Gua Africa, Emma Academy ~ Southern Sudan

Check back on this section,

it will be up-dated on a regular basis,
scroll down to last report.

12 July - Toilet blocks now complete with photos
Total Funds raised to date for Phase 1 of Emma Academy
20 July - Update with photos
28 July -Nearly there! Latest Total.

http://gua-africa.org/

http://www.facebook.com/daveinuk?ref=profile#!/guaafrica?ref=ts 

 

 Emmanuel Jal
Founder of GUA Africa, part of which is
The Emma Academy

Emmanuel Jal was born in Southern Sudan, and spent the early years of his childhood in the midst of its longrunning civil war. At the age of 7, after the death of his mother, he was recruited as a child soldier for the Rebel army (SPLA).

Amazingly, he survived front line action and eventually managed to escape with 300 other "lost boys", enduring a 3 month trek on foot without any supplies to reach safety. One of only a handful to survive the journey, Emmanuel was rescued by Emma McCune, a British Aid Worker, who smuggled him to freedom in Kenya and enrolled him in school for the first time.

Tragically, Emma died shortly afterwards in a car accident. Gradually, after so much sadness and trauma in his life Emmanuel began to find healing through the church and through music.

Some ten years later Emmanuel is now a world famous rap artist with a Number 1 record under his belt. He has performed at Live 8 in Cornwall, supported massive UK groups Faithless and Razorlight and his song Baai featured in the smash hit film Blood Diamond. "War Child", a documentary film telling Emmanuel's life story has recently premiered at the Berlin and Tribeca Film Festivals, and his album of the same name is also now on worldwide release.

On 27th June 2008 he performed at Hyde Park at the 90th birthday concert for Nelson Mandela.

Throughout all this, Emmanuel has worked tirelessly with the United Nations, Amnesty International and Oxfam to campaign against the employment of child soldiers and the illegal trade of arms.

His work with GUA Africa remains his overriding passion.

Our mission is to work with individuals, families and communities to help them overcome the effects of war and poverty. Each of our projects focus on providing an education to children and young adults who would otherwise be denied such opportunity. Currently our work is in Kenya and Sudan, however in the future we would like to expand into other areas of Sub-Saharan Africa - working with other experienced partner organisations where ever opportunities arise.

In April 2008 we were granted full UK charity status and later the same year we received our NGO registration in South Sudan.

GUA Africa has been granted 15 acres of land in Leer, West Upper Nile, by the government of South Sudan. Our goal is to build a high quality education centre for the whole community, which is to be called the Emma Academy, as a legacy to Emma McCune who lies in rest in Leer.

The twenty year long Sudanese civil war has meant that schooling in South Sudan today mostly consists of teaching under trees. Many former child soldiers have not found their way back into education, and traditionally only 1 in 5 girls are supported to finish High School.

Back in November 2008 GUA officials agreed with the local Leer community that the Emma Academy project should be split into two phases. The first phase will see the renovation of the existing Leer primary school, which is in desperate need of repair with only two out of four classrooms currently being fit for use. The budget for Phase 1 has been set at $250,000, which includes the construction of 5 extra classrooms.

Due to some fantastic fundraising efforts we have recently been able to replace the collapsed roof and erect a strong perimeter fence around the whole site - essential to keep out roaming livestock. While we continue to fundraise for the new classrooms, work will now continue on refurbishing and repainting the school, plus the construction of the first ever toilet blocks. Each of these improvements will make a massive difference to the welfare of the pupils attending the school.

During the recent trip made by GUA officials in April 2009 more detailed plans were also completed for Phase 2 of the Emma Academy.  This will see the development of a top quality educational academy built on the 15 acres of land given to GUA. The academy will include a secondary school – the first in the area - as well as vocational training, sports, and teacher training facilities. We hope to introduce soil stabilisation technology to the area, which will enable us to make strong, durable building blocks using the local soil and sand. As well as being environmentally friendly, this will also generate income and development opportunities for the community in the years to come.

Survivors of War

GUA Africa currently supports seventeen young people in Nairobi and Uganda who have all survived against unimaginable odds. Some were forced to fight as child soldiers in Southern Sudan, two survived the genocide in Rwanda which claimed the rest of their family, and all have trekked hundreds if not thousands of miles under desperate conditions to seek safety in the UN refugee camp at Kakuma, NW Kenya. Most of them are orphaned, and have no homes they can return to or extended family to support them.

