In 2009 Howard Reece-Smith was part of the team visiting Serenje. As many of you will know Howard is a surgeon and so he visited the local hospital in Serenje. Whilst there he met a 16 year old girl who was in labour and needed a caesarean section. But the hospital didn't have an operating theatre, so the young girl had to be driven 100km to the nearest hospital where they could operate.
Since then an operating theatre has been built and Howard and his wife Elizabeth decided to do 1,500 mile cycle ride from Nairobi in Kenya to Serenje in Zambia, to raise the money to equip the operating theatre. They are looking to raise about £25,000, with any money over and above what is needed going to Project 125, the Girl's Dormitory project.
They began their journey on 13th Feb and are expecting the journey to take them around a month. I am so inspired by their vision and commitment (and their fitness!) Please been praying for them as they travel.
You can sponsor Howard and Elizabeth here.
Sunday, 20 February 2011
Wednesday, 22 December 2010
2010 in Serenje
Every year we receive an annual report from Serenje, updating us and Tearfund on the progress of the project. I've been reading it this afternoon and have been moved to tears by the incredible work that is being done by Leah, the pastors and the volunteers and the impact it's having.
As we come to the end of this year I wanted to highlight what has happened since the last gift day in 2009. It's amazing.
Leadership and training
- 50 pastors and church leaders equipped in leadership skills and HIV/AIDS mitigation
- 85 community leaders trained
- 80 Volunteers were mobilised and trained
Agricultural support
- A total of 700 households/small scale farmers received beans, ground nuts and sweet potatoes
- 557 goats were given to 278 households
- Training was done in new farming methods, livestock rearing and vegetable growing. Farmers who received the inputs were supported in the planting period till they harvested.
Orphans and vulnerable children
- 890 orphans and vulnerable children were placed in schools and their school fees were paid for.
- 526 pairs of shoes were given to school going children
- 529 uniforms
- 890 jerseys
People living with HIV &AIDS
- 4 campaigns on HIV&AIDS were conducted in each of the 4 project communities
- 100 people living with HIV& AIDS are accessing treatment from government clinics
- 5 support groups for people living with HIV&AIDS have been formed for information sharing, learning and addressing challenges they face from day-to-day
- 70 of the 100 have received goats for livelihoods and nutrition support
Wow.
In the busy run up to Christmas why not take a moment. A moment to thank and praise God for the amazing work He is doing in Serenje. To thank God for Leah and the pastors, and the volunteers. To remember our brothers and sisters in Serenje whose Christmas will be very different to ours.
Here are some photos that capture some of 2010 in Serenje.
As we come to the end of this year I wanted to highlight what has happened since the last gift day in 2009. It's amazing.
Leadership and training
- 50 pastors and church leaders equipped in leadership skills and HIV/AIDS mitigation
- 85 community leaders trained
- 80 Volunteers were mobilised and trained
Agricultural support
- A total of 700 households/small scale farmers received beans, ground nuts and sweet potatoes
- 557 goats were given to 278 households
- Training was done in new farming methods, livestock rearing and vegetable growing. Farmers who received the inputs were supported in the planting period till they harvested.
Orphans and vulnerable children
- 890 orphans and vulnerable children were placed in schools and their school fees were paid for.
- 526 pairs of shoes were given to school going children
- 529 uniforms
- 890 jerseys
People living with HIV &AIDS
- 4 campaigns on HIV&AIDS were conducted in each of the 4 project communities
- 100 people living with HIV& AIDS are accessing treatment from government clinics
- 5 support groups for people living with HIV&AIDS have been formed for information sharing, learning and addressing challenges they face from day-to-day
- 70 of the 100 have received goats for livelihoods and nutrition support
Wow.
In the busy run up to Christmas why not take a moment. A moment to thank and praise God for the amazing work He is doing in Serenje. To thank God for Leah and the pastors, and the volunteers. To remember our brothers and sisters in Serenje whose Christmas will be very different to ours.
Here are some photos that capture some of 2010 in Serenje.
Tuesday, 16 November 2010
Truly incredible
The current Serenje Gift Days' total is just over £111,000. This total is a combination of cash donations, standing orders and gift aid. It's just amazing, isn't it? Thank you so much to everyone who gave. Your money means the following is possible:
- 1700 orphans and vulnerable children supported to go to school(up from 890 this year)
- 1000 farmers provided with seed (up from 701 this yr)
- 100 volunteers trained to support people living with HIV and AIDS (same as this yr)
These numbers represent individuals whose lives are being changed. It's been great to hear some of the stories from the team who recently returned from Serenje and Alan Lander shared this reflection from the trip:
'A number of the churches meet in one of the larger schools in the town. I was asked to speak and arrived to find over 100 adults and children crammed into a classroom; kids on the floor, adults at desks. It was a new experience to have an interpreter as most of the adults spoke Bemba. Afterwards I was invited to Pastor Chola's home for lunch. He has seven children and this is what I wrote in my journal.
