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“Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever” Psalm 118:1
We have much to be thankful for at Seeds of Hope as God continues to expand our ministries and equip us to bring hope to those in need. We are especially grateful for your faithful partnership with us in this ministry. In this newsletter you’ll see how partnering with many organizations, churches, and individuals has brought about the Resource Center from a vision to a reality, especially in the community of Mapalo. This community of 65,000 was previously known as Chipulukusu, meaning “cursed.” But now is beginning to be called Mapalo, which means “blessing.” At the heart of our resource center is a holistic approach to community development. We are seeing trainings developing in water, agriculture, business skills and literacy training.
October/November Update Text |
RESOURCE CENTER
We are very grateful that our new Resource Center building is now complete! THANK YOU to the Boise Vineyard and their teams for blessing the Mapalo Vineyard and Seeds of Hope by taking on this project! In addition to raising funds for the building, a new well and 3 pump repairs the Boise Vineyard sent over three teams in the last few months to help with its construction. This Resource Center facility is something that is at the heart of SHIP’s vision, and it’s so exciting to see it now become a reality. This really opens a new chapter in our work in Mapalo, providing a central location to host trainings for the community. The Resource Center enables us to reach directly into this desperately needy community. Seeds of Hope has repaired every hand pump in Mapalo, installed over 200 bio sand filters, and is also doing hygiene and sanitation training with community leaders and schools. The development of the Resource Center is much like a wheel having many spokes. We have begun establishing the Resource Center with water development, which our Zambian crews have really excelled in. We thank God that those who have been trained in Zambia have brought clean water to over 160,000 people. As this spoke has become strong, we have been able to see other spokes of the Resource Center wheel begin to be developed. |
The Resource Center building nearing completion |
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Needy women being trained in SHIP sewing classes
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SEWING AND LITERACY
One of the things that are now happening at the Resource Center is sewing classes. Over the last year we’ve been able to train about twenty women in basic sewing skills. It’s brought real change into their lives as they’ve been able to sew clothes for their families. This skill brings them dignity and hope. We’ve also been able to sew school uniforms for orphans so that they can go to school. With the Resource Center we are now able to house six sewing machines and hold classes every day of the week in the secure building. We are looking at expanding the sewing classes and also restarting literacy programs in the next few months. |
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DRINKING WATER WELLS
As we have funding, we are continuing to drill many wells that are having a huge impact in communities throughout Zambia. On Kirk’s last trip, he visited a well recently drilled in Mapalo, sponsored by the Boise Vineyard. He was able to meet with the elected Mapalo city councilman who
expressed the deep thankfulness of his community for the drilling of the new well. He also said that he was visiting the clinic and they had seen a dramatic drop in the cases of diarrhea since Seeds of Hope had installed sand filters in the area last year after the flood, thanks to funding by Thirst Relief International and Rotary Club. The councilman said that whenever people come wanting to help in the community, he points to the new Resource Center and tells them that they must do something like we’re doing because it’s bringing real hope and change into the community.
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This well helps bring water to some of the 30,000 kids in Mapalo |
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SAND FILTERS
Our bio sand filter program is moving forward as we work towards becoming a “center of expertise” in Zambia. We had CAWST representative Tal Woolsey and his wife in Zambia this fall training our crews in sand filter installation and monitoring. This involved traveling around checking on sand filters that had been installed in people’s homes. As they visited the homes, Tal was impressed with how the people valued the sand filters. The people in the house love to get two glasses of water, one with the water from the well and one with the new water from the sand filter, and demonstrate to everyone who comes what a change the bio sand filter makes in their water. They reported again and again that diarrhea and other stomach diseases were gone. Many of the neighbors came and asked how they could get a filter. Kirk and Evans were also able to demonstrate the sand filter at a United Nations event in the capital, where people were very interested to see how it worked and many signed up to buy one for their family. This month Seeds of Hope will officially be starting a second sand filter factory in Lusaka sponsored by Blood:Water Mission through our partnership with Lifewater International. |
The hygiene students and teachers trained by SHIP
A woman from Lazaro shares how a well and hygiene training ended cholera in her village
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HYGIENE AND SANITATION
The community hygiene program funded by Lifewater and Blood:Water has been a great success. The project consists of going into three compounds five villages and five schools. By going into communities again and again we have been able to build on the initial trust established and go deeper into bringing lasting change. Because so little is being done in the communities on a consistent basis, our hygiene and sanitation trainers are well respected and have seen a lot of results in the short time they’ve been working. In one of the schools, we did a hygiene club which consisted of the top students from several classes. After learning about hygiene and sanitation, the students were asked to look at what they could improve upon themselves. As they surveyed the different areas in which they were taught, one problem stood out clearly to them: For the 650 students in the school, there was only one latrine for the boys, and four latrines for the girls. The students showed incredible resourcefulness, by organizing the parents and teachers to work together with the community raise funds to build a few additional latrines for the students. It was quite an effort and the testimony to the effectiveness of the training that was taught to them. Once the work had began and was well under way, the girls began to share a little bit more about their dilemma. Even though they had four latrines, they were scared to use them, because an anthill was sitting next to the latrines. In Africa the anthills grow very large, and rodents like to live there. Snakes then come to feast on the rodents, and because latrines are cool, they'll often seek a hiding place there from the heat of the day. So the students brought that concern to the parents and teachers as well. Amazingly, the parents and community decided they anthill needed to go, even though it probably existed there before the school itself. They worked together to cut the trees down and remove all of the dirt, which is an impressive task.