 

GUA has linked each of them with an individual sponsor who pays their school fees, and all of them are studying hard to catch up on the years of education they missed. Because they have missed so much, they are often attending school with children much younger, but they have such a thirst for education that this does not deter them. They know that if they can finish their schooling they stand the best chance of either making a new life for themselves in Kenya or returning to their homeland with the skills to help rebuild their former communities. Several hope to proceed to university, if the financial support is still there. Paying for their education is only part of the story however, and GUA Africa needs your support to pay for their housing, food, clothing and other basic living expenses.

There is no welfare system or free medical care in Kenya, so they are totally dependent on GUA Africa to support them in every way, and if we fail to do so adequately all our and their efforts will have been in vain. With your donations we are able to rent a house for them in a safe part of Nairobi, from where they are able to travel to school, college or university. Our aim is to guide them into young adulthood not just through education but by helping them acquire the life skills needed to forge new relationships and find means of supporting themselves.

Kariobangi

Ever imagined living in a 6ft x 8ft home made of old metal, cardboard and mud, without a bed, electricity, water or a toilet? You have to go out to get water, and the nearest toilet is shared among around 100 people. You have to pay for both. Those who cannot afford toilet costs wait until dark to use the open sewer or open space. A tin filled with kerosene and a piece of cloth for a wick acts as a lamp at night.

This is the glaring reality for approximately 600,000 people living in Kariobangi and Mathare Valley, which is one of the largest slum areas in Nairobi with over 80% of its' population living below the Kenyan poverty line. In addition, it is estimated that one in every three adults in this region is HIV positive and because of the deprivation their life expectancy once diagnosed is less than 5 years.

It is here that a local Christian organisation named Mathare Community Outreach has established Kariobangi School and Orphanage, which 400 local children now attend. Many are orphaned and most have lost at least one parent to HIV/AIDS. The school was also caught in the midst of the post-election violence in January 2008, which caused many families to flee the area and others to take refuge within the compound.

Despite this, Kariobangi School is a thriving happy place staffed by an enthusiastic, dedicated team of teachers and carers. GUA Africa is proud to have entered into a partnership with the school in a bid to provide individual sponsors for up to 50 of its' children.

With the help of NGOs like the World Food Organisation it is helping fight malnutrition and promote health education, and provides a basic but loving home for those with no-one else to care for them.

12 JULY -  TOILET BLOCKS ARE FINISHED

BREAKING NEWS: The 3 toilet blocks at the Leer Primary School are now finished!! These are the first ever at the school, a big thank you goes out to everyone involved in the fundraising for them.

 

Photographs posted on Facebook on 12 July 2010

20 JULY - Various up-dates

Hi David,

The blog is great! Please feel free to announce when you have an update on there via our facebook page. Here is this months on the Emma Academy project for you:- 

As of this week the Leer Primary School has their first ever functioning public toilets available for use thanks to Gua Africa. The construction has taken longer than expected due to the recent Sudanese national and local elections but we are pleased to say that the three toilet blocks are now fully complete. An official handing over ceremony has taken place where our building contractors AMA handed over the keys to our Gua Sudan official John Mayiel, and then he handed the keys over to the school caretakers and management. 

As you can see from the photos the toilets are already blending into the back ground of the school, and according to John the children rushed up to him with joy and were celebrating with him when it was announced to them all that the toilets had been finished and were available for use.

Fundraising for the 5 classrooms has been progressing well in recent weeks, we now have only $18,106 / £11,900 left to raise. The end is starting to feel close now! In the past few weeks an important decision has been reached regarding the building of the classrooms, in response to changed circumstances on the ground in Leer. Another international NGO has offered to build additional classrooms in Government run schools, and as a result Leer Primary is to benefit from at least 3 additional classrooms. Meanwhile, the other primary school in Leer, named Mary John, has no permanent buildings at all and its' pupils are being taught under the trees (please see photos).  We already have a good relationship with Mary John as we constructed a bore hole for them during our last visit, so after lengthy consultations with the management of both schools, and the Local Education Director, we have decided that our five classroom block will now be located at Mary John.

We feel very confident that this is the right decision for the whole community, as it will maximise the effect the classrooms will have on the children of Leer. As we look in future to establishing the first independent Secondary school in Leer, it is important that we help develop each of the primary schools whose pupils will feed through to us. This decision is hot off the press; we will be updating all our press, website, facebook, over the next few days.  

If you or any of your members have any questions about this decision please feel free to ask and we will be happy to answer them for you. I have attached some photos of the Mary John school, which is right in the heart of Leer town, so your members can get a feel for the standard of the facilities there. 