“I noticed a small bundle on the sofa. This was a baby girl only seven days old. I asked her name and was totally speechless when they asked me to name her. After I got over the shock they insisted and said they had given all their other children biblical names. In their culture they name a child on the seventh day, and as I was their 'honoured guest' then I was asked to name her. I said I would like to call her Hannah. What an incredibly humbling experience. Two of their children are being supported at school by the project and as I held Hannah ( feeling very emotional) I looked in her face and felt that this girl has a hope and a future because of the project we are supporting. Hannah will always stay in my thoughts.'
What a privilege to partner with God in what He's doing in Serenje.
- 1700 orphans and vulnerable children supported to go to school(up from 890 this year)
- 1000 farmers provided with seed (up from 701 this yr)
- 100 volunteers trained to support people living with HIV and AIDS (same as this yr)
These numbers represent individuals whose lives are being changed. It's been great to hear some of the stories from the team who recently returned from Serenje and Alan Lander shared this reflection from the trip:
'A number of the churches meet in one of the larger schools in the town. I was asked to speak and arrived to find over 100 adults and children crammed into a classroom; kids on the floor, adults at desks. It was a new experience to have an interpreter as most of the adults spoke Bemba. Afterwards I was invited to Pastor Chola's home for lunch. He has seven children and this is what I wrote in my journal.
“I noticed a small bundle on the sofa. This was a baby girl only seven days old. I asked her name and was totally speechless when they asked me to name her. After I got over the shock they insisted and said they had given all their other children biblical names. In their culture they name a child on the seventh day, and as I was their 'honoured guest' then I was asked to name her. I said I would like to call her Hannah. What an incredibly humbling experience. Two of their children are being supported at school by the project and as I held Hannah ( feeling very emotional) I looked in her face and felt that this girl has a hope and a future because of the project we are supporting. Hannah will always stay in my thoughts.'
What a privilege to partner with God in what He's doing in Serenje.
Tuesday, 2 November 2010
Gift Day update
I heard today that we're up to £84,208 on our way to raising £100,000 for Serenje! How brilliant is that! It is amazing to be part of such a generous community of people.
Catrina is continuing her blogs about her Serenje trip and here is the another one:
Let me introduce you to Mrs Catherine Mumba. She is 42 years old. She is married to Peter, who is a peasant farmer. Together they have 6 children ranging in age from 2-21 years old. Catherine and Peter are both Volunteers for the Serenje Project.
Every morning begins with Catherine making a 1 hour walk into the villages to buy produce, like cabbage, onion, rape and tomatoes. She walks with a group of women for their pre-arranged appointments with different farmers in the villages surrounding Serenje town (the Boma). Catherine and her friends then carry the produce back on their heads and backs to the Boma to sell at their market stall from 6am to 6pm.
Remember she has 6 children too!
Catherine has 5 clients. Two of them are living with HIV and on ARV drugs. Three of her clients are on TB drugs. She also has some school-aged children to monitor. Some of Catherine's clients need seeing daily; all are seen weekly. The support she gives them include spiritual encouragement; physical help; hygiene and health education; perhaps also going to the clinic to collect medicines and food supplements. She will also often give some of her own food to her clients. As Charity (she heads up the volunteers) said of the volunteers: "They leave their families without food and they work tirelessly".
In response to my question "How do you do it all?" Catherine simply replied "I divide my time". The reality is that the volunteers are living in very similar circumstances to their clients - they are not meeting their needs from a position of having much. There is no monetary or earthly reward for what Catherine and the other volunteers are doing. They do it because the love of God has so transformed their hearts and lives. It's so very humbling to see how they truly are meeting their neighbours' needs.
The money raised from the Gift Days contributes to the training of incredible volunteers like Catherine.
Isaiah 58 v.6, 7 & 10
"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter, when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? And if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. "
Catrina is continuing her blogs about her Serenje trip and here is the another one:
Let me introduce you to Mrs Catherine Mumba. She is 42 years old. She is married to Peter, who is a peasant farmer. Together they have 6 children ranging in age from 2-21 years old. Catherine and Peter are both Volunteers for the Serenje Project.
