9 March 2010

Warm greetings to you all from Zambia. You might have been wondering, and yes — we did miss a progress report last month, which is perhaps an indication of the variety of pressures on our time here at the moment. We are grateful for your interest, support and prayers. Zambia’s needs are immense, and we are often reminded that, to avoid being overwhelmed, we need to deal with each challenge one at a time.

The Limapela Cedric’s Basic School

The children’s maize was harvested last week, and it was a good crop. We are conscious daily of the children with disadvantages. A boy in Grade 6 lost his one surviving parent a week ago, leaving him a double orphan. Death is a daily matter of fact in this country.

Our teachers are enthusiastic about the improvements we have been able to make — better salaries, more books, better furniture and guidance from ourselves in the classrooms — and the children are responding very well in their lessons.

An application is about to be lodged with Rotary for funding for a bore hole, tanks and toilet block. We are grateful to Kitwe Rotary Club for being willing to be our sponsoring club. An application has also been lodged with the Beit Trust for funding for a new classroom block for grades 8-9.

Although funding for capital projects looks promising, salaries need to be paid each month and our running costs have actually been exceeding our income. Do drop us a line if you would like to help. We also wish to continue the smaller improvements that will really benefit the children day by day. Here are some of the specific areas of need to which you could contribute:

• Fee Sponsorship — we are continuing to assign children to their sponsors. Nearly 100 have been assigned so far, but more sponsors are needed. The process has been slow because Head Teacher Mwanza is being careful to make sure that the most needy children do not get overlooked. Sponsorship is set at NZ$12.00 (US$10.00) per month.
• Teachers’s Salaries — last October we made the decision to assist the previous owners with redundancy settlements. It was to our advantage to start with a fresh slate and re-employ teachers on contracts. But this significantly depleted the funds available for salaries. Supporters are very welcome to commit to regular monthly donations of any amount and this sponsorship would go to a specific teacher’s salary.
• Children’s Daily Milk — Cedric used to supply this, and because it is invaluable, especially for children who do not eat well at home, we decided to continue with it. The cost is approximately NZ$250 per month.
• Electricity — we are negotiating with ZESCO, the electricity supply company, and expect that the cost of getting power into the property, together with the mains transformer, will be around NZ$6,000. This will get us started, even though wiring to buildings, pump and other facilities will cost more.

Project Staff Housing

The building company recently conceded that the ceilings they supplied were not up to standard, and agreed to have them re-installed. Happily, the company has agreed to cover some of the costs, but completion of the houses has been consequently delayed. Terry and Carolyn and our employees are hard at work to get this finished, and the new ceilings look very tidy indeed. We are now expecting to have one house finished by the beginning of April.

—Matthew F. Raymond, CHAIRMAN