Fiona (SA) in Mwandi - reflection on 2006

The Feeding Program continues to grow and it amazes me to see where we are today.
Just over a year ago we started with only 20 children, now we are feeding 140 kids, Monday to Saturday. When volunteers read stories to the kids after they eat their meals, the older boys take on the responsibility and read to the rest of the children. The older boys are helping with teaching the younger ones correct manners and also helping with the bible studies on Saturday. This brings promise that in the future our men will take on the correct
fatherhood role.

The Health checks for the children are nearly complete and at this stage 20% of the children who have been tested are HIV/AIDS positive. The hospital is sourcing for free Anti retroviral syrups for the children. We may have to employ a Nurse to make sure that all the children on ARVs receive their medicine at the correct time each day. There are only a few children who still need to be tested.

Volunteers from the Mwandi community make a huge contribution towards all of our Programs we run at OVC project. The Mwandi community has really taken the Project into their hands and this is a great relief to me. People want to help their orphans, and understand that the children are the Village’s and Countries future, and we must cherish them.

As soon as I get back to Mwandi we are going to build a Counselling Centre for the Orphans. We really need to start helping the children with their inner feelings and help them to share the grief for the parents they have lost and how to deal with life after losing loved ones. We are going to select a female and male from the community to send to Lusaka for training. I am very excited about this Program and can certainly see a vast need for counselling with the children. We trust that we are able to support some of the Churches to send people to each Church headquarters to become Spiritual Counsellors. We pray that when this Program is up and running our Children will be able to deal with life situations more clearly and positively.

Pre-school had a great party to close up the year for the students. Quite a few children will move onto grade 1 and new registrations for 2007 were many. We look forward to Lyn (a volunteer from Australia who came to work on the year program) to return early Jan 2007 to arrive and help with the 2007 program for the pre-school.

During the school holidays there have been many activities running at the OVC Project. The Sesheke students have been helping run and supervise silent reading, soccer, volleyball, and playground for all the children in the village. Many children have enjoyed movie screenings and colouring in during these holidays. We try to encourage all the children from the village to come and spend time at the Drop in Centre having fun and just being kids.