OCTOBER UPDATES 2015.
CELEBRATING 51 YEARS OF ZAMBIA’S INDEPENDENCE !!!!
EDUCATION
Our four determined children; Francis, Eustis, Peter and Gertrude who have been preparing for their grade seven exams have finally wrote exams which was from 12 to 16 October. They will be enjoying their three months holiday waiting for results which will be ready by mid December 2015. We thank you all our friends and Partners who have been praying with us concerning the four Children, they successfully wrote their exams all in good mental state and health. We are only hoping for nothing but the best results from at the end of this year. After their exams, Mr. and Mrs. Phiri had a day outing with them as a way of encouraging them to keep on working hard and to relax especially after such a busy year of preparing for their final exams. Besides, other children have continued attending school knowing this is their last term and last grade. Next year they are all going to the next grade and possibly changing school.
SUPPORT
Many thanks to Tandeka for their continued support to Kwathu Children`s Home. Through their support we were able to travel to Namibia for our quarterly Shopping for the Children`s needed upkeep. Due to the high exchange rate of the American Dollar, the cost of living in Zambia and Livingstone in particular has gone high with local food prices doubled. Currently, most Zambians are complaining and frustrated of the high commodity prices. This situation has pushed the Zambian president to call for a national prayer and fasting day. For this reason, we have been buying groceries across the borders in Namibia a sure cost effective solution but it takes the whole day to shop in Namibia. We only pray and hope this situation will stabilize soon.
We are so grateful to Dawn and her husband David for their blessing to the home during their one week visit to Kwathu. Their support helped us put up a concrete floor on the front yard of the main house which was completed this month by our local builders. This is great as it is now so convenient for the smaller Children to ride their bobby cars and do other outdoor games. We were also able to buy dining chairs so that the children can continue eating together in a lovely dining room.
Zambezi Nkuku farm is about 18km away from Livingstone town center, they mainly deal in poultry farming, grow fruit and gardening. They pledged to be blessing Kwathu Children`s Home on a monthly basis with various chicken potions weighing to about 20 kgs. We are so grateful as this will go a long way in helping us feed the Children. Especially with this high prices of most food items on the market which includes Chicken, this is a true blessing. Many thanks to both the local and international community for their support in caring for our Children. May the good Lord bless you!
SOCIAL
Our loving Children with the help of our dedicated house mothers have been busy drawing, coloring and writing out Christmas cards to our friends and Partners. Christmas is always a time of giving, caring and appreciating one another as we remember the Birth of Jesus Christ. This is a wonderful time for the Children as it gives them an opportunity to appreciate the people who are always and been so faithful to help them through the years. It`s so cute to see smaller Children doing their coloring with passion and gratitude.
VOLUNTEERS
During this month we received about seven Volunteers short term and others on a long term basis. Emil, Sophie and Josephine are all from Sweden and will be working with Kwathu for a couple of months and will only work twice in every week. Emil is a short term volunteer and will be working with Kwathu for about three months, during his three months’ time at Kwathu he will mainly focus on bible study and Christian youth games as he is in a bible school back home. This will be a great thing for him to do with the Children as it allows him to engage with them on a spiritual level.
Josephine is on a long term basis, she has a passion for music and knows some basic skills on playing a keyboard. She will mainly train and teach basic piano/keyboard skills to our Children one child at a time. Sophie who is also on a long term basis will mainly focus on different Children`s games and spend some good time helping out one of the older Children improve his reading skills. In addition, we have four Germany volunteers who have been coming every Friday to our facility and are more involved with sports activities with the Children. This is perfect timing to be with the Children as it is always half day for them on Fridays and the Children are really enjoying this venture. We are thankful to all our volunteers for making time out of your busy schedule to come and give your time to our Children.
WELFARE
18 October which was a week before Zambia celebrated it`s 51 Years of independence, was a very special day for every well meaningful Zambian. It was a day of prayer and fasting. This followed after President Lungu declared, October 18, 2015 a day of repentance, fasting and prayer in response to the overwhelming requests that ordinary citizens and clergy from all denomination had made. On this day most bars, pubs and public places, including restaurants and fast –food outlets, closed in a spirit to enable members of the public to dedicate their time in passionate prayer and fasting. In addition others gathered in one open place while others were praying from their different congregations.
Further on, like every other Zambian, our Children joined and took part in the Zambian Independence celebration. Our Children had a joined Independence celebration at the school prior to the main event on 23 October. 
The Children were all dressed in their colorful Zambian colors and the celebration was characterized of different performances from the Children such as traditional dancing, singing and many more fun activities. On the actual Independence day, on the 24 of October some Children had an opportunity to attend the main official event at the Livingstone Villa grounds.
LAND UPDATE
1 October the builders arrived and started works on the administration block and there is great progress so far. They have been building with interlocking Hydraform blocks which are different from conventional blocks. Windows and door frames have been fitted with a front wooden door frame. This building will help Kwathu settle as we will be able to have a place to run the home. All administration works will be handled in this building and it will house 2 offices, 1 meeting area, reception, 2 toilets, a small tea room and a store room.
We are grateful and thankful to God for Horizon Church, Natalie and Grace Klein Community for your effort in fundraising for this office building. It is surely God given and see how much we have covered because of your kindness through Christ. Our confidence is in knowing that ‘he who started this work in us will surely accomplish it’.
Please continue praying with us on these requests
- Pray with us for financial resources to help us accomplish our next goals of the project, which is building our administration block.
- Continue praying for courage, faith, wisdom and mostly love that we can accomplish the goals we set for Kwathu and that the children can live, grow and mature in Gods daily goodness and loving kindness.
- Pray with us for stability for our incoming Children, current Children and for the project in general even as we start planning for next year 2016.
- We thank you all for your continued love and support towards Kwathu Children’s Home and may the Lord continue to bless you! Matthew 18:5 “And whosoever shall receive one such little child in my name, receives me”.
- We thank all our friends and partners for your prayers, donation and support of any kind to Kwathu. GOD BLESS.
- We finally thank our volunteers for selflessly giving their precious time to help our children and staff.
