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Hi All

The miracle of miracles has happened!! Margaret and I was called to Harare on Wednesday last week to see the Social Welfare office where they handed us the registration certificate of Lirhanzo Children’s Village!!! I had to pinch myself, after eleven years from the first letter we wrote to apply to Social Welfare for a children’s home, after all the negative politics, financial struggles, red tape, blood and sweat, God finally made it happen. When I prayed to God for patience, I never knew exactly how much He would put my patience and commitment to the test. Halleluja!! We have made it! Attached is the piece of paper we have waited and fought so long for.

With this registration now comes a whole lot of new responsibilities that brings with it also financial obligations like paying staff government set salaries, etc. Please help us in meeting these obligations in order to help the children for whom we did all of this. Also pray for us to have the wisdom in running it the way that will follow God’s will and plan.

Thank you all for your contribution in reaching this goal. Everyone played a vital part in making it happen, no matter how small you think it was. Without that last dustbin in the room or that one doorlock, we would not have been able to pass the final inspection.

We are now registered for 21 children according to the size of the facility, but were told that as we increase our capacity to house more children, it is now easy to increase the number on our registration. There is a great need for homes in the country and area and ours are already full. So we would like to increase our capacity to 120 children with everybody’s help. With God nothing is impossible, we must only believe and trust in Him.

Love you all!

Ezelle and team

Container News - ITS THERE!!!!

Container No 11 has just arrived at the Chikombedzi Hospital and has been unpacked. This container held the mosquito nets from Australian Defence, the medical equipment from Hamilton Is Medical Centre and Proserpine Hospital, the Operating Theatre equipment and supplies from Epworth Hospital, all the materials given by Bernie at Caesartex, the Back Packs organised by Angie in Darwin, Wrapped with Love blankets  and much much more.

Ezelle wrote very briefly with the good news of its arrival and a few pics:-

We want to thank you and the whole team that made it all possible very much for all your hard work to get it all here. I am sure the doctor cannot wait to get the new hospital equipment installed and tested. The sewing girls are excited about their materials and have received some orders already while offloading after some people saw the fabric.

GREAT JOB!! With love from all of us.

The next container has been donated by Royal Wolf and is “almost” on site in Kuringai in Sydney. Already we know that 3 Industrial Sewing Machines and 3 Overlockers have been donated to the sewing group by the TAFE college in Moree and the wonderful Reef View Hotel on Hamilton Is. have extended there offer of 2 pallets of superseded linen for the Chikombedzi hospital to 4 pallets. Amazing!!!

If anyone knows of any medical supplies such as wound management products or laboratory equipment that may be out of date or no longer required, teaching aids for the school of nursing, basic cleaning products for the hospital or anything else that a community that has basically nothing would want for a half decent life, please let me know.

Publicity - Wrap with Love and Green Living

The first lovely piece of publicity was included in the Sep/Oct copy of Green Living a delightful and new magazine editored by Kirsty McKenzie. It comes under the heading of Taking a Leaf and is a great write up on the orphans who are being given regular OLEA, Olive Leaf Extract which is supplied to AFADU on an ongoing basis by Delphine Archer and Comvita. The photos of the kids are gorgeous and this article is going to be followed up by a profile on one of our sponsored orphans each month. The whole magazine is worth a read so get it if you can!

The second was included in the Annual Wrap Up report  from Wrap with Love which reported:-

“AID FOR AFRICA DOWN UNDER (AFADU), ZIMBABWE, CHIKOMBEDZI COMMUNITY, MWENZI
DISTRICT

Aid for Africa Down Under, an Australian non-profit, non-government charitable organization, was founded in 2004 by Julie and Ian Routledge. When travelling in Zimbabwe they had seen the extremely harsh conditions suffered by orphaned and vulnerable children in Chikombedzi in the Mwenzi District. Julie was inspired by a white farmer, Ezelle Schimper, to work with the local community to help create a better environment for the children.

Since its inception AFADU has delivered 10 containers from Australia with over 100 tonnes of goods for distribution in Africa. Currently container No.11 is being packed with medical supplies, blankets, mosquito nets, Wraps and fabrics which will be shipped to Zimbabwe to provide additional resources.
Volunteers pack these containers themselves and also raise funds to transport them. They then personally distribute the wide variety of goods including our Wraps so that we can be sure they will reach their intended destination.

In January this year, Ian emailed Wrap with Love that despite all the bad news we read about Zimbabwe, AFADU has made huge differences in the Chikombedzi community. There is now a viable sewing school, a sponsored doctor, and a facility to teach nursing is being built.

Wrap with Love continues to support AFADU in their work, and in 2008 donated 1,317 Wraps.”

In total, Wrap with Love contributed 27,372 Wraps (blankets) to various countries and charities throughout 2008.

(Addendum —- Number 11 container as you have just read has just arrived and we are actually sponsoring 2 doctors)

Batsiranai Sewing Group and Trixie’s Global Giving Fund Raiser.

Trixie has passed on that because of 2 very generous donors, 2 embroidery machines are now in use at the BSG facility in Chikombedzi and the group are now producing school uniforms with school logos with ease. The group is certainly evolving and in the latest report it was great to see that they are now setting themselves income producing targets. They wrote:-

“”"Personal

Members are now able to work on their own without supervision from the tutor. Neatness have finally been achieved by all members and all members are now working /sewing to become the best among others. There is big competition within the group members as all of us want to become the best. “”"”

This report to AFADU so poignantly shows how important the BSG has become to the members. Thanks to those who have donated!

The link to global giving is http://www.globalgiving.com/projects/empower-100-woman-in-zimbabwe-with-sewing-skills and its worth opening it up to check out the pics alone!

