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Report from
Cossie July 2006
Bill having sown such a wonderful seed in my heart has moved
on to be that beautiful bright star you will see in the sky
tonight.
I fell in love with the spirit of Bill Johnson long before
I knew him and knowing him is one of the sweet privileges
of my life. Sadly he will never physically be here with me
again, but sweet because every time I walk into the Mother
of Mercy hospice he is there with me, which I am so grateful
for. Bill helped me to feel so much that was locked away
inside me and I feel so blessed for having had the humorous,
naughty, and lovable Bill in my life.
Although it has been several months since you have heard
from us there has been quite a lot going on with our Vision
Africa projects.
Starting with
As I reported last time the hospice
is to be an ARV (Anti Retroviral) Centre. The original
plan was to seek funding
to build a clinic/distribution centre at the hospice and
CHAZ (Churches, Health Association of Zambia) would equip
and supply drugs to the centre. The demand for ARV’s
is too great to wait for all this to happen. People are experiencing
great hardships just trying to get bus fare money together
to go to the centre in Lusaka every month for their screening
and drugs. A month ago the hospice began screening and issuing
drugs to help people with such problems. It is going to put
a lot of pressure on the hospice but with the Sr.s determination,
and all our trust in the help will come we are determined
to help the community. There has been a great deal of activity
with in-house training for hospice staff and all the care
givers who work in the surrounding community to make sure
everyone concerned is up to speed with the big step that
has been taken.
Shelly Karr and Susanne Green from
the UK are on a world wide trip and took a month out of
their schedule to offer
their services to the hospice and its staff. I know that
they are going to write a piece for the Vision Africa website
so I do not want to say too much here other than I am so
overwhelmed by their amazing hearts. Knowing Shelly is from
the corporate world in the UK, she and Susanne stepped into
an extremely tough situation at the hospice. To date it has
gone as far as learning to lay out bodies, and that’s
the easy part; attending to the very sick and the very poor
conditions that people arrive in is much harder and they
have embraced it with such love, energy and care. They have
given the Sr.’s and staff much needed help as there
is never enough staff to go around. The energy they have
bought in has so lifted the place up.
Peter has continued to show us all
that with tender loving care, good nourishment and regular
attendance to his awful
bed-sores miracles are possible. His response to such treatment
has resulted in his sores healing without skin grafts. All
who come in contact with this brave young lad have their
hearts opened. He has spent months lying on his tummy while
his sores heal. Dr. Bush a week ago managed to get one of
the community’s eminent doctors to view Peter’s
case. Peter’s spine is being compressed due to the
TB he contracted through total neglect of his condition.
To the hospice dismay he was admitted to the UTH (University
Teaching Hospital) for screening and tests pending an operation
to decompress his spine that is curling up badly. This created
a very stressful time for all concerned because he was not
being taken care of properly so staff from the hospice found
their own way to UTH to take care of his dressing and bath
him. There is one nurse taking care of 60+ patients on the
ward that Peter is on; some evenings there were no staff
at all as most of the nurses have left for greener pastures
in other countries. There is grave concern about the operation
he desperately needs and the hospitals ability to do it with
the conditions the staffs are facing at UTH. It was agreed
in the end that the UTH is not able to assist Peter and we
quickly got him back to the hospice.
Thanks to Dr. Michael Bush’s
association with the Jewish Association in South Africa
Peter is going to be flown
there assessed and flown back so that we can have a clear
picture as to what can be done for him and how much it is
going to cost. May I ask if anyone reading this feels called
to help this young lad in any way we will be so grateful.
Having seen what Peter has endured and to get to the point
he has he so deserves a break. The decompression of his spine
will continue without intervention and his chances of surviving
such an operation here is grim. If you look at my earlier
report you can see how much Peter has blossomed and grown
from the photograph.
From the many HIV/AIDS suffers that
attend the hospice the resident councilor Leonard encouraged
them to form a support
group to help each other overcome the awful sigma that exists
in the community with this disease. They call themselves
the “Living Positive Group.” They tell anyone
that will listen to them that they are living with AIDS,
not dieing with AIDS. Jeff met some of the group last October
when our team was out to work on phase two of the water project.
