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Unfathomable Weather Patterns Continue!

by Wells

It’s been somewhat exasperating to get a grip on what is going on with the Zimbabwean weather. We know that the drought has been plaguing particularly the rural residents for a long time, and this year has been no exception. 

We began with a list of wells needing deepening, and with many thanks to you, we were able to deepen all 25 in November 2024, an achievement that has brought good relief to the community. Your generosity has made such a tangible difference in the lives of those facing the worst of these conditions. Thank you so much!

But, the circumstances continue to evolve, and we need your help. On the heels of our November work, we learned that at least another 24 families are in urgent need of well deepening. Please click here choosing well repair, sending any amount you are able. Digging averages $106-110 per well but anything helps.

When residents originally build a well, they tend to stop at 10 meters for instance, because maybe they hit water. But over time, they realize that they really should dig another 5 meters, making it 15 to withstand the pressures of the persistent droughts.

Picture of lightning

Ironically, the bizarre nature of the weather changes add insult to injury. There have been thunder and lightning storms in Mhondoro (and not so much in town). Every week or so Muda has sent video of the rains creating havoc. The Nhimbe team goes to the school to deliver books and can’t even do that, waiting and waiting until there is a break. The cattle kraal began filling up with the rain, so they need to build a new one. One would think this water would be a blessing, and granted, the grass is benefitting, but the torrents do not really help any little seedlings take root. It also hasn’t made a dent in the deepening requirements. See short films here.

Besides the well deepening we found that we have 5 of the elderly (in their 80’s and 90’s) who have no well. Their water source has completely dried up. Fortunately, they have family or friends who have been bringing them water for quite some time, for example, from a kilometer away (.62 miles), but this is not a sustainable solution. They desperately need wells—both for their immediate survival and for their long-term well-being. Here is a video sharing stories of two of them.

Picture of Bridge and Wife
Venisancia & Bridge Zaranyika Registration #610
This oddity in the weather has left many confused. It’s almost as if the heavens open up, but the earth swallows the water immediately. It’s a sad reminder of the brutal reality these villagers face—each rainfall that could be a blessing instead becomes just a fleeting event with no lasting relief. Every donation of yours, no matter how small, makes a significant difference. The villagers we support will be incredibly grateful for anything you can contribute.

Please take a moment to click the link here to extend your help. Your generosity will go a long way in making the lives of these rural villagers just a bit more comfortable and sustainable in the face of these unrelenting conditions. They are counting on us, and with your help, we can provide them with the life-saving resources they need.  

Thank you again for your continued support. Together, we can help turn the tide for these communities in Zimbabwe.

Woman at a well

Please Help Us Deepen Wells!

by Wells

We have 23 families in dire need of water. Their wells have completely dried up and merely need deepening. Please click here to contribute whatever you can to Well Repair! With this you are buying bricks and cement, plus hiring a digger and builder to add meters to the existing well. I know many of you are deeply concerned about affairs in our country, so thank you so much for taking a minute to focus with us on the Nhimbe residents. 

Many people are going without water in daily life as their well has dried up due to the ongoing drought. Maybe you recall our March post about the serious nature of the drought including elephants dying in Hwange (a region near Victoria Falls)? Now, more recently the national power grid has been radically compromised by both the reduced water in Lake Kariba and a technical fault at Hwange Power Station. It never occurred to me how interwoven water and electricity are. Let’s just say that no electricity makes communication ridiculously difficult, among other things.

Here in our homes, we just flip the switches and walk to the faucets to turn them on, right? Drink and cook with water? Wash dishes, our clothes, our bodies? Care for our animals, children and the elderly? Water our gardens, maintain our homes? Geesh . . . .

Our Nhimbe team continues to work with the H2O Drip for the Drought Program, bringing the Nhimbe families closer to growing food with the use of basic drip technology using a bucket system. We completed training in May with great success. But we have run into devastating water levels dropping, so some are not able to access the water to fill the bucket. We just need to deepen wells, with 23 families (currently) identified as critical. We also deepened 72 wells in 2020.

2 Girls Hauling Water

Sometimes family members have been able to walk to their neighbors who have deeper wells to get water for daily basics. Please donate to well repair now however fits your budget…you make a difference!