Every morning begins with Catherine making a 1 hour walk into the villages to buy produce, like cabbage, onion, rape and tomatoes. She walks with a group of women for their pre-arranged appointments with different farmers in the villages surrounding Serenje town (the Boma). Catherine and her friends then carry the produce back on their heads and backs to the Boma to sell at their market stall from 6am to 6pm.
Remember she has 6 children too!
Catherine has 5 clients. Two of them are living with HIV and on ARV drugs. Three of her clients are on TB drugs. She also has some school-aged children to monitor. Some of Catherine's clients need seeing daily; all are seen weekly. The support she gives them include spiritual encouragement; physical help; hygiene and health education; perhaps also going to the clinic to collect medicines and food supplements. She will also often give some of her own food to her clients. As Charity (she heads up the volunteers) said of the volunteers: "They leave their families without food and they work tirelessly".
In response to my question "How do you do it all?" Catherine simply replied "I divide my time". The reality is that the volunteers are living in very similar circumstances to their clients - they are not meeting their needs from a position of having much. There is no monetary or earthly reward for what Catherine and the other volunteers are doing. They do it because the love of God has so transformed their hearts and lives. It's so very humbling to see how they truly are meeting their neighbours' needs.
The money raised from the Gift Days contributes to the training of incredible volunteers like Catherine.
Isaiah 58 v.6, 7 & 10
"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter, when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? And if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. "
Sunday, 31 October 2010
Stories from Serenje
If you were at church this morning you will have heard the amazing news that the total from the Serenje Gift Days was just over £71,000. Thank you for your incredible generosity. If you missed the opportunity to give and you'd still like to then you can visit the Serenje Just Giving page at http://www.justgiving.com/serenje
Those of you who receive Catrina's blog you'll know she's been brilliant at sharing stories for her recent trip to Serenje. Here is her first one and I'll continue to paste the others here. Thank you Catrina!
Volunteers
There are 65 Volunteers - both men and women. Most of the volunteers are peasant farmers. They do an absolutely incredible job. It's these men and women who daily or weekly visit their clients. They support them - perhaps also collect their ARV medicines. They check up on the school children we're supporting - monitor their grades and attendance for instance. They work in the 4 communities (Kankoso, Kashitu, Chilisha and Mwasakano) plus the Boma (the Serenje town). This year they have been trained in home-based care. The reports back are that through this training they have grown spiritually and have gained much informaton.
Pastor Ngosa (Chairman of the Project) put it like this:
"We owe it all to the volunteers - you are our hands, feet, eyes and ears"
Leah presented all the volunteers with green t-shirts - greeted with spontaneous cheering, celebration and singing! It was so helpful for us to be able to identify this incredible team when we were out and about in the communities and schools; and they seemed to love wearing their shirts and thus being easily identified as volunteers.
Mrs Charity Nyangwe (pictured)
is a local teacher and she is the Chairperson of the volunteers. George is her Deputy. together they lead the team of volunteers. They all meet together every 4th Friday of the month for prayer, encouragement, support, training and teaching. this monthly meeting is also an opportunity for volunteers to report back about the progress of their clients.
Please pray for the leadership and team of volunteers.
Those of you who receive Catrina's blog you'll know she's been brilliant at sharing stories for her recent trip to Serenje. Here is her first one and I'll continue to paste the others here. Thank you Catrina!
Volunteers
There are 65 Volunteers - both men and women. Most of the volunteers are peasant farmers. They do an absolutely incredible job. It's these men and women who daily or weekly visit their clients. They support them - perhaps also collect their ARV medicines. They check up on the school children we're supporting - monitor their grades and attendance for instance. They work in the 4 communities (Kankoso, Kashitu, Chilisha and Mwasakano) plus the Boma (the Serenje town). This year they have been trained in home-based care. The reports back are that through this training they have grown spiritually and have gained much informaton.
Pastor Ngosa (Chairman of the Project) put it like this:
"We owe it all to the volunteers - you are our hands, feet, eyes and ears"
Leah presented all the volunteers with green t-shirts - greeted with spontaneous cheering, celebration and singing! It was so helpful for us to be able to identify this incredible team when we were out and about in the communities and schools; and they seemed to love wearing their shirts and thus being easily identified as volunteers.
Mrs Charity Nyangwe (pictured)
is a local teacher and she is the Chairperson of the volunteers. George is her Deputy. together they lead the team of volunteers. They all meet together every 4th Friday of the month for prayer, encouragement, support, training and teaching. this monthly meeting is also an opportunity for volunteers to report back about the progress of their clients.Please pray for the leadership and team of volunteers.