Jeff commended them for their courage and spent time discussing
the daily issues they have to deal with.
From this discussion and a few others,
Vision Africa is now assisting the group as “Friends helping Friends,” with
seeds for a vegetable project. We helped the “Living
Positive Group” acquire a very fertile piece of land
in Linda to grow their vegetable. Mike Parker and company
ran a stand pipe to the land from the new pump that was installed
in Phase two in March. They had assistance from a lady who
used to live in Zambia with Maize seed, and during the rains
they grew a very good crop of maize, which has now been harvested
reaping over 52 bags/sacks of maize and with the hand grinding
mill that were donated recently the maize will be ground
and shared. The land has now been prepared for vegetables
and already they have different vegetables growing.
As you have already read during Julie
Wookey visit, Vision Africa donated a hand grinder to the
support group to assist
them with preparing the maize for cooking. This is going
to make life just that bit easier for all concerned. It was
going to have to be hand pounding to a rough grainy consistency.
With the hand grinder it’s a matter of turning a handle
one time for the same results. Once their own maize is complete
they will be able to use the hand grinder to earn extra income
by charging others to grind their maize. It was so wonderful
to see the boost this has given the group who grow in number
every month as more people feel supported enough to be able
to accept their status.
With our association with the Hospice
and Linda Compound we have now opened the door to “Step to Leadership” to
some of the “Living Positive” support group.
This has been well received to the point that more have shown
interest in joining the next group. During Julie’s
visit a meeting was arranged with the “Living Positive
Group.” There was a general discussion about why the
group was formed, the goals they have and how they are supporting
each other in physical, emotional and practical ways. From
the discussion a one day Vision Africa Psychology of Vision
workshop is to be held hopefully in November.
I started working with a class of 14 – 18 year olds
at the school hospice using Susy Allen Steps to Leadership
program for children. It is a challenge as I soon realized
that although the children read, write and speak English
it is not understood, so all of us are having fun with
that. I am finding it very rewarding to say nothing of
it being challenging. Even though I am a Mum and Granny
I am finding I still have lots to learn. They are great
kids who working together with such an age range is a challenge
in itself for them. At this point all I want to say here
is I will keep you posted on our progress.
During Mike Parker’s
visit in March it was agreed with the folks living zone
4b that if they dug the ditch
from their area to the pump we would connect a stand pipe
in their zone. Some of the stakeholders (Committee members)
in the community of Linda arranged a meeting with the owner
of the land that 4b is on, which I was invited to attend.
Mr. Zukas the land owner explained that he is very willing
to donate the 100 acres of land that zone 4b is on with two
conditions. It is totally community owned and all costs in
arranging the transfer to the community is met by them.
To date the ditch is only just started to be dug as there
was a great deal of unhappiness and fear that the land was
going to be taken from them. A meeting was held while Julie
was here with all the main stake holders of the community
at Linda Compound with regards Psychology of Vision involvement
with Linda. The outcome was that there is a better understanding
about our involvement and a request for a one day workshop
on the next visit.
As you will see from the reports that Julie bought back
there are several issues.
They need a health centre within Linda Compound, Government
have told them they have no money at this time to help
them.The bicycles that were donated to the Health committee
now need tyres and general repair and there is no money to
do this.
1. They are asking for more assistance with even more drugs
as the number of people within the compound far exceeds the
little we supply.
John Shawa has submitted a very comprehensive report that
is being addressed by the committee in the UK.
In general with Linda Community there
is a handful of very dedicated guys who work very hard
for their community; their
limited resources restrict everything they want to do but
even so it has not stopped them, what I hear time and time
again on a daily basis is, “we don’t want a hand
out, we want assistance to help ourselves get a hand up in
life.” Julie donated two hand grinders to the Health
Committee also. They are using them to raise funds to feed
the sick who are unable to work.
The Hospice and Linda Community say a huge Thank You and
God Bless You for what you have done for them. Having clean
drinking water is such a blessing and the help with community
projects has given them hope. They pray for all of us and
asked me to tell all they are always pleased to see visitors.
My love to all
Cossie xxx
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