Many thanks for your continued support,

--
Kate Gumm
Gua Africa

Emmanuel Jal giving a talk at Mary John

Assembly time

Carrying their chairs to class

 Blackboard rests up against a tree

 Crowded classes

 No walls between classes

20 JULY - Financial News!

GUA Africa BIG NEWS!! The fundraising total for Phase 1 of the Emma Academy Project is now at $201,894!! We have broken the $200k mark :-) Emmanuel Jal is close to eating properly again, thank you for all your support along the way.

  

Rose of Sharon ~ Zimbabwe

Check back on this section,

it will be up-dated on a regular basis

After the overview of Rose of Sharon's
Aims and Objects you will find information
of Educating Others involvement in contributing
to the work of this Welfare Organisation

We sponsor Emily Kennedy and  Richman Mhlanda
by paying their school fees 

 Mrs. Fatima Maruta
President and Founder
of
Rose of Sharon Welfare Organisation
Ruwa, Zimbabwe
 

 EDUCATION

Born in Buhera District of Masvingo Province, Zimbabwe, as first born in a family of ten, Mrs Maruta did her early learning at Silveira Mission and later at Mukaro Mission and Mashoko for her secondary education. After obtaining several accounting qualifications, she went on to attain a Bachelors Degree in Accountancy from the University of Zimbabwe and a Masters Degree in Business Administration from Bloomsburg University, Pennsylvania, USA. She is married to prominent journalist and broadcaster, Anani Maruta, her husband of 27 years.

CAREER HISTORY

Mrs Maruta held several accounting posts in public and private institutions before joining the University of Zimbabwe where she lectured for six years and also chaired the Department of Accountancy. She then joined the UNAIDS as Projects Accountant for HIV/AIDS Programmes. Her job was to mobilise resources, set up systems for disbursal of resources, monitor the use of resources and submit quarterly reports to UNAIDS. She has published six books. These can be accessed on the UNAIDS website. She obtained a clean Audit Report for two successive years. She then left the organisation 2005 to form the Rose of Sharon Welfare Organisation.

 The following overview taken from one of the organistations brochures, gives a full description of the Aims and Objects of the Rose of Sharon Welfare Organistation

OVERVIEW

The social and economic condition in Zimbabwe remains dire. The unrelenting and long-running political, social and economic crisis that has persisted over the past decade continues to impact negatively on the most vulnerable groups in society, not least the orphaned and abandoned children, whom we, as Rose of Sharon Welfare Organisation, have purposed to provide shelter, education and care.

There are no positive indicators yet of any well-meaning and serious action towards the resolution of the crisis, manifest in high levels of hyper-inflation — unprecedented in world economic history. This has resulted in rapid contraction of the economy, massive unemployment, widespread food shortages and hunger, the spread of HIV and AIDS and collapse of the health delivery system against widespread social dislocation and stress.

Children are the most affected, more so the social cohort that we seek to protect, i.e. abandoned and orphaned children. Whereas we, as a faith-based organisation, carry the message of hope, the general despair and lethargy characterising the social condition in Zimbabwe is all too pervasive and indicative of paralysis. As earlier mentioned, positive change is not anticipated in the short run. Even then, repairing the damage will take considerable time.

The implications for us at Rose of Sharon are such that we have had to devise creative and inspired new ways and means to survive the social and economic rigours. An example, is how we have responded to the food shortages in Zimbabwe where we have had to supplement our requirements with imported food, mainly from South Africa, and paid for in scarce foreign currency.

Responses to some aspects of our operations, however, remain challenging and vexatious. We have faced loss of skilled and unskilled staff due to the exodus to neighbouring countries, mainly South Africa and Botswana, despite our serious attempts to pay competitive salaries and wages. The only way to retain staff is to denominate salaries in convertible foreign currency to provide a cushion to the hyper-inflationary environment.

ABOUT US

Rose of Sharon Welfare Organisation is a registered private voluntary organisation (PVO) that provides shelter, food, education and health care, social amenities and recreation to needy orphans. The children are taken from all walks of life. These are children who are abandoned and dumped in the streets or orphaned, with no extended family to provide care, and those from child-headed families. They are brought to Rose of Sharon by police, social welfare officers and community leaders, at ages ranging from a day old to 21. Currently, the organisation is providing care to 100 children. Sixteen care-givers look after them. Some of the children are HIV positive. All children of school-going age are attending primary, secondary school or college. Toddlers attend a homebased nursery, under the care of an Early Education Officer.
 

