Join us for our 40th birthday on the 14th October!

Did you work at MEC? Were you a student? Were you or are you a volunteer?

Thousands of people have passed through our gates over the last 40 years – yes, that’s how long it’s been since we opened; a bit longer, in fact.  It was in April 1971 that we were officially opened by President Kenneth Kaunda.

Kenneth Kaunda opening MEC in 1971

This year we are celebrating our 40th year serving the community, educating, providing health services, and training farmers, amongst other things!

Will you join us for our birthday party and graduation on the 14th of October, 2011?

The Boys’ Brigade will be marching on Makeni Road around 7.30 a.m and Anansi Nkondo will be performing at MEC from 8-9 a.m.

From 9.30-11 we expect the arrival of the guest of honour and other invited dignitaries and tours of the centre to take place before seating for the main events.

There will be a graduating class of MEC students to congratulate and award certificates and we are also expecting some special guests and old friends to be with us to share their memories, congratulations and wishes for the future.

There will be photographic displays, information about the various departments, and entertainments, including St Andrews Boys band and a local drama group, as well as food and refreshments on hand.

Do come along and help us to make it a special day.

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Contesa support for hammermill

Back in June, Makeni Centre was visited by a group of people representing British charity Contesa, including Esnat Avon. Contesa met with members of staff to discuss the centre’s needs and tell us more about their work, which focusses on supporting AIDS orphans in Zambia.

Makeni centre has been wanting to process its own maize crop for some time now. As I write, harvesting of the local maize is well on the way. The crop goes towards the orphanage and our staff, and by products also can be used as stock feed for the pigs and chickens.

Processing the crop is a costly business however, and so the ability to do this for ourselves is a valuable thing. We are delighted to report that Contesa decided to fund the purchase of a hammermill for the centre’s use and also for incidentals required to house the mill itself. MEC has now received a sizeable donation for this purpose.

We have already identified a local builder for the structure to house the mill and we hope that he will be able to start very soon. A site near the carpentry workshop has been selected.

There have also been discussions about funding education for a group of children in the orphanage.

We are extremely grateful to have made contact with Contesa!

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Quilts for the orphanage

I received this wonderful news by email today:

We are a group of about 20 women working from the ClearView Christian Reformed Church.  We have designed 33 quilts for an orphanage in Zambia. God has sent us an interesting group of women with a variety of cultural and religious backgrounds with all of us sharing a heart for the poor, the suffering or those in need of comfort. One 80 year old lady has knit 33 small pairs of slippers to go with the quilts.

The orphanage we have chosen is “St. Nicholas Home” a part of the Makeni Ecumenical Centre in Lusaka, Zambia

We hope that the children will appreciate all the effort that has been put into these quilts – we know how much work it must have been! It is great that new supporters keep coming forwards to support the work of Makeni Centre and the orphanage. Hopefully we will be able to show you some pictures when the quilts arrive.

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Holland Visit

Joe Silwenga reports…

On behalf of all who travelled to the Netherlands, I wish to express our sincere gratitude and thanks to all the Friends of Makeni, Scholengroep Zuid-west, Hanze University, Kloosterkerk Worldwide and many other individuals and organisations that hosted us. The visit was impacting, memorable and useful to us as individuals as well as to the organisation – Makeni Ecumenical Centre.

We are grateful for all the fruitful meetings, workshops and thought-provoking discussions on various issues and projects of and on Makeni. We enjoyed your hospitality and friendliness throughout our stay. We are also grateful for the personal and organisational gifts which you gave heartily. Your interest in the work of Makeni is exceptionally challenging. We are now doing our homework on various issues in order to share and orient our friends on our experiences for the two weeks we were there. I am sure they will be motivated and be involved in the change processes needed. They will also learn more about the Netherlands from the “fellow Zambians'” perspective. Discussions have been set for next week.

We send our kind greetings and wish you many heavenly blessings.

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