The June Newsletter is now available. Words of farewell from Astonishment Mapurisa, an update from Shelley Cooling and an opportunity to hear a little more about the MRCH Secondary school and staff.
Chairman’s report for 2011
The Chairman’s report covering 2011 is now available. An excellent year with good progress made with the Early Childhood Development Centre.
The clinic has been expanded and it now has five rooms. The facility will be government inspected later this year and the nurse in charge hopes this will lead to an increase in the amount of free drugs made available to them.
March Newsletter (2012)
March 2012 Newsletter 2011 was our best year ever in fundraising terms – £79,000. A big thank you to all who helped in any way to raise this sum. There is also an excerpt from the ‘Meet the staff’ document about the House Mothers.
MRCH report from the Home for 2011
The Home’s report for 2011 is now available:
- A number of case studies describe the significant steps forward being made in the Community Outreach programme.
- The poultry project is up and running with 1000 birds. It not only supplies the Home but is also being run as a fundraising project serving the community.
- Effective self help projects are emerging in different communities where MRCH outreach projects are running. Currently MRCH are concentrating their efforts in consolidating programming in four main regions in the country, namely Mashonaland, Masvingo, Midlands and Matebeleland.
“The success stories in 2011 could have not been made without the contribution of our partners. They played a pivotal role to make the lives of children more comfortable.” Astonishment Mapurisa
Meet the MRCH staff
Carol Banham, our Chairman, visited the Home in September 2011 and conducted detailed interviews with many of the staff members. She has produced an illustrated report of those conversations, which illustrate the many roles the staff undertake as well as highlighting issues concerning the staff and where they feel help is most needed.
Excerpt…
8 House Mothers
Mercy, Lillian, Faith, Fungai, Mildred, Alice, Nancy and Sylvia. These warm hearted ladies lovingly care for the children in the house units. Each of them has a family of their own, mostly grown up now, who they leave with other family members for 30 days at a time while they’re at MRCH then they have 10 days break to go home. All of them have very obvious pride in their homes at MRCH.
Mildred cares for 6 babies, all under three. Amelia is the youngest at 3 months old. I said it must be a lot of work looking after so many small children and she said “it’s not hard when you love little ones”
The other mothers each care for 11 –12 children ranging from 2 to 16. Once they reach 16 they move to live in the independence units where they look after themselves with help and support available from the house mothers when needed.
Shelley’s newsletter (Jan 2012)
Shelley’s reports on how she spent Christmas at the Home.
‘Our deepest feelings’ by Onius
When we lose a loved one our world just falls apart. We think that we can’t carry on with this broken heart.
Everything is different now, you’re upset and you’re annoyed. Your world it seems is shattered there’s such an awful void.
There’s got to be a reason and we have to understand, that love is a very special treasure. One should understand when in love there might not be a warning. We won’t know where or when to break up, the only thing I’m certain of is that one day you’ll be together again.
OUR DEEPEST FEELINGS SHALL FOREVER STAY
Shelley’s newsletter (Dec 2011)
Shelley reports on some of the lead up to Christmas.
December Newsletter (2011)
December 2011 newsletter – Gainsborough Methodist Church raise over £4,000 for the Home. Thank you! Carol and Don Banham report back from their visit to the Home in September.
Shelley’s newsletter (Nov 2011)
Shelley’s third newsletter talks about the Early Childhood Development Centre (ECD) and describes her plans and some of the changes they have already been able to make since her arrival.