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Agricultural work is being done at Faith & Hope Centre (F&HC), where great progress is being recorded. In our efforts to become a self–sustaining and child–empowering organisation, we have established a viable nutritious garden at F&HC with the help of our friends at Lead Trust. They installed a 5000-litre water tank and a set up a drip–irrigation system for the watering of the garden, covering 1000 square metres.

Part of the staff at the Shelter of Joy and F&HC, together with the children, took part in preparing the gardens and planting a variety of nutritious vegetables as part of their training in organic farming.

Since the purchase of vegetables for consumption has been eating a great chunk of our finances, we hope that soon, we would not be buying vegetables as our garden promises to be so viable that we plan to sell the surplus. The long term plan is to run the centre on a commercial scale and raise JCF to the level of self–sustenance.

Each child at the centre has been allocated a garden which they will work in to gain experience and perfect their knowledge in gardening. This kind of empowerment will come in handy when they leave the organisation to join their families.

We currently have a number of viable partnerships with other organisations that include Child Protection Society (CPS), Family Support Trust and Help Age. In recognition of our experience and expertise in family reunifications, CPS partnered with us so that they could finance the family reunification and community reintegration of children under our care. So far, this joint operation has seen the successful reunification of fivechildren who have been under our care.

We also work with Family Support Trust, which deals with cases of sexually abused children. They are the ones who are authorised by law to do legal examinations and their statements are used as evidence in court. They also hold child abuse awareness workshops for children and provide training for our staff in handling child abuse matters.

Help Age, with whom we have had a long–running relationship, have also been throwing their weight behind us, providing us with foodstuffs on a monthly basis, both at Come Unto Me and at Faith & Hope Centres.

The JCF Trust was recently launched in South Africa. Already, a lot of activities meant to enhance our work have already started. This is the first germination of the seed planted in the vision of the late Moosa Kasimonje whose desire was to see the work spread to other countries. We thank God for our friends who worked round the clock to get the South African Trust started, Ron Wheldon, Ruth Hwindingwi and Anthony Haggie. There are also those who have been working hard to get provisions to the children like Bahati Kasimonje and Farirayi Kadungure. We love them and cherish their goodness.

Rudo centre

Renovations at Rudo Centre, which have been on hold owing to lack of funds and the instability in the economy over the past few years, is expected to resume soon following the recent arrival of more funds for this project. The centre is going to be a critical social service amenity as the demand to house abandoned babies and those orphaned in the area is rising. Currently there are eight babies at a local hospital and the authorities there are appealing that we take in the babies.

We made donations to Shelter Trust, Matthew Rusike Children’s Home, Chinyaradzo Children’s Home, Victim Friendly Police, Mufudzi Wakanaka and Chitungwiza General Hospital. This is as a result of some of the goods we might have received and have little use of. It is also important to be able to give and share the little we might be receiving. This is like the breaking of bread in fellowship with our fellow partners in the work we are doing.

The donations that we received came from Goal Zimbabwe, Help Age Zimbabwe, Mary Nyenya, Mr. & Mrs. Gatawa, Mr. Griffiths, Wedzera Family and Harare Hospital.

Mushrooms, by Paul Esson (http://www.flickr.com/people/paulesson/)

Eight girls under our residential care programme at Come Unto Me Centre in Karoi who underwent a two–week training course in permaculture at Kufunda Village have started reaping the fruits of the training. They went on to plant mushrooms at the centre, some of which were eaten by all the children. It is clear they have been effectively equipped in that area as shown by the fact that they are now engaged in continuing mushroom production at the Come Unto Me Centre.