Compassionate Hands - Medical Supplies for Zimbabwe

We are please to announce that on February 8th, a 40' container packed full of medical supplies began its trip overseas to Zimbabwe.  If all goes according to plan, the supplies should arrive in Harare sometime in late March. 

For everyone that donated or worked on this project, this is tremendously exciting news. In March of 2009, we started with a heart simply filled with compassion and the desire to want to make a difference. Our mission to help save the lives of people unable to care for themselves. Frankly, the idea was beyond our means. We neither had the resources nor the manpower to pull this off and yet we did. How? First and foremost by the grace of God. He opened doors in ways that it was clear to us that we were on a divine mission. He cares very deeply about the plight of the Zimbabwean people. Secondly, it was through the kindness of many people here in Kansas City and around the world that came together to make this happen. This project while coordinated by Compassionate Justice International was actually a collaboration of many people and groups. We'd like to thank all of them for their generosity and acknowledge their contributions:

Brian Houston (Singer/Songwriter, Ireland)
Colin Brown (Director: Deutsche Bank Africa Foundation, South Africa)
Mark Seely & Bernie Bracken (Mercy & Truth Medical Missions)
Terry Hartley (Director: Generation Hope, Kansas City)
Mary Bautista & Student Nurses (Kansas City Community College)
Juan Swart (General Manager: The Hartley Group)
John Shore (Shore Tire)
Glenn Henry (G.W. Van Keppel Co.)
Heartland Community Church
Bob Ablanap & Jack Oswald (One World Transport)
Mike Morris (Children's Evangelistic Ministries)
Sean Malone (Crisis Response International)
Dave Gregory (Carondelet Health Care)
KU Medical Center

Once the supplies reach their destination, some will be used to set up a medical clinic near Harare.  The clinic will immediately service 3,000 orphaned children. It will also serve as a base of operations for mobile medical teams who work in the rural areas where there is no medical care.  A portion of the supplies will also be shipped south to restock a couple of rural hospitals south and east of Bulawayo.

With Zimbabwe's economy in taters, the few public hospitals in the major cities that remain open are seriously understaffed and without supplies.  Most people now drive out to the church run rural hospitals for medical care. This has put a huge strain on their capacity and supplies. It's these hospitals, run by people we have personal relationships  with, Compassionate Justice wants to help.  The staff at these clinics are people of integrity motivated by a desire to heal and care for those that are hurting. In May of 2010, CJI Director Bob Scott plans on visiting Zimbabwe to follow up with each of the groups that received supplies and see how they are being utilized.

The current warehouse building that we have been using is now for sale and so we are looking for a new facility. Once we have secured a new location we will begin accepting medical supply donations in order to ship another container over as soon as possible.

Last week, CJI Director Bob Scott and long time colleague Charles Lynn flew to New York city for meetings hosted by The Council for Zimbabwe. The council is headed up by Dominic Muntanga whose vision it is to create a forum whereby various groups who are working in Zimbabwe can come together to share ideas and collaborate on various projects. It was an excellent time of meeting new people and hearing their stories as everyone there was deeply committed to seeing a revitalized Zimbabwe.

The Council for Zimbabwe had planned on hosting a reception for Zimbabwe's Minister of Education, David Coltart on Wednesday night. Unfortunately for many who had planned on attending the event, mother nature didn't cooperate and a blizzard shut down the city. Due to the storm, David's schedule was thrown into complete chaos but opened up an opportunity for Bob & Charles to get some quality private time with the Minister. The meeting went well and both of them left extremely impressed not only with David as a person but his commitment to seeing Zimbabwe's children have an opportunity for a good education.

The task in front of David is monumental as he overseas the education of 3,000,000 children in 8,000 schools. Even though education in Zimbabwe is highly valued culturally, the country's education system (once the model for Africa) is in complete ruin. David's working with a budget of less that $1 per month per child! While the responsibility seems like an impossible task, he's rolled up both his sleeves and gone to work. He's passionately dedicated to seeing that the children of Zimbabwe don't get left behind.

As a result of the meetings, CJI is working on a plan to see how we can support David in this very significant undertaking. We believe strongly that Zimbabwe's children are her future. What is sown into them now is where the country will be in 20 years. The very least we can do once we've secured new warehouse space, is to begin collecting books and school supplies to ship over at a later date. On a more ambitious note, David has developed a preliminary plan to focus on restoring 20-30 schools he calls "Centre's for Excellence." These are schools that have the best potential academically and with school facilities that need minimal remodeling. This would be a wonderful opportunity for corporate sponsorship as each school will need about $1,000,000 to get them back up and running to turn out highly motivated students.

Please keep David in your thoughts and prayers as he needs wisdom to navigate through the very polarized political environment in Zimbabwe. He's a man of deep conviction and it was clear from the meetings and his track record that he is not driven by political ideology as much as an understanding of how important these children are to Zimbabwe's future.

We are pleased to announce that Bob Scott's book "Saving Zimbabwe" will be released in South Africa on April 10th with a new cover. We are under strict orders not to publish the new cover design until April 1st so you will have to wait until then to get a sneak peek. We would appreciate you telling friends and family that the book will be available in the stores on the 10th. We hope to have news soon about the UK.

The publishers have requested Bob return to SA the week of April 19-23 for a book/media tour. This will be a excellent opportunity to meet with journalists and broadcasters and tell them the story behind the book. We believe strongly the people from The Community of Reconciliation modeled a way forward for Zimbabwe. Though their premature deaths were tragic, what they lived for should be celebrated. We look forward to standing with Thabani Dube, Matthew Marias, Guide Ncube and others as we honor this amazing group of people.

After the book/media tour, Bob will be visiting Zimbabwe for strategic meetings and following up on the development of the medical clinic near Harare.

Besides the monthly support we need to cover overhead costs, here are specific needs we currently have;

1) 10,000 Sq. Ft. Warehouse space
2) Pick up & Delivery Truck
3) Fork lift
4) Medical Supplies
5) Educational Supplies
6) Funds for Shipping Containers ($15k per container)
7) Funds for April Africa trip $7,000