Sponsorship

Emily still has a few kids that need sponsors and I would be happy to pass on details if anyone is interested. It is only $400 year or $35 month to provide food, clothing and education for a school age child and we get updates and photos on their well being when Ezelle can fit it in or when we go over which is usually every 12 months.

Next Field Trip

It looks like our next field trip will be planned for June or July next year. Delphine Archer our OLEA organiser who has constantly supported AFADU www.afadu.com in so many ways is going to come and Peter Ross from Melbourne, who organised all the Epworth Hospital goodies has also ticked it in his diary. Husband Bill has also expressed serious interest but I’m not quite sure whether he is serious or if its just something to do with the World Cup being held in South Africa??

Anyone else who would like the trip of a lifetime and feels that they have something to offer please let me know. We do go at our own expense BUT you seem to get back one hundredfold what you put in and WHAT A CAUSE!

Hope you like the pics of the container being off loaded. As more arrive I will send them on.

Cheers to all and THANKS for your support

Pam Harrison

“AID FOR AFRICA DOWN UNDER (AFADU), ZIMBABWE, CHIKOMBEDZI COMMUNITY, MWENZI DISTRICT

Aid for Africa Down Under, an Australian non-profit, non-government charitable organization, was founded in 2004 by Julie and Ian Routledge. When travelling in Zimbabwe they had seen the extremely harsh conditions suffered by orphaned and vulnerable children in Chikombedzi in the Mwenzi District. Julie was inspired by a white farmer, Ezelle Schimper, to work with the local community to help create a better environment for the children.

Since its inception AFADU has delivered 10 containers from Australia with over 100 tonnes of goods for distribution in Africa. Currently container No. 11 is being packed with medical supplies, blankets, mosquito nets, Wraps and fabrics which will be shipped to Zimbabwe to provide additional resources. Volunteers pack these containers themselves and also raise funds to transport them. They then personally distribute the wide variety of goods including our Wraps so that we can be sure they will reach their intended destination.

In January this year, Ian emailed Wrap with Love that despite all the bad news we read about Zimbabwe,, AFADU has made huge differences in the Chikombedzi community. There is now a viable sewing school, a sponsored doctor, and a facility to teach nursing is being built.

Wrap with Love continues to support AFADU in their work, and in 2008 donated 1,317 Wraps.”

http://www.artsandcraftsnsw.com.au/Wrap.htm

http://twitpic.com/b3pxw - Lovely meeting this morning with @childsi and @AFADU. Exchanging ideas and stories on #charitytuesday

In the month of April, AFADU and BSG had a challenge!
Rasie £1000 from 50 donors and we win a permanent place on a major US/UK fundrasing site called Global Giving. www.globalgiving.com

http://www.globalgiving.co.uk/pr/2600/proj2594a.html

One more donor to go and we have made it!!!!!

A friend of mine, Lucy Buck, is doing some fantastic work in Uganda. Her organization Childs i Foundation is there on a planning trip. Our aim is to design and build a specialist transitional care centre in Kampala, Uganda to provide life saving care to abandoned babies.
See Day one of their trip here:
http://blog.childsifoundation.org/2009/04/15/uganda-planning-trip-day-1/
GOOD LUCK LUCY AND TEAM!!!!

Follow AFADU on Twitter!!!!!

http://twitter.com/AFADU

Experienced fundraiser to help AFADU develop a fund raising strategy.

Just want someone who is authentic with a positive outlook on life…with experience in fundriasing:
- Developing Strategy
- Developing fundraising proposals - for corporates and high net worth individuals.

Can be an advisory role or a role to actually develop the strategy and proposals.

www.afadu.com

Flexible on how we would work - will work around you.
Want someone who wants to give their time because they know they can make a difference.

this role is not paid.

Cheers

http://www.gumtree.com/london/82/37347582.html

There are just some people out there that are purely, modestly and consistently generous with their time and money when it comes to AFADU…. I could be describing all of our volunteers and supporters actually.

 Pammie admires Bernies fabrics

There’s one chap, though, that kind of stands out in my mind. He has opened up the doors to his fabric warehouse for as many years as I can remember. It’s Bernie from Caesar Textiles in Marrickville. Bernie, if you’re reading this, just know that we think you’re the BEST. At least once maybe twice a year we call up Bernie and say ‘Hey! How bout it? Anything to donate?’. Without a fuss he obliges. His only concern being that we’d be OK to come and pick up the stuff! Heck yeh, Bernie!

 So we head out to Marrickville making sure we have a truck ‘big enough’ as instructed by Bernie, and we collect…and not just metres here and metres there. I’m talking about rolls upon rolls upon rolls. When the Batsirani Sewing Group first kicked off in 2005, we went to Bernie and asked for some fabrics that the woman could use to make school uniforms.

 Since that he’s opened up his warehouse doors to us countless times. I just rang Bernie today to ‘hit him up’ for more fabrics and told him how well BSG is doing and, can he help! Genuinely interested and not in any way being fanatical about it, he’s says… ‘Sure. Id rather it go to good use that not.’ Then he says, ‘Actually, would they be interested in stuff like office furniture, filing cabinets etc?’. When I tell him that they are about to embark on building a factory and show room and that office furniture would come in handy, he modestly replies ‘well that’s great then!’….and we go on to have a chat about the state of the world and the financial crisis and its effect on trade….as if that fact that he has potentially decked out the office for the new BSG building and supplied a good chunk of fabric that would last at least 6months is not a big deal.  What financial crisis?? I’m keen to ask him!

 Modest in every way this man, I’m not actually quite sure he really knows how much of a difference he is making. Bernie, we think you’re tops!

 Thank you from the bottom of you hearts.