A word from the Chair – Ian Routledge

We have again seen AFADU continue to expand it’s support of Lirhanzo Children’s Village (LCV) and the Chikombedzi community in south eastern Zimbabwe. Our micro-finance projects continue and work well for the children as they leave LCV and start their life in the community.

We continue to work with local partners in Zimbabwe and Australia to provide the support that is needed within the LCV and Chikombedzi community sponsoring over 50 children plus other projects that are submitted and approved by the Board.

I have been involved with AFADU since its inception, over 12 years ago, and have seen the organization grow from a container of donated goods packed at our house to send to LCV to an organization now where we support 50 children at LCV, raise up to $100,000 per year and support various projects within the community.

Our voluntary Board of Directors give their time and energy as they continue to see the difference we make and the projects that have managed to and continue to achieve.

This year we have teamed up with Rotary Australia World Community Service (RAWCS) and through our contact at Rotary in North Queensland, Ian (Stack) Hudson, we can now offer our sponsors the ability to get tax deductibility for donations.

We have been adversely effected by the falling Australian dollar against the US Dollar as we send all our sponsorship money in US Dollars but we have been successful in obtaining more sponsors thanks largely to our wonderful Pam Harrison who runs our sponsorship program.

We worked with the Australian Embassy in Zimbabwe and LCV was awarded a grant of $50,000 to help build accommodation at LCV which has meant that the LCV is compliant with adequate accommodation for children and staff

Our large project for 2016 is the classroom project that will cost around US$60,000 and thanks to our long time sponsor, Delphine Archer, we have started on this and built the roof and structure so that our children can study under cover.

This is our big fund raiser for next year and we are hoping that the re launch of our website this month will help us to raise that money.

All of the success we have had is because our sponsors, supporters and donors have all seen what we see is that we ensure that all funds are almost entirely used for the projects and running of LCV and the Chikombedzi community.

None of this is possible without the leadership of Ezelle and Margret and their team on the ground in Chikombedzi and our role as Directors is to make their mission possible which is raising a generation of new adults that will continue to support and grow the community.