Newsletter No. 39, September 21st, 2001

Dear Friends of Makeni,  

Herewith a brief update on developments at the Centre you/your organisation/congregation so faithfully support. Please accept it as part opf our reporting procedure to you.  

1. Settlement Project:

Of the 27 families who enrolled in the year 2000 for agricultural training and for settlement, 26 completed the course. Of these, 25 families have been selected for settlement.

Four families were taken to Mwomboshi settlement this month, nine to Chisamba settlement village, and twelve more will be moved soon. The settlement truck broke down en route to the rural areas, and all the families and their belongings, and roofsheets,and food had to be unloaded and transferred to another, borrowed truck... It was a mini crisis!  There was a lot of joy and delight on the faces of the families as they boarded the truck for the "great move". This brings the total of families settled now to 296, approximately 2000 people in all, who have been settled by the Centre.

Mrs Allen says, "The transformation seen in the life of the people we are now settling has been astonishing; it is unbelievable and heart warming." The new settlers will be supported in some of their needs by St. Augustine's Anglican Church, whose congregation started an action in support of settlements, using a mascot called "Makeni Bear"!  

2. St Nicholas Orphanage:

There are still 25 children; nine boys and sixteen girls. Their health has improved tremendously during the eight months they have been with us. Initially we had to take the orphans to the Clinic almost daily. Now visits to it have dropped off sharply. Now none of the children suffers from any serious medical condition, and we praise God for the improvement in their health. 

Those who go to school are doing well, some exceptionally well: Esther Chisenga came first in her class, Grade Two, and Eunice Soko second, quite an achievement if you consider that that class has 60 pupils in it!  

The children love singing and are never shy to show off their musical and dancing abilities in church. Recently they sang for Bishop Trevor Rhodes when he visited the church. They also had a great lunch with him.

Occasionally kind people donate a little cash for a slap-up meal for the children, and that means a great pasrty, each time!  The food bill for the children and house mothers (more than 600 meals a week...) now stands at K260,000 (£1=K5500/US$1=K3760) per week. The cost of running the orphanage is about US$670 per month.  We hope and pray that support for this project will continue.  

3. Staff Development

Six of MEC's lecturers in the Adult Education Courses went on a training course themselves ("Training of Trainers" Course) in Kabwe from Sept.10th-21st, 2001. Two electronics, two agricultural, one carpentry and one homecraft lecturer benefitted from this opportunity. All were presented with Certificates by PAISEDA.  

4. Funding (this item was corrected January, 2002, to reflect current understanding)

The Centre welcomed Mr Sjoerd Haagsma of the Gereformeerde Kerken in Holland as he made an official visit to MEC. The Mission Department of his Church has been the main supporter of the work of the Centre since its inception in 1971!

The Mission Department of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands is to phase out aid to the Centre over the next three years, after supporting it for 30 years with annual grants, and that aid would cease by end 2004. Incidental grants for projects it considers deserving are still available.  

This leaves the Centre itself in a severe financial dilemma because there is now no donor agency that supports the continued functioning of the Centre itself - i.e. its Christian outreach, its administrative, fundraising, financial, transport, communication and all the other functions it offers to the projects run by the Centre. A further problem will be that projects which we, here on the ground in Zambia, consider vital, are not considered vital by the Mission's experts in Holland -- such projects can then no longer be sustained by MEC, among them the Settlement Project and the AIDS Orphanage.

Please distribute this mini newsletter to members of your congregations and to friends who may be interested in becoming supporters of Makeni Ecumenical Centre.  

With best regards,  
Yours in Christ,  
Fr Pierre J Dil / Founder-Director Makeni Ecumenical Centre