We are pleased to announce the new version of the JCF UK website. Its been a while coming and we hope it will give you more of a taste of the work of the Just Children Foundation in Zimbabwe.
The new website co insides with the new logo as well as bringing regular news of the ongoing work in Zimbabwe as well as news from the UK operation.
Mike Thomson examines the plight of orphans in Zimbabwe in a BBC radio broadcast.
What you get for your money
Nicholas is a 9 year old boy who was brought to the JCF by Social Welfare in 2004. His parents divorced and he went to stay with his father. Nicholas health was not very good and as a result his father took him to the rural areas to stay with his paternal grandparents and there he was able to access treatment. When the grandfather passed away Nicholas came back to Harare to stay with his father and stepmother.The stepmother refused to look after Nicholas and told the father to get rid of him. The father subsequently took the child away and waited until dark and took the child to a particular river and tied a piece of wire with a rock around the child’s neck and tied him to a tree and left him in the river to drown and die. The boy had a bag full of clothes on his back. A passerby heard the boy crying and went and rescued him. She took the child home with her to warm him up and then reported the case to the police, who in turn took him to Social Welfare. That is how he came to JCF.
The father was arrested six mother later. We stayed with Nicholas for a year when he was taken to hospital for treatment and counseling. The JCF looked for the mother and she was found in Chitungwiza a town 25km from Harare. A relationship was established with the mother and the boy was finally reunited with his mother. The case went to court and the father was sentenced to 7 years imprisonment with hard labour. The boy is now in grade 2 and is happy with his mother. We always follow up to see how he is doing.
We have moved some children from Come Unto Me Centre (toddlers) to Faith and Hope Centre. The movement of the children went very well and they are thriving in their new environment at Faith and Hope Centre. We continue to face challenges of power cuts at the centre but we have just acquired a water storage tank (5000 litres), because every time there is a power cut the water pumps stop working.
Come Unto Me has been greatly decongested with the movement of some of the children to Harare. Recently we were contacted by the ladies who used to run the home in Karoi because they wish to stay in touch with what is happening at the centre and the children. Their representative asked the children for their wish list because they wish to bless the children with numerous goods. They wanted to find out if there was a way for them to get the goods to the children. If there is a way you can help us from the UK please let us know so that we can communicate this to them. They are now in the Netherlands.
The renovations on Rudo Centre are continuing and we are currently working on the roof which has had to be redone because it was leaking. We are hoping these renovations will be complete very soon, so that we can announce the official opening of the centre. Some friends have expressed interest in coming down for the official opening.
Some of our children sat for their ordinary level examinations last year. The results are now out and we are just waiting for some of them to come from their respective homes to collect their results. However one of the boys who was at Faith and Hope Centre did very well and he wishes to advance to A level. We are currently in the process of trying to secure a place for him. We will update you of their results as soon as they have all collected them.
Some of the children at Faith and Hope centre who started zero grade are doing very well and their lives have just been transformed since they started to going to school.
Reunifications have continued for some children and these have been successful. We are working on reaching out to children on the streets as there seems to be a large number of them living there now. This can be attributed to the continued decline in the economy.
The children are on school holiday and will be back at school on the 28th of April. They closed early for the elections since most schools are used as polling stations and teachers are deployed throughout the country mostly as polling officers.
After drilling for about 50 metres the drilling company ruled that there was no water on this site. They gave up and left the site but the JCF family believed that God would provide the water for the children. The children at the centre went on a fast and prayer session for about a week (I need to emphasize that it was just the children taking part). They prayed that God would bring up the water where the drillers said there was no water. The drillers were instructed by the Executive Director to set everything on the site and we would wait for the water. The driller could not understand this step of faith.
After a few days the Executive Director went to the center and checked for water and sure enough the borehole was full of water. He contacted the drillers and told them what he discovered. They doubted again and he asked them to accompany him to the centre. They went there and sure enough there was water about 40 metres deep. Now we await for the installation of a pump and reservoir. The reservoir has already been purchased.
Tatenda is an 18 year old mother. She came onto our programme at 9 years of age. Her parents divorced and her mother went to South Africa. Tatenda and her siblings were left in the care of their father who was self employed. The father had no time for the children and Tatenda was abused sexually several times and she decided to go and stay on the streets because of parental neglect.
In 2000 Tatenda came on the JCF programme and she was not well at the time having contracted an STI. She was taken for treatment but she kept going back on the streets and problem kept coming back. She kept absconding before finishing her medication and as a result of this behaviour she contracted HIV. We tried as an organization to help her but she resisted. This really affected JCF staff emotionally because they really wanted to help her get her life back. At the age of 13 she had her first baby while living on the streets and 4 years later had a second baby with a different man.
JCF has a team of outreach workers who constantly go out on the streets to see how we can help the children. Tatenda is one such child but she has refused to come off the streets and she does not have decent accommodation on the streets. She now stay by a certain river squatter camp in Harare and she says this is suitable for her because she can do her laundry, bath and cook there. There is an open space where a number of people stay and this has become a community.
Tanaka, Tanatswa and Tariro are 11months old baby girls. They are triplets. The children’s mother Rutendo was referred to the Just Children Foundation by the Harare Central Hospital’s Social Worker. The parents separated on the day the children were born. When the triplet’s father was informed by the midwife that his wife had given birth to triplets, he decided to run away from the responsibility. So Rutendo a 21 year old woman was left to fend for the children alone.
One of the children, Tariro got ill and sadly she passed on to the Lord on the 24th of April 2008. May her soul rest in eternal peace. During Tariro’s funeral the father showed up for the first time since the babies were born. The JCF team that went to the funeral talked to him but he refused to say where he was staying. He promised to come to the JCF office but at the time of writing this article he hand not shown up.
Tanatswa, Tanaka and Tariro’s case is one of many in Zimbabwe whereby parents run away from families because of economic hardships and not wanting to be responsible for their families.
The Just Children Foundation is working on empowering Rutendo to come up with a livelihood project for her and her two remaining children to be able to earn a better living.
Mrs. Nomathemba Kasimonje has settled in and is getting on with the work very well. We had a memorial service for Apostle Moosa Kasimonje on 22 March 2008, unfortunately I was not able to be there because by the time Noma announced the date for the memorial service I had already made plans since it was over the Easter weekend. However from the testimonies I received from her and staff members who were able to attend it went very well. The children had so much to eat and they had a lovely afternoon remembering “Baba” (Father). The service was conducted by Pastor Dave Broom from the church that the Kasimonje’s attend.