A mother and son from Llanuwchllyn have spent time in Zimbabwe helping others.
Joseff Griffiths and his mother Ursula went to Siabuwa near Binga on a Short Term mission trip with Operation Mobilisation (OM).
Ursula taught science in a rural secondary school in her early twenties in Zimbabwe, but only learnt about the Tonga people there from her work as a report writer for OM. “They are a marginalised group who were moved away from the river Zambezi when the government built a dam and created Lake Kariba for a hydroelectric scheme in the 1950s,” Ursula explained.
“People became separated from their families in Zambia by the new lake, and were forcibly removed some 40 miles away. They now live in a very dry and inhospitable part of the country with little rainfall.
“It is really only fit for wildlife and in the early days they had problems with elephants and other game that had escaped from the nearby wildlife parks. When the Tonga lived by the great Zambezi, they enjoyed the fertile alluvial soil which gave them three crops a year as well as fresh fish. It is very sad to see them in a situation where life is a daily struggle.”
In their new environment there is no running water, only dry riverbeds.
“I have never seen people dependant on a hole dug into a riverbed before. That was a new experience for me.”
Life has been hard for the Tonga people, but now their children have the opportunity to go to school and receive health care.
Joseff had the opportunity to work in the mobile medical clinic with Vicky, an OM nurse in Zimbabwe. She is a white Zimbabwean and grew up on a tobacco farm. The Tonga people had asked OM for help and Vicky felt a calling to the area. She arrived with an old caravan and established a project there over time. It now comprises of accommodation and a clinic, with solar power, rainwater harvesting if it rains, and a bore hole. She is quite self-sufficient, making the 12-hour journey back to Harare, just once every three months for supplies.
Joseff and Ursula also visited the local primary school. They were alarmed to hear there is no food for them all day. They are there from 7am-4pm.
“I really struggled to understand how these children can thrive with so little nutrition.” said Ursula.
“Thankfully Vicky is starting a feeding programme, which is going to impact 7,000 children across 14 schools”.
The nearest hospital is 70 miles away; a three-hour drive along a dirt road. There are a few government clinics in the area, but Vicky’s mobile clinic makes it easier for the elderly and mothers with young children to access health care. It is also free, a great blessing for them.
Vicky sees around 150 patients every day for the five days the clinic operates. People would know Vicky was coming and would wait patiently on benches in a long line for hours to get a good place in the queue. Cases that Vicky attended vary considerably and are often dependent on the time of the year. As it was the colder season there were cases of coughs and colds and a lot of burn cases as the children play around the fires to keep warm.
Joseff said: “It was horrible to see the babies in pain, but the mothers came back every day with them to change their dressings, and I knew they were getting good care.”
In her recent newsletter, Vicky said: “It has been a very difficult year. Many of the crops were washed away with unusually heavy rains at the start of the season but then what survived later died as the rains stopped and we saw very hot temperatures which burned everything up. Very few people harvested anything. Food prices will go up and many animals will die due to lack of grazing. It is not a very happy picture.”
They met a lady whose son, Strive, was jaundice and had cerebral palsy. At 2 he is unable to hold up his head so Joseff and Ursula want to buy a special wheelchair to steady his head and give a better quality of life to him and his mother.
If you are interested in missions there are many opportunities with OM. Visit www.uk.om.org or call them to discuss how you could experience a trip like this.
To contribute to a wheelchair for Strive, or to help with the feeding programme in this drought year, please visit www.uk.om.org/fundraisers/tonga-mobile-health-clinic-zimbabwe.