Newsletter February 2024 | 16

Working during a Cholera pandemic!……..

At the time I am writing this newsletter, we are in the middle of a Cholera epidemic in Zambia. It started in October last year. There are a few cases of Cholera every year, but there are many more. More than 16,500 infections and 600 deaths have already been registered and the number is rising. The football stadium in Lusaka is home to many patients. Family members stand outside the stadium waiting for information about whether their loved one is there and how they are doing. Many are in uncertainty and loved ones are buried without knowing it. Registration is something that is quite a process here. Cholera is something you don’t even have to think about in the west with all the hygiene there is, but here, with the rain we have had, cholera is lurking. Especially in the suburbs where many people live close together. The toilet is often close to the water source, which makes contamination very easy. The waste, as you see in the photo here, also contributes to contamination. Waste is just lying on the side of the road and our streets are far from hygienic.

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Werk

This situation with cholera makes it difficult for us to do our work. A Women’s Discipleship training was scheduled for early February in Lusaka, but unfortunately we had to cancel it so as not to endanger our participating women. They come from different areas of Zambia and public transport poses a risk of contamination. To give an example, someone traveled by public transport from Lusaka to Kasama (a town in the north) and had cholera and died quite quickly in Kasama. If that person has not been hygienic enough with washing their hands, the virus can easily spread to someone else, so who knows how many people on the bus have become infected! Prevention is better than cure. Even the healthiest person can die from Cholera. So we had to make a good but painful decision. As a Women of Impact Africa team we have to make a new plan for Zambia, but how, that depends on the cholera situation and the further planning for the training throughout Africa

Schools

Schools just opened last week. A few weeks later than intended. That is a challenge for us, especially for me. It meant that our youngest, 7 years old, did not go to school and was therefore home every day. To keep his memory sharp and not forget what he has learned, we gave him homework (particularly arithmetic), which also made me a bit of a teacher. It takes quite some time to be so involved with him and this is quite a challenge for me. As a missionary you appear to have to be a jack of all trades. And in addition to being a wife, mother and missionary, I am also a teacher! 😉 In the coming months, Mobuley hopes to be less busy with his mission work and will hopefully be able to spend more time on our farm and help out at home so that I have more time for my work.

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Local werk.

Around Christmas and New Year’s Eve, local mission work came to a standstill, given the holidays and the fact that many are working in the fields to prepare the soil. Planting must be done so that there can be a harvest again this year and bread can be put on the table again. Maize (for maize flour), peanuts (for peanut butter, as an ingredient in vegetables and porridge) and soya beans (for oil) are the most grown and these foods are an important part of the basic diet in Zambia.

I can tell you that in this culture it is often the women who work on the land, including ‘our’ women with whom we come together. The group is small or no one comes at all. We will soon start new groups again and the old groups will be ‘released’ to put what we have learned into practice.

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Tabitha tailoring

We are currently also working on starting a new Tabitha sewing course at the base. It takes some effort, as we ask for a small contribution. We do this to prevent everyone from coming, including those who have no passion for sewing, but just want to become a tailor because it brings money, but do not know ‘how to measure’. I can tell you that unfortunately not everyone has it in his or her genes to become a seamstress. The past has already shown that here.

Since I am busy with my work for the training courses, my coaching work online and locally guiding new teachers, I cannot teach full-time, so we had to find someone who could provide this training together with me and my partner Evarlyn (women’s work leader in Ndola). wants to give. And it worked! A pastor’s wife who owns a sewing workshop and has a passion for teaching women would like to help! We are very happy with this. This means that I will again take on one teaching day a week. We will mainly learn the basic principles so that women can earn money by making school uniforms, dresses and men’s shirts. Hopefully we can make a 6 month course cycle, but that depends on how quickly the ladies can learn.

Online.

The work continues online, fortunately Cholera has no influence on this. The weather is! Where we live the reception is not really good and if it is the rainy season, it is even more difficult. The rain sometimes comes pouring down! We are still looking for the best internet option. Everything here is already done via mobile reception. In Zambia they skip the fixed wiring and fiber optics. I can tell you that I was working on this newsletter on the website and had done a lot of work, but as it turned out the connection was not good enough to save it. So all my work for nothing 😦 ……… Patience is a virtue!

Finances within our department

Our leader of Women of Impact Africa is on leave until April and that gives us some more work to do as a team. For me, this means that I have to take care of some of the financial matters regarding everything that comes with it within our department. including sponsorship funds, their recruitment and expenditure on the various aspects.