OUR MISSION

Is to mission is to facilitate the total transformation of children’s lives, both blind and sighted, who were living under severe, stressful and extremely difficult circumstances and to help them realise their full potential in life.
 

OUR VALUES

Ours approach is holistic. The lives of children are transformed through the provision of:

(i) Accommodation — Decent accommodation, in the form of a house — consisting of a kitchen, dining room, living room, bedrooms and two bathrooms is provided for in each family unit. The organisation has engaged the services of qualified staff comprising a manager, a nutritionist, two housekeepers/child minders and a safety officer, for each family unit.

(ii) Food and Nutrition — The diet for the children comprises organic foods, namely, sugar beans, dried fish, rice, vegetables, soyas and meat. Each day of  the week has a different menu provided to the children to ensure a balanced and yet affordable diet.

(iii) Clothing — Clothing is mostly from well-wishers who donate clothes to the children at the organisation from time to time.

(iv) Health Care — Is provided in the form of regular visits to doctors, treatment and care at local medical centres.

(v) Education — Education is mandatory for all the children at Rose of Sharon. An educationist is engaged in each family unit to help the children develop their academic, sporting and creative abilities.

(vi) Counselling — We believe that genuine transformation begins from within, hence our focus is on the renewal of the children’s negative mindsets caused by traumas suffered because of the loss of loved ones or abandonment by parents or guardians. Before coming to Rose of Sharon, most of the children will have suffered verbal and physical abuse, resulting in emotional distress, hopelessness and despair. The organisation aims to restore these children’s lives to God’s original purpose through the application of biblical principles which focus on the renewing of the mind. A grounding in biblical truths is, therefore, an essential element of the process of rehabilitation, growth and development. Once they have a sense of self-worth, esteem and good self-image, coupled with education, they can then contribute positively to society when they leave the Rose of Sharon family housing units.
 

WHAT WE DO

❖ Intensified support is being provided to children who are infected and affected with HIV/AIDS through access to treatment provided by local health clinics.

❖ Rose of Sharon has developed four family housing units for the support and care of children. We endeavour to develop the total person and also to increase levels of self-sufficiency through the establishment of viable horticulture, soap-making and garment-making projects. These projects are meant to support the lives of children and to help the organisation to augment financial resources. The family housing units are broken down as follows:
 

a) MOUNT ZION

Mount Zion is located at 13 Dallas Road, Marlborough in  Harare. This unit caters for 16 babies who are either abandoned in the streets, orphaned or in need of care. They are brought in at ages ranging from one-day old to just below five years old. This family unit comprises a home-based nursery school, where toddlers are in the care of an Early Education Officer and child minders, a living room, bedrooms, a kitchen and 11/2 bathrooms for children’s use and separate quarters for child minders.
 

b) SHILOH

Shiloh is located at 2273 Rogers Mangena Avenue, in Ruwa. This home caters for 20 pre-teens who are attending primary school (key stage 2). Their ages range from five to 11 years.

c) BETHEL

Is located at 6833 Zimre Park in Ruwa, Harare. This unit caters for 15 teens who are attending secondary school (key stage 3). Their ages ranges from 11 to 16 years of age. In addition to the above, the organisation looks after 40 children outside the homes whose mothers are poor widows infected with HIV/AIDS. We assist with the rentals, food schools fees and uniforms, etc. for these families.
 

OUR VISION

❖ To build a “ Moses Basket” which will give an opportunity to mothers to give up unwanted babies to discourage the evil practice of leaving children to die after dumping them in the streets or such places as dumps, etc. The organisation intends to also build 10 family housing units, a nursery and an administrative block. These units will be used to accommodate and care for children who are orphaned, abandoned or in any way deserve the organisation’s care and support.

❖ To build a technical school on additional land near the housing units. The goal is to offer life skills to the children. These skills will range from artisan skills, e.g. carpentry, garment-making, to an eresource centre which will be used as a springboard for children and community learning.

ROSE OF SHARON SENIOR SCHOOL

The Rose of Sharon Senior School is a multi-cultural school based at 6884 Madecheche Road in Zimre Park, Harare, Zimbabwe. The school caters for pupils aged between 12 and 18 years of age and strives to develop the potential of the pupils in as many ways as we can. Our holistic approach includes academic, sporting, musical, basic counselling and cultural education with pastoral care. Our other objective is to open a life skills centre that is going to offer skills to orphans which are crucial for their survival.

