The Feeding Program
In 2014 I found myself travelling through a rural area in northern Zimbabwe with the outreach workers from St Alberts Mission hospital: we were in search of a seven year old orphan girl who had been missing school. We found her, neglected, weak and starving – a common story in this region – and it triggered a response that continues to the present.
In partnership with the hospital team, we started a school feeding program at two impoverished rural schools. Every morning every child would receive a serving of a nutritionally-fortified liquid porridge called maheu.
Children in the food insecure region of northern Zimbabwe are typically malnourished, lethargic, unable to concentrate, and pass rates are dismally low. Absenteeism is high because often students don’t have the physical strength to walk the many kilometres to school. Many are stunted as a result of poor nutrition. Many are AIDS orphans who don’t want to take their ARV meds which make them nauseous if they haven’t eaten.
The program was so successful that we soon found ourselves feeding over a thousand school children every morning – I had to find help with fundraising.
In early 2023 the St Joseph’s community decided to donate their Lenten appeal to the school feeding program. As it turned out, they were so generous that the program was able to expand to include another school, Nyadevi Primary, and this year that generous response has been repeated.
Recently the principal at Nyadevi School wrote to express his thanks, noting that enrolments had increased, the health of the children was much improved, daily attendance had improved, and school results had risen from 25% to 85%!
He added “The Nyadevi staff, pupils and the entire community is thanking our donor for supplying us with Maheu. We greatly appreciate your support. May the Almighty continue to bless you.”
Couldn’t have put it better myself!
Lesley Lysaght
Founder & Ambassador of the Feeding Program begun in 2014
ZIMBABWEE
Dunedoo Project
The hallmark of who we are as a community is in our connection with each other, and from this strength we provide ‘outreach’ to current needs.
Over the years substantial support has been afforded to St Vincent de Paul’s vast areas of need, to the Cana Community for the Homeless, and most recently to our drought-stricken community of St Joseph’s at Dunedoo.
As a practical manifestation of the St Joseph’s ‘Network for Good’ program our community came together in the months before Christmas 2019 to help country families in the NSW town of Dunedoo, who were doing it particularly tough as a result of the 4 year drought.
The connection with Dunedoo came about through a particular relationship forged with St Michael’s Catholic Primary School, a small school with less than 40 families, the majority of whom are either farmers or dependant on primary production for their livelihood. The Principal of St Joseph’s, Sr Margaret, is a Josephite nun.
As well as asking our community to donate to an appeal to raise money for these families, to help make their Christmas a little bit brighter, we asked everyone to write a letter to each family member to let our Dunedoo brothers and sisters know that we were thinking of them. The response in donations and letters and cards was immediate and overwhelming with community members even involving other schools in writing letters to every child at St Michael’s and their siblings. One pre-school community also supported our appeal by having parents buy presents for every child at St Michaels. The letters, cards and gifts were all taken personally to Dunedoo where they were presented to families at the school’s end of year gathering.
Dunedoo families were completely bowled over by our gesture which had the desired effect of brightening their Christmas and restoring hope and optimism within the community. For our St Joseph’s community, the appeal provided a real sense of engagement and solidarity, in being able to do something tangible to relieve the human distress of those suffering from the drought.
Dunedoo’s Drought