Wednesday, 13 October 2010
News from Serenje
I want to start by apologising-I was pretty tired when I wrote the blog last night and when I talked about what the team are doing I missed out the amazing Alan Lander. When I realised today I felt so bad-I'm sorry Alan! Alan has been doing leadership training with with Simon, Sola and Colin. I heard from Simon today and it sounds like it's going really well. Colin has also been speaking to the worship teams.
Catrina and Val led the women's conference today, talking about the fruit of the spirit. Catrina said they had a great time of sharing together. They gave out all the letters from Kerith ladies, along with some postcards that Beccy Oliver designed. The women in Serenje are amazing and I wanted to share this story from Catrina's blog:
'We went on 2 home visits today in the Zambia Compound - visiting ladies that have HIV and that the project is supporting. We went with Catherine who is the volunteer assigned to the two families - she is an amazing woman - mother of 6 children - she goes to the villages at 4am every morning to buy vegetables then sells it from 6am at the market. She has 5 clients and visits them all weekly - some of them daily. Such free and selfless serving of others is so humbling - the volunteers also have so little yet give so much.'
Tonight Catrina is meeting with the Schools Committee to discuss the partnerships between schools in Bracknell and Serenje. Let's pray for her, she's had a busy day and when she texted earlier there was a power cut so dinner was on hold!
We're praying for the team and what's happening in Serenje at the Prayer meetings tonight and tomorrow-be great to see you there.
Catrina and Val led the women's conference today, talking about the fruit of the spirit. Catrina said they had a great time of sharing together. They gave out all the letters from Kerith ladies, along with some postcards that Beccy Oliver designed. The women in Serenje are amazing and I wanted to share this story from Catrina's blog:
'We went on 2 home visits today in the Zambia Compound - visiting ladies that have HIV and that the project is supporting. We went with Catherine who is the volunteer assigned to the two families - she is an amazing woman - mother of 6 children - she goes to the villages at 4am every morning to buy vegetables then sells it from 6am at the market. She has 5 clients and visits them all weekly - some of them daily. Such free and selfless serving of others is so humbling - the volunteers also have so little yet give so much.'
Tonight Catrina is meeting with the Schools Committee to discuss the partnerships between schools in Bracknell and Serenje. Let's pray for her, she's had a busy day and when she texted earlier there was a power cut so dinner was on hold!
We're praying for the team and what's happening in Serenje at the Prayer meetings tonight and tomorrow-be great to see you there.
Tuesday, 12 October 2010
News from Serenje
It's so encouraging hearing from Simon and Catrina that the project is going so well. Today Simon, Sola and Colin have been doing leadership training with the pastors and Catrina and Val have been visiting people living with HIV and AIDS, as well as visiting some of the local schools we're connected with.
Please remember the team in your prayers. Simon, Sola and Colin are continuing the leadership training Weds-Thurs. Tomorrow (Weds) Catrina and Val are running a women's conference! A lot of women come and are eager to hear from God. Let's pray it's an amazing time of sharing and encouragement. Please pray for Rob Plant as he does all the filming and editing of footage ready for Gift days this weekend.
The next 2 weekends are the Serenje Gift Days and we'll be raising money for the coming year, which will enable the following to happen:
- 1700 orphans and vulnerable children to go to school (up from 890 this year)
- 1000 farmers provided with seed (up from 701 this yr)
- 100 volunteers trained to support people living with HIV and AIDS (same as this yr)
How exciting to be part of seeing this incredible vision become a reality. Thank you SO much for all your support and prayers for what is happening in Serenje.
Please remember the team in your prayers. Simon, Sola and Colin are continuing the leadership training Weds-Thurs. Tomorrow (Weds) Catrina and Val are running a women's conference! A lot of women come and are eager to hear from God. Let's pray it's an amazing time of sharing and encouragement. Please pray for Rob Plant as he does all the filming and editing of footage ready for Gift days this weekend.
The next 2 weekends are the Serenje Gift Days and we'll be raising money for the coming year, which will enable the following to happen:
- 1700 orphans and vulnerable children to go to school (up from 890 this year)
- 1000 farmers provided with seed (up from 701 this yr)
- 100 volunteers trained to support people living with HIV and AIDS (same as this yr)
How exciting to be part of seeing this incredible vision become a reality. Thank you SO much for all your support and prayers for what is happening in Serenje.
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