Zapia school has been completed. We had the official finishing ceremony. Lots of top school officials. The Bishop of the local ward and community Leaders were in attendance. This is the ribbon cutting for one of the remodeled buildings.
This was a good project. We worked closely with the school officials and were able to make the changes and modifications they felt were most needed. Besides almost doubling the classroom capacity we added electricity and fans. They now have lots more working bathrooms also.
These are some of the local church members that attended standing below our sign that documents the work.
We were able to double the student capacity for the school. Many children in the community get no education because they cannot afford private schools and these public schools are at capacity. Not only will about 700 more students be able to attend but because of the electricity and new lights they've added night classes where adults can go and get a basic education. The project seems to be money well spent.
We are part of a government sponsored group that meets every three months to coordinate the distribution of disability equipment such as wheelchairs and crutches in the country. We are one of the major contributors. We supply a significant amount of wheelchairs with the accompanying custom fitting and maintenance.
The meeting's last almost three hours. Luckily the room is semi air conditioned.
In the area of Buchanan which is about 2 1/2 hours from where we live we finished a project where we installed 7 wells in small communities. We had a small ceremony in each community. Cheryl cut a lot of ribbons this day
Not only did we build the wells but the community had to be taught how to manage the well as well as how to repair it and how to fund the repairs. They seem to take their new responsibilities very seriously. Hand water pumps are big things here. Most of the villages have access to small hand dug wells but they unfortunately transmit a lot of disease. These new wells not only will operate during the dry season but also are very sanitary.
Each of the communities assess themselves a monthly pump maintenance fee for each household. The expensive fees are 50 cents a month and the modest ones are 25 cents a month per household. Each community has a financial organization, a pump basic maintenance organization and a pump repair organization.
The Buchanan Hospital got their first shipment of equipment. They received appliances for their kitchen such as a refrigerator, freezer, microwave and stove. This will allow them to serve their patients meals. As it is right now if you don't have family to bring you in some food you go hungry. Next week we will ship them their generator so they can have continuous electricity.
Often our mission seems like a hardship and a sacrifice. It's hot here. It's difficult being away from family and all of our conveniences of home. It's difficult to travel. At best we can only understand half of what anyone says to us. But weeks like this are different. We are able to witness the good that comes from the humanitarian program. Instead of being a sacrifice we felt gratitude for being able to be here.
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