Thanks Dennis.
"Hello friends! It’s been a great few
months at Zimkids thanks to your continuing support. I just arrived
back in the States to begin meetings with our friends across the
country. Here’s the latest news!
Over the past two months, we’ve built
the welding training program into a serious operation. We’ve now
constructed a covered welding area, with the donation of our good
doctor’s metal carport. Our boys and girls over 15 years old are
becoming great welders. And they just finished Zimkids’ first
commercial welding job: the construction of railing, a bookcase and
wardrobe for a private client, using her old railings as the
materials.
Meanwhile, the older boys and girls
also built a stunning obstacle course, complete with a tunnel made
from enormous old tires, balance beam, swinging tires, hanging rings,
a tightrope, and a climbing structure.
As if they weren’t busy enough,
Foster and Collen who joined Zimkids 7 years ago, who were a big part
of our building team and are now on staff installed an electric fence
to further secure the property, thanks to the continuing generosity
of private donors and the Independent Pilots Association. Foster and
Colin, also installed our solar array under the guidance of a local
solar energy contractor, needed no guidance this time. The contractor
was so impressed that he asked if he could train them to install
solar hot water heaters for his company in the hope that he can spin
them off into their own business, to serve as a subcontractor for
him.
They’re facing some pretty serious
choices since we’ve enrolled them in professional courses, Colin in
electricity and Foster in boilermaking. For the moment, they’ll
work at Zimkids during the work, take their courses on Saturdays, and
work for the solar company as needed, which gives other Zimkids
coming up time to hone their skills and replace Foster and Collen as
they set out on their own. You can imagine how proud we all felt that
our plans for these young people are turning into realities. Our
dream to enable our kids to gain myriad skills and eventually go into
business is becoming a reality. We are thrilled.
Meanwhile, Sithabisiwe is continuing
her counseling training with Contact, currently interviewing
HIV-positive teenagers to develop her technique. Week by week, we’re
watching her understanding grow – and being brought to bear with
our own kids.
The new program we began for children
ages 3-7 years is thriving. The kids are clearly gaining weight and
energy thanks to the feeding program. They are all now happily
playing games on our computers and beginning to write as well. The
incredible Julie Tazzia of Michigan sent underwear for the girls,
none of whom had ever HAD underwear. We could use more underwear for
both girls and boys, all sizes. (Contact me at
dennis.gaboury@yahoo.com
for further information)
We had another amazing clothing moment
with a 6-year-old boy named Francis who lives with his 78-year-old
grandmother and grandfather. He just joined ZImkids and always
appeared in the same rags every day. So we reached into the suitcase
filled with clothes dropped off by a donor from London and outfitted
him in bright lime green soccer shoes, red shorts, a yellow T-shirt,
and a bright yellow fleece hoodie and his first pair of underwear. As
he walked home that afternoon, the neighbors all began cheering. He’s
a different boy now, not hiding in a corner but smiling and playing
with the others.
Our garden has fully recovered and is
yielding bountiful tomatoes, chimulia, butternut and spinach. We use
our drip irrigation system in the greenhouse and upturned 2-litre
soda bottles to water vegetables that are planted in maize meal sacks
to conserve water.
We’ve been receiving an increasing
amount of local support, which is extremely gratifying. A local NGO
that is installing water tanks – and delivering water to fill them
monthly – offered us the same water supply. Drought conditions
continue so this will help a lot. Then a church in northern Zimbabwe
sent us a full set of marimbas – musical instruments that are sort
of wooden xylophones – and Energy Maburutse, the former lead
marimba player for the band Liyana and one of our trustees, will be
spending part of his summer break from Lynn University in Florida
teaching our kids to play. Drillwell, the well digging company,
appeared with more playground equipment, this time monkey bars to add
to the swings, see-saw and merry-go-round that they’d already built
for us.
The biggest news about local support
came from the foundation funded by Strive Masiwa, the owner of
Econet, the largest cell phone company in Zimbabwe. They are coming
to install Internet at the site and are giving us the money to pay
for it for three years. So now our kids can skype schools in the
States from the site, receive and send emails, learn to google and
see the world.
In January we shipped 68 boxes of
books, sewing equipment, games, sports equipment, etc and it will be
arriving at the center the last week of May. So it will be a big
holiday when they arrive!
I’m leaving, then, filled with pride,
excitement and a little bit of exhaustion. But mostly, I’m relaxed,
knowing that things are moving ahead beautifully, thanks to a
fantastic staff and extremely loyal donors.”
Carpe Diem.
