Cathy Buckles letter says it all. Please help

Dear Family and Friends,

There are some things in Zimbabwe that are so shameful that it's
almost easier to turn away than to witness the reality of some
people's lives.

Recently I went to pay my telephone account on the same day as
pension cheques were supposed to have arrived at the local Post
Office Savings Bank. The two services operate side by side, in the
same building, on the ground floor and on opposite sides of a common
entrance door. The view in front of me was of mayhem. Literally
hundreds of people were crowded around the entrance to the building
and were clearly trying to get into the savings bank.

A security guard was leaning out of the window of the telephone
accounts hall watching the growing crowd. I held up my telephone bill
to indicate what I wanted and he shouted to me: 'Just push in!'

Reluctantly I stepped into the mass of people, apologising, excusing,
requesting passage and all the time showing the crumpled phone bill so
they knew I wasn't trying to get to the Savings Bank.

It took some time to squeeze, push and squash my way through the
crowd and then I realised that there seemed to be a lot of people
with crutches, walking sticks and even two people in wheelchairs.
When I finally got into the telephone accounts hall, very crushed,
battered and dishevelled I asked the security guard what was going
on. He told me that government pension cheques had not been deposited
into peoples accounts and that all these people were refusing to go
away until they got their money. They weren't waiting for a fortune
but for miniscule amounts that they can barely live on for one week,
let alone a month.

The doors of the savings bank were locked, the employees sat inside
chatting while hundreds of near destitute pensioners waited outside.
Word got around that there was no pension money and they should come
back after the weekend. Men and women in their seventies and
eighties, some as old as Zimbabwe's President, roared and surged
forward; glass doors looked in danger of collapsing, a disaster
seemed very close.

With such shame I looked at the men and women who gave a lifetime to
building our country and who were being rewarded like this. There was
nowhere for them to sit, no cups of tea or glasses of water, no polite
explanation, no apology, no respect for age, not even any empathy -
just a locked door. Grey haired, hunched over and so very thin, our
elders waited in vain. Many carried home made walking sticks,
knobbled, knotted and hand carved. Others wore glasses with one lens
missing or frames stuck together with putty; faces were hollow and
mouths shrunken, most with only a few teeth left, none with the
luxury of dentures.One man sat bent over in a wheelchair whose wheels
had been patched up with strips of bicycle tyre, sewn on with big
brown stitches. Almost all of them wore clothes that were long past
their best: suits with frayed cuffs and hems, threadbare dresses with
collars falling apart.

The state that pensioners find themselves in here, through no fault
of their own, is absolutely tragic. Life savings have been wiped out
with hyper inflation and repeated devaluation; assets have been sold
for miniscule amounts in exchange for food and medicines and
children, who could help, are either struggling somewhere in the
diaspora or unemployed and barely surviving themselves. A woman told
me her pension is 62 US dollars a month but her rent is 74 dollars.
Another told me her NSSA pension (social security) is 38 US dollars a
month but her medical aid is 48 US dollars a month, increased from 8
US dollars in December.

Perhaps hardest of all is the knowledge that if you have a fall,
break a bone or get sick, you're done for. Its a very common sight to
see elderly people being pushed in wheelbarrows or lying on the ground
in the dirt outside hospitals waiting for assistance. At our local
government hospital which is a provincial centre, there is now only
one government doctor serving the whole establishment.

As Zanu PF leaders continue to bleat about targeted sanctions that
only affect 203 individuals and 44 companies and say "no more
concessions" until "sanctions' are lifted, the madness goes on. Farms
continue to be grabbed, ever more people lose their homes, jobs and
life's work and more people are made destitute because of the greed
of a handful.

Zimbabwe's pensioners, like so many others in our population are in a
diabolical state which has nothing whatever to do with sanctions and
everything to do with a decade of mis-governance.

I end this week with a request for memories and anecdotes of Imire
Game Park in Wedza between the years 1950 and 2000. So much history
from the countryside has got lost in this dark decade and so many
people who were eye witnesses and could remember have gone. Please
contact me at the email address below if you have any stories you
would be prepared to share of this very special place. Until next
time, thanks for reading, love cathy. Copyright cathy buckle 30
January 2010.

A NEW YEAR - NEW HOPE

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL
Friends and family in Zimbabwe are saying there is hope in the air. An air of expectation, promise of a better future. I am delighted to hear and read of new projects being started new creative ideas and new energy. Just what 2010 needs!!

We can help keep that hope alive.
We have new gardening projects on the go. Hope and encouragement for gardening with self sustainability the key to the future.
We also have new goat projects starting which will also lead to self sustainability.
$40 buys a goat. The goats will have about 3 kid crops each two years 6 kids.
6 kids will sell for $240 which in turn will purchase enough seed to start a self sustaining garden including fertilizer.
To help a community or village. We suggest we start with a garden at a cost of $600 including labor, fertilizer, water, maintinance etc. $200 for goats. At the end of one season the community would have a crop worth $2000 Enough to eat and sell for more seed. They would also have 5 goats which in turn would give at least 10 kids selling at $400 Without going into too much detail you can see that if this is well managed the village become self sufficient within a year. 3 crops a year.

If you are interested in more information or making a donation please contact us through our blog or e mail.
A little makes a huge difference in each persons life. In fact it is often life itself. Until next time. Sue
ps. please send our blog and website to friends.