|
|
|
Silveira House, just outside Harare in Zimbabwe, is a Catholic institution specializing in helping Zimbabweans acquire the practical skills they need to escape poverty. A long-term partner through the URC’s Commitment for Life programme, two. Silveira House staff recently visited some congregations in Britain to speak about their work during the current crisis. (Dec 02)
Dear Sisters and Brothers in the Lord,
1. We are deeply grateful to all of you for graciously hosting Janet Mkombwe and Chrispen Masenyama on their recent visit and for praying with us for peace, justice and forgiveness in Zimbabwe. I am very sorry I could not come and visit you this time. I look forward to meeting at least some of you when Zimbabwe has entered better times.
2. I also thank you for your wonderful generosity. Your donations totalled £2,169.99. The funds are being spent wholly in direct person-to-person aid to people in need – the hungry, the sick, the elderly and the orphans who knock at our door every day, or who live in the nearby Kamombe squatter camp. The people there come from Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia. Many worked on commercial farms and lost homes and livelihood when the land was taken over by others. Many are too old and too poor to return home. They are worse off than real refugees.
3. Inflation is running at 500 per cent now in Zimbabwe. Essential goods like maize meal [the staple food here], cooking oil, candles, tea, sugar and margarine have become luxuries ordinary people can no longer afford. As so often, it is the poor, unemployed, elderly, sick and disabled who suffer first and most. The people at Kamombe are made up of all of these and have to contend daily with hunger and AIDS, not to mention violence, crime, suicide and the many other social problems created by the abuse of alcohol and drugs.
Kamombe is part of our parish and so the people’s problems and difficulties are never far from our minds and hearts – nor from our doorstep. There is not a single day when the poor from there do not knock at our door, from sunrise and sometimes even after dark. Father John Dove, who was brought out of retirement at the age of 82, is always there and responding to these knocks with indefatigable charity, kindness and patience.
4. With your gifts we are able to help many families with the essentials of life – and even death. There is not a single family at Kamombe which is not caring for one or several relatives suffering from HIV/Aids. For the poor, even burials have become a luxury many families cannot afford. With your help, we can assist elderly parents to give sons and daughters a decent Christian burial, then look after their young grandchildren. Had it not been for your help, the parents might simply not have collected the bodies from the mortuary, and the dead would have been given paupers’ burials in unmarked mass graves outside the city.
If that sounds scandalous to European ears, it is unthinkable in traditional African culture where families go to extraordinary lengths (and expense) to ensure a splendid burial for relatives. That people are forced to abandon their dead shows just how abnormal life has become in Zimbabwe.
5. Beyond Kamombe, we assist children and adolescents with school fees, uniforms, food, medical expenses, bus fares and related necessities. Most of these young people have lost one or both parents to HIV/Aids and are surviving under the care of one of their fathers’ brothers, or their grandparents. The host families all have their own economic and social difficulties to cope with; thus, the anger and frustration resulting from these additional pressures are frequently vented on the step-children, many of whom then prefer the life on the streets to the constant quarrels and conflicts at home. To be able to support, even in a small way, a family who has taken in orphans from a deceased relative, often lessens these tensions and makes life bearable both for the orphans and the foster parents.
6. Last year’s drought and the political chaos caused by the violent invasions of commercial farms, have led to a famine of a magnitude and severity not seen before in Zimbabwe in living memory. A good part of the donations you have sent us are being spent simply on helping people who come to our door begging for food. For me, this brings back memories of my childhood in Berlin, when, in May 1945, we went begging for food from Russian soldiers. They were very kind and never sent us back with an empty dish. We try to do the same.
7. It must be added that this is only the early stage of the famine and that things will become much, much worse in the months to come as hidden stocks of maize are gradually eaten up. The situation is made worse by the fact that the ZANU PF Government continues to use food as a political weapon to punish those who voted for the opposition party in this year’s presidential elections, or who are merely suspected of having done so. Under these circumstances, the World Food Programme was forced to suspend their food distribution in southern Zimbabwe until the Government gives assurances that UN food distribution operations will not be interfered with. Fortunately, Fr John Dove has been able to continue his food programme at Kamombe and in the surrounding villages without any such interference. His operation is of course on a much smaller scale. He has been able to buy maize from a deacon at Mutemwa, Mutoko, about 200 km from here, and have it ground at Silveira House before his weekly distribution rounds. He also visits the sick and their families, prays with them, gives the dying the sacrament of the sick, and helps with the burials, where necessary. Once again, thank you all for your prayers and help.
Dieter B Scholz SJ is Director of Silveira House
You can contact Commitment for Life on 020 7916 8632
|
|