  • Two bags of cement per family delivered to Mhondoro is $34 ($782)
  • Handmade bricks delivered by ox cart (a nickel a piece) is $500 for 10,000 to deepen all 23 wells.
  • The building and digging team is paid $50 for deepening each well ($1,150).

We need to raise $2,432, which averages around $106 per family. That’s a small price to pay to bring such vital change. And, with your donation we can do it! Thank you for your compassion and help…You make the difference. Tatenda Chaizvo

President's Drought Message

ZIMBABWE DROUGHT UPDATE — A Call for Help!

by Wells

His Excellency President DR Emmerson Dambudzo MNANGAGWA has declared a nationwide State of Disaster due to the El Nino-induced drought. Measures will be taken by the government to mitigate against the disaster. April 3rd 2024

Summer Greetings! Hope this finds you well with a flourishing garden or fresh produce from the locals. As you may recall, Zimbabwe is in the middle of a drought. It’s actually been a constant state of affairs the last few years, and has only worsened as the crops did not come in again this year. Please see the March blog where we explain our hopes for the village’s intervention.

April 3rd, their President declared it a state of disaster, but, with little in the way of resources, not much has been done. Occasional food distributions have taken place on a hit-and-miss basis throughout the country. If you are interested in donating now, without reading further, please click here. Following is Nhimbe’s story with our progress the last couple of months.

In March we bought $4,500 worth of maize to help get the staff through the year until March of 2025. Then in the beginning of May we were blessed by a partnership with Healing Hands International (HHI) who generously donated permaculture training and seeds to the residents. They are a spiritually-based organization that doesn’t bring in the evangelical arm of their commitment to alleviate suffering, so it was a perfect match for us, as we within Ancient Ways are apolitical and secular, while being spiritually based.

It took us a few weeks to get organized and locate bulk quantities of supplies. Muda went several places to get a good deal. This bucket salesman assures us he has the right number. And then, just contemplate the transportation of the hoses, buckets and plastic hardware.

The Magaya’s kindly hosted the teacher, and one person from each of 106 families was able to attend an extremely well-designed workshop. The HHI organization has so much experience all over the world, specifically promoting food security in Zimbabwe, that everyone was absolutely delighted at the quality of teaching.

Workshop Prep

It went amazingly well, particularly considering the number of participants and the making up of the drip hose kits on the spot from all the pieces purchased. Really . . . what a relief!

They learned how to use cornstalks and manure to build the beds so that the breakdown of the plant matter will continue to sustain the growth.

Compost Building

They studied raised bed building, compost pile building, various techniques for watering crops during a drought, and how/what/when to plant. The particular drip hoses we use are 100’ long which, using a coupler, provided making two 50’ long rows, to be used on 4’ wide rows. The pre-drilled hoses have about 16” between holes. These hoses hook up to a bucket with the plastic hardware.

The next 200 drip hose units have been purchased from our emergency savings including a donation from ZCDP. We spent close to $3,900 on these drip hoses in May. Although nerve-wracking to touch the funds, I knew it was an investment we just had to make. And now seeing the pictures just makes my heart sing! Thank you for your support in this.

Irrigation and Planting
Transplanting Completion
Awarding Certificates at Workshop Completion

We fed them a meal as part of the first day. Each participant received a diploma (although this photo doesn’t show everyone) and was gifted a drip hose system after a very full two days’ work.

We have nearly 200 families yet needing this course and are hopeful that HHI will return after seeing our follow-up pics and videos. They have been so incredibly supportive to us. Muda provided them with all of what they needed to do their job well, like having several villagers bring special kinds of digging tools, and then also, he followed up with Febby, our co-director, going to many homes to see how people were doing with what they had learned. Muda then sent that documentation on to the teacher and we are waiting for a reply. Here is a photo of the garden 2 months after the workshop at the Community Center.

Rows of Growing Crops

We also have a short video to share the 2-month follow-up at the Community Center here. When Muda and Febby went to the villagers’ homes they found great results as well (click here).

This is sure a nice show of greens about which the family is very pleased.