The school prides itself in developing pupils who are fully equipped to succeed in a competitive world. Our Form Four pupils sit 8 to 9 IGCSE levels with a choice of 10 subjects. The school offers A Levels in the Sixth form. The school is pro-active in piloting new subjects, introducing diplomas and participates in teacher refresher courses. The Rose of Sharon School provides a learning environment that motivates pupils to achieve their full academic and leadership potential, encouraging them to think creatively, critically and independently.

ROSE OF SHARON RURAL SCHOOLS OUTREACH

Rose of Sharon has come up with a brand new intervention entitled “Rural Schools Outreach” to orphaned and vulnerable children (OVCs). With this programme, we seek to assist OVCs learning under extremely difficult circumstances. This initiative came into being because of the number of calls we receive on a daily basis on OVCs who are looking for assistance, the increasing numbers of OVCs countrywide and the realisation that no one organisation has the capacity to respond single-handedly. We, therefore, decided to make a difference and impact positively on the lives of these unfortunate children through service provision which include:.
❖ Life skills;
❖ School fees;
❖ Food, clothing an d health services;
❖ Assisting in obtaining the much-needed birth certificates;
❖ Promoting a healthy family environment and protect children from abuse; and
❖ Sharing the “Good News”

THE FOLLOWING STUDENTS AT
ROSE OF SHARON SENIOR SCHOOL ARE BEING

SPONSORED BY EDUCATING OTHERS

We are paying the substantial part of their

school fees which are US$300 a term

Emily Kennedy

Emily was born at Chirinda Hospital in Chipinge. Her mother abandoned her when she was two years old. Her grandmother, who took care of her, was destitute and this forced the young Emily and her siblings to scrounge for food at a nearby Chirinda Boarding School. The then Chaplain of the school realised their plight and referred them to Rose of Sharon Welfare Organization, who then took her in, along with her two siblings, and has sponsored their education since 2006. She is academically gifted with a lot of strength in the Sciences and is currently doing her “O” Level secondary education at Rose of Sharon School. Her ambition is to become a nurse with the intention of pursuing her studies in England.

ACHIEVEMENTS

1) Secretary for Child Protection Society.
2) Represented Children’s Rights for the orphaned and vulnerable children at district level. 
3) She is also Editor of TRANSFORMER, the termly Newsletter for the school.

 Richman Mhlanda

Richman was born on 15 October 1991. Both his parents are late and there is no one to support him together with his siblings, Jefrey, Midwin and Godknows. They were all rescued and admitted into the orphanage.

"Letter from America" by Kuda

When David asked me to write this letter, I was most humbled. I was excited right until the moment I sat down to write. Then my countenance went dim. My countenance lit up, however, when the image of my grandmother struck my mind. How, widowed as she was in the rural Zimbabwean village of Murehwa, she understood the value of education, mustered whatever strength and meagre resources she had, to ensure that not one, but all of her children got a decent education.

I was born in Harare, Zimbabwe to two parents whose lives were remarkably touched by the power of education – a gift they received from their    parents. At the time of my birth father worked for a non-alcoholic beverage company and my mother was a primary school teacher. An education gave my parents an advantage in a world that is becoming increasingly competitive.

I thought perhaps the reason that David approached me to write this letter was because my mother and father passed on before I finished my formal education, but against the odds, I made it through the difficult and trying times in Zimbabwe. Before I left Zimbabwe to begin my studies towards a PhD in Biology in the USA, the whole family gathered to bid me farewell and give me their blessings. My biggest hero at that farewell lunch was…my Grandmother of course. I must also add that I am grateful to my parents as well as their parents, for when you give the gift of knowledge to one, you give it not to one but, to generations and generations to come.  One of the greatest gifts one could ever give to a child is an education, for unlike material things, its effects permeate from one generation to the next.

Not every child has been privileged to have parents to support them through school. This is the case in Zimbabwe largely due to the scourge of HIV / AIDS.  So many children lose their parents at an early age, before they complete primary school. If one were to cast a coin in the streets of Zimbabwe, chances are that it will fall on someone who has lost a loved one to that disease. The hardships for the orphans are further compounded by the dire state of Zimbabwe’s economy. In such a situation it is even more difficult for children to obtain school fees. Hope is lost.