New name.

In addition, I am busy changing the training and marketing materials we use as we have changed our name from ‘Women’s Empowerment Africa’ to ‘Women of Impact Africa’. This is because our old name was to much associated with finances. Empowerment here in Africa means that you come with a bag of money. While our mission is to help women spiritually and practically with skills. The way of thinking needs to be changed and that is quite a task, I must say. Hopefully our new name will contribute to this! Isn’t it still a beautiful logo?

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Farm.

We have shifted! From a small number of square meters without a garden in Ndola to more square meters and a fruit orchard just outside Ndola. It takes some getting used to living a little further from Ndola, but more space gives us many more opportunities to work on our income for the future, the children’s school/study and our own pension. Everyone who doesn’t work for the government needs to work on its own pensions and there are many people like that, including us!

There are already some fruit trees, but they are not completely healthy. You can say that everything has been neglected. (Mangoes, avocados, oranges, lemons and more) So we’re going to try to make the land fertile again! The mango season has already given us a lot of mangoes from which I have been able to make preserved mango juice, mango jam and other delicacies by filling all the empty glass jars that I have saved. (People often laugh at my tendency to keep things, but I know when things come in handy again :-)). Hopefully we can enjoy our mango harvest for a little longer! We want to try to make our mango trees healthier by pruning them properly and providing them with natural fertilizer and who knows, we may also be able to generate a small income with our mangoes at the end of next year.

We planted the biggest piece of land with soybeans mixed with sunflowers. We have been told that the soil does not really bear fruit, but we are confident and can say that the greens are coming up nicely!! Soon the chicken manure will be applied to the areas that are a bit slower and then we hope and pray that a good harvest will result.

The below verse is our prayer!

“Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so.. Genesis 1:11 NIV

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Broiler chickens.

150 chickens and 300 chicks have come to live with us, temporarily, that is, as we raise them for sale. Unfortunately, they are ‘floppy ‘ explision’ chickens, chickens that normally grow up in 6 weeks in an abnormal way actually. The first 150 are ready for sale. We are going to change the procedure a bit so that the result is less chemical and therefore tastier and they can forage! :-). We’ll see if it works. Time will tell! Keep following me!

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Visit from the Netherlands!

In all the years that I have been in Zambia, there is finally someone visiting, especially for me/us! My best friend Gea (we have been friends for 49 years) and her husband Chris (also Home Front Team) hope to visit us for 2 weeks in early March! We are really looking forward to it!

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Thanks to everyone who supports my work!

Thanks for the support from many of you, I have been able to do my work in recent years and could make a positive impact on many lives of women throughout Africa! I am really very grateful for this support! I would like to be able to continue to do my work in the coming years without financial worries and we try to find opportunities in all areas ourselves, but at this time I am really asking for your help!

As a family and for our work, we are currently largely dependent on financial donations and unfortunately there is currently not enough coming in each month. We are not spenging a lot of money and we can’t buy all we want and sometimes it is difficult to provide for all the necessary facilities, to do expenses for our work and also to help people. Besides that the situation with the Dollar is not good for Zambia. All prices have mostly been doubled.

I need help!!

I would therefore like to appeal to you. If you have it on your heart, would you like to help and ensure that I can at least continue to do my work and help women? There is currently a monthly deficit of approximately €200 – €300.

So every (fixed monthly) contribution is desperately needed!

You can contribute financially in various ways, check this online via the ‘DONATE NOW!

Are you willing to help?

Thanks so much in advance!

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Columns.

At regular intervals I send a column from Zambia to the church magazine ‘Geandewei’, for the Drachten | Leeuwarden | Dokkum. The topics are very diverse and provide even more insight into my life in Zambia and what keeps me busy.

If you enjoy reading my columns, click the button below!

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Here some more pictures…….

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Will you please thank and pray with me?

• Thank you for the results achieved through the training we provide.
• Thank you for my marriage, for which I am still grateful every day.
• Thank you for our work, my work.
• Thank you for allowing us to have such an impact.
• Pray that the work can continue.
• Thank and pray for finances.
• Thank that the car has served me for 4 years and please pray that we can find finances to buy another car.
• Pray for Cholera to disappear soon!
• Will you pray that the Tabitha sewing course can start quickly and that God invites the women He would like to have in this training?
• Pray for our farm, our land and our plants and trees, that God may bless it.
• Pray for the people who help us build our farm.
• Pray for Mobuley, that he can spread all his work well. marriage, family, missionary work and the farm.
• Pray that our church here may also grow.