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The Village Health
Project, headed
by two Doctors of Oriental Medicine, Elizabeth
Checchio and Sean Tuten, works internationally
to reduce the prevalence of AIDS, helping people
with HIV to live positively through integrated
medical treatment, education and research.
This New Mexico-based 501c(3)
non-profit organization is currently working with
The Centre, a well-respected Zimbabwean NGO that
has provided holistic services to over 3,000 people.
Together they are opening a free medical facility
in Harare, Zimbabwe, a country with one of the
highest HIV infection rates in the world.
This
clinic is the first of its kind, combining acupuncture
and Chinese herbal therapies with nutritional
counseling and indigenous healing practices in
an effort to help alleviate the suffering of the
many families and children impacted by the AIDS
crisis.
www.villagehealth.org |
Nhimbe
for Progress
aims to promote recognition of our spiritual and
human relatedness to rural Zimbabwean people by
providing appropriate assistance where the need
exists, in an ecologically sound, self-sustaining,
and culturally respectful way. It also seeks to
create opportunity for cultural exchange, which
encourages unity and cooperative empowerment. Nhimbe
is a word from the Shona people of Zimbabwe referring
to a community working together to help each other
in daily life. Headed by Jaiaen Beck, this 501c(3)
non-profit organization is doing just that for seven
rural villages in the Mhondoro region, about 140
kilometers from Harare. Cosmas
Magaya, who is not only a world renowned master
mbira player and beloved teacher, but also a prominent
businessman, administers the program in Zimbabwe.
They are working together to:
1)
improve sub-standard living conditions (such as
re-building collapsed huts that were destroyed
by the floods, and building wells, toilets and
fuel efficient stoves)
2) offer business opportunities
to poor rural Zimbabweans
3) support educational opportunities
(such as sponsoring children who cannot afford
to attend school, providing teaching materials
to schools, and establishing a pre-school program)
and
4) Create a community fund
to help with the special needs of the elderly,
infants, and orphans.
www.ancient-ways.org
Jaiaen was recently in Zimbabwe
during September 2004. She was also there last
December through February working with Cosmas
to administer the Nhimbe projects. Please
click below to read her very telling stories as
told in her Field Reports:
September
27, 2004
September 18, 2004
February 20, 2004
February 4, 2004
January 19, 2004
January 3, 2004
December
20, 2003 |
Sister Mercy Mutyambizi, a Catholic nun, has devoted
her life to helping Zimbabwean children who have
been orphaned by AIDS. The Shungu
DzeVana Trust, a Zimbabwean NGO, was founded
to assist and support her work.
Shungu dzeVana
is a Shona phrase referring to a passionate concern
for children. Sister Mercy has hundreds of boys
and girls to look after, from those a few months
old to others in their teens. There are almost
one million children without parents in Zimbabwe
now. They cannot all be placed in orphanages.
Fostering seems to be the answer to this national
catastrophe.
 
The African extended family is still able to cope
with many of these emergencies and there are also
families, sometimes widows, willing to receive into
their homes the children of strangers. Whenever
relatives are prepared to bring up such children
they must be supported; often they are very poor
themselves. Sister Mercy has found foster homes
for almost 500 children now. With the support provided
by the Shungu DzeVana Trust, she is able
to help with school fees, food and clothing shortages,
and medical care.
www.shungudzevana.co.zw
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