I recall the days when David and Brenda joined Phithizela in the cause of Educating Others - the excitement in their words. I believe their greatest joy (as is mine) is to see the brilliant minds of so many children getting an opportunity to reach the fullness of their potential. To educate a child is to expand a child’s horizons. Every child dreams, but a child can only dream as far as his or her horizons permit. I shudder at the thought of how drastically different my life would have been had my grandmother and parents not passed to me the gift of education - I would I have never imagined myself in a laboratory trying to understand better the workings of the cell.  An education is undoubtedly one of the most important tools for life.

Though any contribution I make to this cause may be like a drop in an ocean, I am not discouraged. I gain some strength from a short modern Zimbabwean proverb which says “Padiki padiki saga reshuga rakapera netii spoon”. This translates to: “Little by little the sack of sugar was emptied by a teaspoon”. No single individual can end the problems of the world, but when I take my small   teaspoon and shovel out what little I can daily, weekly or monthly or yearly I can make my small big difference.
 

Another of Kuda’s “Letters from America” will
appear in a future issue of our Newsletter and on our blog.

"Six Months on : Realising Our Dream" by Phithi

In December 2009, we started our ‘small’ charity, Educating Others. Our aim was to   assist others who may benefit from our small contribution to enable them to attain a basic education. Our belief is that education liberates a person from perpetual dependence and gives them a meaning in life. Six months on, we are realising our dream by supporting two charities in Africa: ‘GUA Africa’ in Sudan and ‘Rose of Sharon’ in Zimbabwe. It has been  indeed an exciting,  challenging and fulfilling experience.

Of course we could not have made it this far without the support of you our donors, friends and readers who have stood with us and read our newsletter. We are ever grateful to you for your support and encouragement and we eagerly look forward to your input and feedback. Although our aim was to inform you through our newsletter,  an interesting dimension has also emerged: allowing people to re-live their yesteryears. Our last edition had a story from Cyril Rogers who lived and worked in the then Nyasaland (Malawi), Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) and Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). Next month, Heather Taylor who lived in Ruwa, near to where ‘Rose of Sharon’ is located, is also sharing with us her days in Zimbabwe. We find this interesting as we get to hear about their yesteryears and experiences in Africa. We realise that our small newsletter is becoming a ‘reliving the memories’ platform and we are proud of that.

Although Educating Others is a group project, I would like to take this opportunity to thank David Yates, the young-old man with the strength of a teenager. He co-ordinates our accounts, edits, designs and distributes our newsletter (every month) and donates £5 from every sale of his book, China ~ “A Traveller’s Diary”. Dave (as he is affectionately known) has put his heart, strength and mind to this great work, of course supported by my beautiful and ever smiling 'sister' Brenda. When I am advanced of years (200 years from now) and writing my life’s story, I will always remember these wonderful mentors, parents and ‘siblings’ for their support and love.  Dave is a dad to me and Kuda, while Brenda is a sister to me, so at times I’m not sure whether to call them ‘parents’ or ‘siblings’!

Lastly, a special thank you to the communities of Rolleston on Dove and Burton upon Trent who are our main donors. We are ever grateful to them for supporting us through donations every month. We pray that God may bless them and give them more years on earth so that they may continue to be a blessing to us and help us to ‘educate others’.

Message from the editor:

I would like to thank Phithi for his kind words and at the same time explain to our readers, who may be scratching their heads a bit, why he calls Brenda his sister. When Phithi visited us in May 2009, we found out that one of his sisters in Zimbabwe was called Brenda. This in itself is not remarkable, but we then found out that they shared the same birthday date in November!

"Memories of Rhodesia" by Heather Taylor

In the latest issue of our Newsletter, we have an article, ‘Memories of Rhodesia’, by Heather Taylor. Heather lives in the same village in Staffordshire as David and Brenda and she met Phithi when he came to stay with the Yates Family over the Christmas period in 2009. We hope that more people with ‘African’ connections (especially Zimbabwe and  Sudan), will contribute articles to our blog and also for future issues of our Newsletter. These contributions can throw a completely different and personal light on our understanding of Africa. Articles by people with first hand knowledge of the historical, cultural, educational and social aspects of life, in that vast continent - both past and present - will be most welcome.

  Epworth Main Road

I was born in 1946 in Salisbury, Rhodesia, now called Zimbabwe. My parents lived on a farm they called ‘Bellapaise’ in memory of an abbey in Northern Cyprus, where they met. My father had gone out to the country originally in about 1936, having been told that it was a very healthy climate, and the prospects for tobacco farmers were excellent. My mother joined him in 1939 with her parents who lived in a cottage behind our house. He worked as a manager on tobacco farms first of all, and then bought ‘Bellapaise’, which is only about 12 miles out of Salisbury, now called Harare.