Check out this slide show also at the various students’ homes. They took the class material and put it to work!
Villagers holding healthy plants
Home Update 2 month (6)-
Row of health plants
Irrigation System Bucket and Healthy Plants
Irrigation system
Long row of plants with irrigation piping
Man standing next to irrigation system and plants
Long row of plants with irrigation piping
Compost Pile
Man next to compost pile

The situation is dire, and Zimbabwe, as a whole, is suffering greatly due to this drought. Unless you watch BBC or read a Zimbabwean newspaper online, you may be in the dark. Of course, our US news just doesn’t carry much of a story about the situation. We are asking you to contribute to make it possible for these residents to be able to grow basics. Fruits and vegetables, although not meat and potatoes (maize actually over there), provide the foundational vitamins and minerals to fuel so many nutritional needs in our bodies. They are earnestly doing their part, and we appreciate anything you can do to help us help them. Please click here to go to the marketplace . . . whatever you can do makes a difference. Thank you so much!

We stand in continued awe of your support over the years as we remain steadfast in reaching out across the planet. Of course, it was the music that Dumisani taught which first brought me to an awareness of the plight of Zimbabwe. That, coupled with a passion to help people, has put me on this path…2024 brings 30 years as Ancient Ways and 25 years on behalf of Nhimbe for Progress. We are so grateful for your assistance, as are each of the Nhimbe residents and beyond their villages. Besides this current crisis, the ongoing programs and services bring much joy and hope to the families primarily because we are reaching their children in myriad ways – all thanks to you. Many Tender Blessings Your Way!

Picture of Woman at New Well

Thank You Soooo Much!

by Project UpdatesWells

Your rapid and generous response has made it possible to give a go-ahead for building the four elderly widows’ wells!

It is with incredible gratitude that the members of Nhimbe and all of us involved say “Tatenda Chaizvo”.  You know, over there, when one person sees that there is an improvement for their neighbor, it gives them some hope.  Like a ray of sunshine in a sometimes darkened tunnel, where one’s vision can only see the difficulties (we’ve all been there), these changes to lifestyle affect them deeply.  Everyone they know is actually impacted by this.

Both directly, in terms of their increased prosperity, personal power, and how they show up in their community, as well as indirectly, just seeing Nhimbe benefit another resident, leaves a lasting imprint on their hearts and minds.

Here is another example of the situation with the wells.  This is Matirida Socha.  She is 82 years old and her well is hand dug, never having bricks.  She lives in the Magaya village.

Picture of Woman at New Well

This picture shows Isaac, our Building and Security manager, demonstrating how she pulls up her water from this type of well, which is normally quite turbid, plus contaminated with ground water runoff.  Once these kinds of wells collapse the situation is impossible . . . its not just dirt, but mud. 

Picture of Hand Dug Well

Your donations are making this a thing of the past!

Thank you again for your humanitarian heart, bringing hope and humanity to an otherwise unbearable hardship!  May the “water angels” bless you to overflowing your cup’s brim!

Picture of the woman next to her log covered well

Urgent Request – Elderly Need Water!

by Project UpdatesWells

End-of-summer greetings to all!  We are deep in the well building process for the nine wells that were donated this year, and that is very exciting.  The rainy season is coming soon enough, and these wells must get completed before then.  We are making good progress, but, what has surfaced is a need for four more wells, which we currently have no source of funds to build.  This has just come up and is outside of our expected budget for 2022. The timing is difficult also, since we are focusing on 2023 operating requirements as we head into the end of the year.

These wells are for four elderly widows whose wells have collapsed. These ambuyas (elder women) are in their 70’s.  Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated by all.  The Shona people have a great reverence for their elderly and bringing water to these women would be a blessing for everyone…a very genuine way of honoring these women in their lives. 

Picture of the woman next to her log covered well

Let’s look at two of these women’s lives more closely. First is Loice Mhike, who is 76 years old and living in Muriritirwa village. Her children are away and can hardly fend for themselves. Originally built with bricks, her well collapsed in 2020. Loice has covered her well with all sorts of logs, so that no person or animal will fall in, and also to keep some of the farm-life debris out. Her kale-type of plants are there in the background, which is a beautiful sight.

Picture of the close up of the walls

You can see from the close-up, that the walls of the well are further giving way with exposed roots showing. We can hear her explaining to Muda what has happened in the following video.

