper that night. No other seasonings. They would cook porridge just to go to sleep with something in their stomachs.
Everybody in her family wore torn clothes and did field labor, and were looked down upon by everybody else in the community.
After she enrolled in Zoe and took the basic training, Zoe gave her seed and fertilizer. She planted them and had a good harvest, which allowed her family to have enough to eat for the first time.
Zoe taught her business skills, including an important one which the salespeople among us will recognize: smile at the customers.
Her first small business was buying and reselling clothes.
Next, she got basic vocational training from a local master craftsperson in what they call “catering”. I think that is cooking and selling food. We visited her stand later, and she cooks french fries and deep-fried hot dogs, and you can buy a little box of them and flavor them yourself. (I chose spicy salt and vinegar, but I was a little too light on the spice. Next time. :) )
With the profits from the surplus of her household garden and her two small businesses, she was able to repair her house and buy new blankets. Now her siblings have school uniforms which are not faded.
Engrace expressed her gratitude for our support and hoped that we would continue to support other kids.
Dios and Abigail
Then we heard two poems. I’m afraid neither Erika nor myself took good notes on their poems, but they were a presentation of their experiences before and after Zoe.
I do remember thinking they reminded me a little bit of beat poetry or rap.
Alex, from the Visionaries group then led a group cheer.
Dream Charts
After that, we had dream chart presentations.
A dream chart is a poster each child makes when they first join Zoe. It has five sections, the first four of which contain only images:
- Things that make them sad.
- Things that make them happy.
- Things they don’t like.
- Their dreams, their hopes for the future.
- Guidelines for accomplishing those dreams (i.e., the important things they need to do to achieve those dreams).
Several children presented dream charts. The “things that make me sad” section had things like the death of a parent (represented by a coffin) and a visit to a hospital by a younger siblings. (Medical care in Zimbabwe has severe challenges and is very expensive if it’s available at all.) Snakes and the consequences of snake bites also showed up in more than one dream chart.
Their “what makes me happy” sections had things like church and playing ball.
Their “what I don’t like” sections had things like fighting, child pregnancy (and how that comes about is not pretty, obviously), smoking and substance abuse (usually represented by a bottle of alcohol).
The “dreams” section had things like a functioning latrine, a repaired house, new clothes, a water well nearby.
And the “guidelines” section had things like “hard work” and “discipline”.
Unified Group Report by Sharmain, Secretary of Kwadzana Group
Sharmain went over the composition of each group. They each had 27 families (don’t trust my notes here, but two of the working groups, at least, had 27 families).
Most of them lived on one meal per day or they simply slept hungry. They had no clothes other than the ones they wore, and blankets were insufficient. (My notes say “none”, but I don’t think that’s right.) They all had to drop out of school to care for their families. Many of them had no house in good repair, no dishware, no chairs or furniture, and no friends in the community.
In March of 2024, they joined Zoe and drew their dream charts.
Many of them lived on wild vegetables, but they received one 50-kilogram bag of maize seeds and a smaller bag of sorghum seeds. They also received fertilizer and insecticide. After they planted them, they were able to harvest seven 50-kg bags of seed, for a 7x yield.
(Their training had in conservation farming, which is a technique in which you dig a hole for each plant, put the seeds in and throw in some manure (excuse me, “organic fertilizer”), and then you dig another hole a specific distance away. All this is in lieu of plowing a furrow.)
In addition to their individual household nutrition gardens, they also planted a single garden for the entire working group (each of them, so three community gardens, I think).
Among the three groups of 3 x 27 = 81 households, 51 houses were given $150 in initial grants to start small businesses. These are mostly reselling goods (clothing, shoes, plastic ware, groceries) at a profit, so the seed money is to buy initial inventory. Some of them are for more extensive farming and selling the harvest for profit (as opposed to simply consuming it for nutrition, which the household and community gardens are already supplying). Some of them are supplying services such as phone charging.
All of the members now have multiple businesses.
Hazel, Secretary of Visionaries Group
Hazel added that 30 members have received vocational training (e.g., in welding, carpentry, construction, tailoring, “catering” (food prep), barbering, etc.). After vocational training, the kids get grants of $250 with which to buy vocation starting kits (e.g., welding equipment, carpentry equipment, sewing machines, barbering and/or beauty supplies, etc.) and maybe initial supplies. How they spend the money is up to them. Since this is an empowerment model, they get to choose how to spend it (although there is guidance available).
In addition to the 30 above, 18 additional members used their own profits to get vocational training.
7 welders have been trained and are now engaged in those occupations.
She noted that, now, the larger community sees them as role models for their own children, and they buy from them.
Here are some stats she cited:
- 10 new houses built
- 43 houses repaired
- 21 new toilets built
- 21 toilets repaired
- 11 wells dug
- 2 plots of land purchased
Many households have bought solar panels and basic household items (such as dishes) they did not have previously.
Hazel mentioned that they now have confidence, they participate in church and community activity (whereas previously they felt ashamed of their (literally) raggedy clothes, and were ostracized), they are moving toward economic independence, and they hire other people and start businesses for their siblings to run.
Savana’s Testimony
Savana is the chairperson of the Comfort group (UUMC’s group). Her testimony follows.
Her mother died when she was 10. Her father died of COVID-19. She is the eldest of four siblings. She was deserted by her relatives. She worked in the fields, fencing other people’s gardens with thorn bushes, without gloves. She was not paid enough (i.e., not a fair wage). She felt pain, both from the thorns and from not being paid enough. She (and her siblings) ate once a day or not at all. One of her siblings got sick but they couldn’t afford medication.
She said of her Zoe enrollment that “We were not just sold dreams, but we were given the skills to achieve them.”
She is now known as a good farmer, and she is doing catering.
She said our support is going a long way, and that they pray that other vulnerable children will feel the same support.
Somewhere in here, we were presented with a gift to UUMC from all three groups, and they put on a display of some of their traditional dance. (They also presented Erika and myself with gifts for ourselves — a shirt and a dress.)
Hmm, stupid WordPress won’t let me upload a video w/out upgrading to Premium. Let’s see if I can embed a YouTube video.
Visits to Places of Business
Obvious has been trained in welding. He sells windows (metal frames ready for standard-sized glass panes) at $20 each, for a profit of $9 each. He also repairs solar panel holders and some two-wheeled carts (referred to as “Scotch carts”, for some reason).
Savana (who we met before) runs a “catering” stand. Basically, it’s a food stand outside of a larger store. We had some of her French fries (which, for those of you who don’t know, is a potato-based snack made by slicing potatoes into strips and frying them in oil — why do we always attach exotic names to things like “French fries” and “Scotch carts”?). She has actually gone back to school, so during school, she sells near the school and during school breaks, she sells at her current location.
Rockford learned carpentry, and then partnered with his friend Lazarus, who is actually not a Zoe kid. But he wanted to partner with him, so this is an example of Zoe having a wider effect throughout the community.
By the way, we found out that Zoe does actually have a wider effect on the communities in which they operate. One way is that it has a tendency to cause all community members to re-evaluate how they view and behave toward orphans and vulnerable children in poverty.