There are so many stories just like this. In one training, a woman jumped up with excitement, telling everyone else in the training that she now understood why so many people got sick at the funerals they were all going to. She learned that the way they were washing their hands all together in a bucket of water was actually causing the spread of disease rather than cleaning their hands. This revelation is lifesaving when you consider that our driller alone said he goes to over 100 funerals in a year. In another community, the leaders trained in hygiene rallied the community together to remove two large mountains of trash that had been in that community for years, eliminating the home for the rats and all the disease that was harbored there. Through these consistent efforts, we are seeing tools given to bring hope to the communities. |
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AGRICULTURE
The agriculture projects are continuing in three locations as we enter the rainy season. In Mapalo, at the Resource Center, they are planting cabbages, corn, and peanuts as demonstration plots. We also have some property adjacent to Mapalo where church and community members plant crops in different portions. On the chief’s property, Peter Reimer will be visiting this month to see how the Farming God’s Way training is progressing with the local villagers.
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PRAYER REQUESTS
· Thank you for praying for Francis. He’s feeling much better and has been given a clean bill of health by the specialists in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia
· Diane Foss is in Ethiopia this month doing hygiene trainings for Lifewater International
· Peter Reimer is in Zambia this month checking on SHIP’s agriculture projects
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Partner Spotlight: Blood:Water Mission
Seeds of Hope was privileged to have Barak Bruerd of Blood:Water Mission, founded by the music group Jars of Clay, visit our work in Zambia. Blood:Water has been funding SHIP through our partnership with Lifewater International, and will be finishing out the final phases of this project and then working directly with SHIP on a new proposal. We are all very excited about this deepening partnership. In Barak’s own words: “I had an awesome trip with Kirk in Zambia. It was great to have a tangible look at the communities and families he's been impacting and the challenges he's facing...I'm really excited because I think Blood:Water Mission can have a really amazing role in SHIP's programs and the impact they are having in Zambia - not just in communities, but even among the NGO community at large as SHIP develops its various 'centers of expertise'.”
You can view the work Blood:Water Mission has already sponsored through Seeds of Hope using their interactive map at: www.bloodwatermission.com |
Barak joins a village discussion
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Give a Gift of Hope |
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Fund Classes in the Resource Center
part of a class $50, whole class $500
With funding, we can hold classes at our new Resource
Center, empowering women by teaching them sewing,
literacy, and other skills.
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Help Purchase Trucks
$15,000 per truck
We’re paying over $1000 a month on repairs to keep our old vehicles on the road. We are running two drill rigs, a sand
filter program, and also agriculture with these vehicles.
Funds for new trucks are desperately needed. |
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Provide Clean Water Wells
$5,500 for a community development well
Keeping our drill crew busy drilling wells is what helps SHIP Zambia to be a self-sustaining ministry. This includes village hygiene training, pump caretaker training. Help us meet our goal of drilling 6 wells in the next two months by
sponsoring a well. We have the ability to drill many more wells but haven’t because of lack of funding.
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Seeds of Hope is a young, growing organization and is still in need of support for operating
expenses. Please consider making a regular monthly donation to help make all these things happen. |
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