Fiona (SA) latest news

It's warm here today in Mwandi, a real difference compared to the past few weeks. A few weeks ago a wonderful gift arrived for the OVC project, Mission School and Mission Hospital and I am still overwhelmed by its contents. Many wonderful people around South Australia worked very hard to send us a 40ft container full of hundreds of books - new and secondhand, arts and crafts, sporting goods, stationery, tools, hospital beds, toys, plenty of clothes, blankets for the vulnerable of the village, and many other items. It has been a wonderful gift of love. I can see us sorting through boxes for the next few months trying to organise all the items that are in them and sorting through the books. There are books for the school and our OVC library. Bevan (a volunteer from SA) built another library shelf before he left so now we are able to fill it.
We have already started to hand out clothes to those children most in need in the village. The children were very happy to receive new clothes. We are also going to give the children in the feeding program an outfit, as most of them wear rags. We gave out 300 pieces last weekend and we are now reaching other villages outside of Mwandi as they are in need of support for their orphans.
There have been many visitors from all over the world working at the mission over the past few months and it's been wonderful the work they have done. It's been great for the children to see new faces to spend time with and meet. The love that has been shown to our feeding children has just been awesome. Thank you to all the visitors and volunteers who come to work here in Mwandi. I am just so glad that visitors are able to come to the Mission and work on the different projects that the United Church of Zambia has in place. There is always work to be done at the Mission Hospital, Mwandi UCZ OVC project, the Mwandi Mission School, and Mwandi Agricultural Project. It would be good to hear from anyone interested in coming to serve for short/long term placements in any of our projects here in Mwandi.
Dr Kaonga and Dr Nambao and their family have left Mwandi. They are sadly missed. We are now searching for doctors to come to Mwandi. We hope and pray that God sends a Doctor our way. I know the hospital is way understaffed and frustrated that we have no doctor.
Our feeding program is now feeding 120+ children, Monday to Saturday. They are all putting on weight and have so much energy these days. We are hoping that we are able to build a counselling room so that we can start to deal with the children's behavioural problems. We need to spend time talking with the children about grieving for thier parents and how they are feeling about being an orphan. It will be tough for the children, but very importnat.
In the last few weeks, we have started showering the children. What a treat for the children to be able to shower once per week with soap. Most of the children do not use soap as the guardians are not able to afford it. So each Saturday the children will come and shower at OVC and use soap. In the container we had many hygiene bags that many ladies from the Port Lincoln area made for our children. Each child has his/her bag that contains soap, toothpaste, toothbrush, nailbrush, face washer and towel. You should have seen their faces and heard the laughter. It was a very special moment. As the towels were drying on the line, the children would come outside from feeding and check if their towel was still there and drying. I was so happy for them.
For more information on the People in Mission program, contact Kathy Periera, kathyp@nat.uca.org.au, Ph 02 8267 4230