 Jean and Heather sitting in the tobacco field

The farm consisted of 250 acres which wasn’t big enough for tobacco, so he changed to dairy and poultry. Tobacco is a very greedy crop, and land where it has grown has to be left fallow for several years after planting, so a very large acreage is needed.
 
‘Bellapaise’ was on the Lomagundi Road (now Chisemba) leading to Ruwa where the Rose of Sharon orphanage is, I believe. The road was what we called a dirt road, not tarred, so in time it became very corrugated and had to be graded regularly. Before ‘Bellapaise’ you passed the Epworth Mission, a very large area of land owned by the Methodists and the site in the corner was the Theological College. During the 50s and 60s the Mission was run by Fred and Kathleen Rea, a remarkable and very committed Christian couple from Northern Ireland, who also ran the College. In the 9 years they were there they completed a large building programme which produced the College it finally became:- “The first to be built was the classroom block, followed by the Chapel, dining hall and library, the hollow square of about 20 rooms for single men, two small guest cottages and a number of staff and student houses.” – Taken from the book, ‘The Best is Yet to Be’ written by Kathleen Rea.(a) They dedicated their lives to training and educating young people in Rhodesia and subsequently Zimbabwe.

 

Balancing Rocks

On the road to the farm you passed the famous ‘balancing rocks’, which are an arrangement of granite rocks balanced precariously on top of each other. There was granite everywhere and those piled up rocks were a playground for my sister and me. We used to ride over there on our horses and endlessly look for Bushmen paintings. These people had lived in the area of Southern Africa about 2000 years earlier and recorded scenes of their daily lives by painting on the rocks with vegetable dyes.

When my parents bought the farm the house consisted of two brick cottages I believe, which were then joined by the ‘middle veranda’  and there was another ‘front veranda’ looking onto the garden. The roofs over the bedrooms were thatched and the roof over the middle veranda and kitchen area was made of corrugated iron – a cheap material in those days. We had a ping-pong table in the middle veranda; also a darts board and we used to love roller-skating when we weren’t riding. Farming was touch for my Dad; he could never leave the dairy and poultry, so we had very few holidays. He had to get up at 6am every morning to supervise the milking. I remember watching the farm labourers who did the milking, they were very good and made the milk sizzle into the galvanized iron pans! I used to try but was pretty useless! The head milker was called ‘Simbi’ so named because he had to come to the house and beat an iron plough disc hanging by a rope from the Jacaranda tree near the house,  to wake up the milkers, who had to get the cows into the dairy first. I believe ‘simbi’ means iron in Shona.

Jean and Heather with 'Jess' ~ Christmas 1950

When we were small, my sister Jean and I had a wonderful nanny called Lydia who came from the Mission aged 18 to ask my mother if she needed any help. She looked after us until we went to school. When my sister subsequently returned to the farm with her husband in 1967, Lydia reappeared to look after Jean’s two young children.

Jean, Heather and Suzette with 'Tinker Bell', the duiker

We had a wonderful childhood. I was a tomboy and my memories are of climbing trees, sitting for hours in the ‘tree house’ and watching the chameleon. A fascinating reptile like a large lizard who could swivel his eyes round his head and change his colour according to the background he was on in order to camouflage himself. Animals filled our lives; my father was a great naturalist and bird lover, so he was forever bringing home injured birds and animals. I have memories of various owls, and a young duiker (small antelope) we called Tinker Bell who stayed with us for along time. We made friends with the cows who all had names and we watched them giving birth. We were sometimes asked ‘to collect eggs’ from the laying birds, and you knew which hen would peck when you darted your hand under the nest! Then there were snakes! We had black mambas (very poisonous), hooded cobras and pythons on the farm. My closest encounter with a cobra was when it came into the bathroom and coiled itself around the tap. Its head was in strike position and my father beat it hard with a sjambok (a whip made of cow’s hide) to kill it.

We had to go to boarding school (government schools for farmers’ children) from the age of 7, so from then on we only came home in the holidays. That is another story!

The black and white photos record our time on ‘Bellapaise’ described earlier. The coloured pictures show scenes of holidays when Paul and I and young Clare went back between 1982 and 1995. I have lots more of these photos!

