A word from the Chair – Ian Routledge [2018]

Amidst great change in Zimbabwe we have managed to continue to grow our support of our children and surrounding community at Lirhanzo Children’s Village (LCV) – now more affectionally known as The Village.

[ Grab your copy of AFADU’s 2018 annual report here ]

Thanks to the continued generosity of all of our supporters and donors, in Australia and overseas, the AFADU Board has again been able to meet the major goals this year working closely with Ezelle Schimper and Margret Chinhambu at The Village.

We continued to reach our goals in sponsorship with 57 children sponsored and our committed sponsors that continue to support what we do and achieve.

Our wonderful sponsorship Director Pam Harrison has managed our sponsorship program and is able to bring additional sponsors on when they hear the story of AFADU and The Village.

This is the backbone of what we do at The Village.

We undertook an irrigation project this year and this was led by Mark Edmonds who has extensive experience in growing fruit and vegetables in Victoria together with his experience working with the World Bank.

Together with Mark we raised AU$25,000 to install a drip and irrigation project together with seedlings in an area close to The Village.

The aim of this project was to make The Village self-sustaining with fresh fruit and vegetables to improve the health of our children and to allow the community to sell excess produce.

We have seen some of our children this year complete university and these were children that started at The Village by receiving the education that our sponsors have provided.

This was our dream at AFADU that we enable our children to enjoy the education and support to allow them to grow into future leaders in their communities in Zimbabwe.

We have been working closely with The Projects, a leading advertising agency, and we have started the steps to re-name AFADU as The Village which represents where we work.

We have a Kris Kringle appeal launching on Wednesday 5th December 2018 which we run every year. This year it’s in tandem with the ciruculation of our 2018 Annaul Report. With your help we need to raise AU$5,000 for our children..

WHAT BETTER WAY TO GIVE AT CHRISTMAS!

We support two doctors at the Chikombeze hospital through the generosity of Michael Harmer at Harmers Workplace Lawyers.

As we write this report there are fundamental changes happening in Zimbabwe.

Our community like others suffers from the shortage of fuel  and supplies but Ezelle and Margret and their team always find a way to get things done.

We continue to develop solar options as an alternative.

We remain the major source of funds for The Village through a partnership over the years based on trust and agreed goals and objectives.

As we see some of our children entering university and more sustainable projects being completed it gives us great hope for the future.