This is Erita Dzukwa who is 74 years old. All of her children have passed on and she is looking after her grandchildren, which is no small matter. She is part of Magaya village, and lives near Isaac, our Building and Security manager. Her well is just an open one and no bricks were ever used, also collapsing around 2020 due to the heavy rains. She has incorporated every type of scrap metal possible to create a covering for the well hole. We can see a large area on the front corner for contaminated ground water to enter, as well as objects of various sorts.

Picture of woman next to her metal scrap

The resourcefulness of people in hardship is really touching. Trying by all means to have some decent protection of their water source must feel like an uphill battle.

What they really need is a clean water well built by Nhimbe for Progress! We provide cement and bricks and labor. Normally, the family chips in on the digging of the well, by getting help from a nephew, son, grandson, etc. But, in these four cases with these elderly widows, they have no kin close by to give them a hand with the digging.

For us to hire the diggers, it would take an extra $56 for each well. That brings the total from $330 to $386. Is this something you can include in your budget or share in the cost?

Any amount will help! We must raise $1,544 to meet this goal for these ambuyas to have clean water for drinking, bathing, cleaning, and gardening. Clean water holds the potential for prosperity in all ways, yes?

Thank you for whatever you and your family can do! We here in the USA are so blessed to have clean water at our fingertips. Consider making availability of clean water a reality for one or more of these widows on the other side of the planet. Although you don’t know them, we all have the same needs . . . we all deserve the basics! Thank you for your consideration . . . you can help here, now!

Tatenda Chaizvo!

2021 Year End Gratitude!

by FundraisersProject UpdatesWells

Thank you again for the continued support of Nhimbe for Progress through your positive thoughts, encouraging words and your generous donations, all of which have a direct affect on the future of the Mhondoro residents!

2021 is almost over and there is still time for fully tax-deductible donations. I’m moved on a regular basis by the larger spiritual backing, which keeps this all moving forward, because you and I, by ourselves, are not the bigger agenda.  When I’m troubled and can’t see the way forward, I keep turning it back to them, the Allies, whether that is all of our ancestors, the angels, the forces of Large Love emanating through God, or whatever (I work at not limiting this unlimited and indescribable grace). I remind them that they started this work, and they are responsible to keep it moving along nicely!  Its easy to get overwrought with concern when I put myself in someone else’s shoes, so just need to keep redirecting to clarify what is actually involved in transformation and change.  We just each do our part!

One of the incredible feats this year (among many) was your response when the villages were impacted by Cyclone Eloise.  At first, we thought we just needed to repair the Community Center so that school, MMC and other activities could continue.  But then, we realized that 22 families lost their wells due to the continued storms and pounding rain.  Through your assistance we were able to rebuild these wells in short order.  This is something great that ripples…it’s not just that they can get water for daily activities, but the health of each family member feels this lifestyle change.  Thank you for all the ways you contribute…Tatenda Chaizvo.

Isaac has introduced us to this resident whose family has benefited from Nhimbe for Progress services in Mhondoro, Zimbabwe since the beginning of our work there. Ancient Ways began this project in 2000, and has provided many programs to uplift the people since then.  In this video Tafanei Nyamainashe, from the Gore village, is explaining in Shona that he wants to thank Nhimbe for all of the assistance. His family started receiving help when huts were being built, school fees being paid for the children, along with uniforms for the students, and now, he has a well.  He wants to thank Nhimbe, and says “may you continue assisting us all!” 

We all appreciate that sentiment!  Thank you again for how you contribute to their lives, and to my life enriching the work into which I’ve chosen to put my creativity and Large Love.  I hope you know that thousands of people are all blessed by your generosity of spirit.  Each village resident’s life is enhanced in untold ways, which touches all of their extended family members throughout Zimbabwe and other places in the world. Watch for stories about these families, coming in 2022.

If you haven’t read the annual letters, here is a link to get you started, and if you haven’t yet donated  please feel free here!  Thank you all so much and have a wonderful and safe new year!

UNICEF is Providing Nhimbe Well Pump

by Project UpdatesWellsYouth Well Being

UNICEF has chosen the Nhimbe for Progress preschool as one of its first sites to install a well pump in the rural Mhondoro area. The reason given was our great track record and stability! This well pump will increase the gallons per minute phenomenally compared to manually bringing a bucket out at a time. This is still a manual operation but empowers those gardening, cooking and cleaning to achieve must easier results. We are very grateful for this recognition from UNICEF as well as for the practical nature of this gift!