Faithful Nanny Lydia who came back to see us when we visited Zimbabwe with daughter Clare, aged 3 months, in April/May 1982

 Heather, Jean, baby Clare, Sheila and Nanny Lydia in April/May 1982

  Ruin of Great Zimbabwe in April/May 1982

View from the ruins of Great Zimbabwe

Trout Farm at Nyanga in the Eastern Highlands - September 1995

Guest at the Ilala Lodge Hotel, Victoria Falls, being prepared for white water rafting on the Zambesi - September 1995

The Garden at Ilala Lodge Hotel in September 1995

Harare Airport - September 1995

Thoughts on Central Africa by Cyril Rogers

This article was printing in the April issue of our Newsletter. Cyril Rogers is now on the panel of organists together with David Yates at St. Johns Church, Horninglow, Burton on Trent. Cyril is also acting choirmaster.

“Regarding my time in Africa I went to Zambia in 1959 to work for a firm of accountants. In 1969 we moved to Zimbabwe because of health problems with one of our daughters. For most of my time there I worked for a building and civil engineering contracting company. Two of our contracts might ring a bell with Phithi and Kuda, namely the Parirenyatwa Hospital, Harare and Heroes Acre. We returned to UK in 2003”

1.    Much has changed in the three Central African nations of Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe since they were part of a political federation 50 years ago. However many things, common to all three, have not changed. It may be interesting to think of a few.

2.     The sun goes down quickly by 7pm in summer and 6pm in winter. As it goes down many people enjoy a drink, usually referred to as a ' sundowner'. There is an annual rainy period and there can be great suffering in years of drought. Just immediately before the rains begin people can smell their imminent arrival and often dance in the rain as it starts to fall on them.

3.    Many people can speak two languages - their tribal tongue and English. Often you will hear two people of different tribes conversing in English. This is particularly so in Zambia where there are many tribes and it is so much easier to understand each other in English.Sometimes there can be a little over-use of the English idiom i.e. A senior cattle herdsman lost one of his cows and explained "I searched for 3 days and eventually came across the poor cow ~ looking like a lost sheep".

4.    In some places the practice of polygamy still survives. I recall one man who often looked worried and occasionally arrived at work looking as though he had been in a fight. On one occasion he admitted that he had had a row with his 3 wives who together beat him up. A universal practice is the 'lobola,' the bride-price payable to the bride's father. In earlier days this could be settled by means of cattle. These days it is more mercenary and the bride's value is often based on her educational attainments in 'O' levels, 'A' Levels and university degrees, etc.

5.    African country borders, on maps, sometimes bear no relationship to the areas inhabited by the bordering tribes. Often, in colonial times, maps were drawn with straight lines  between the countries. These resulted in some tribes being split between 2 bordering countries. Of course the tribes-people would ignore such borders.

6.    Occasionally roads between countries will be straight but will ignore a meandering border. The road from Zambia to Malawi did this with the result that it ran for a few miles through Mozambique.  Somebody established a Portuguese Pub there and it was not uncommon to drive 50 miles to reach it, just to drink Portuguese wine. If you wanted a meal as well, you needed to wait a couple of hours while they killed and cooked a chicken. On the same road the Roman Catholics built a seminary, one half in Malawi and the other half in Zambia. It was possible to drive straight through - always a headache for the border control officers.

7.    A lovely custom of African weddings is to bring a highly decorated wedding cake into the church. The priest would bless it and distribute pieces to the guests during the service. A lady who makes these cakes explained to me that it took the place of the old tribal custom whereby the bride to be had first to cook a meal for her intended husband in order to prove her cooking abilities. Another delightful wedding custom involves 4 or 5 ushers in smart colourful suits and gloves to match, who carry out a drum-accompanied dance, followed by the bridesmaids down the aisle, ahead of the bride.

8.    There are a large variety of insects in these countries and many are edible. Flying ants in particular are a delicacy. At one time there was a cookery book on sale in Malawi which devoted a whole section to the cooking of insects. This should not shock people any more than the fact that French people like to eat frogs' legs!

9.    Just as there are different tribal languages there are also different tribal customs. But many of these begin to be forgotten as more people are born in cities and towns and lose touch with their ancestors' tribal areas.

The photographs used are ones taken by Cyril during his time in Africa.

(1) Air Malawi Dakota (1964)  (2) Chipata Airport, Zambia (1964)  

(3) Great Zimbabwe (1970)  (4) Typical Ox-wagon (1964)  (5) Village in Zimbabwe  

(6) Joyce Rogers  holding twins she had delivered  (7) Joyce with young hospital patients

 
 

Fund Raising Event - 28 August