Keith and Ida have had a busy start to the year, with some challenges along the way, as well as positive outcomes too.

With support from friends of Kandiana, they have been able to renovate the care home; the rooms have been repainted, the toilets re-floored, showers tiled and the stove repaired and a washing machine has also been purchased. The wages for Catherine and Sepiso have also been secured for another year and the home has a new resident, Belita, who is from Lukulu, and another lady, Namonda, will arrive from Mongu shortly.

They put another 1,000 fingerlings (very young fish) into the pond a month ago and there are now two cohorts of ‘layers’ in the Chicken Project, although these were not sexed before they were picked up, so there are some cockerels among them which will be sold for food (this will help cover the cost of feeding them!).

Keith and Ida were also very pleased with a wonderful Art Therapy Workshop run by Liz Hall and Lesley Hill. The session was for staff and vulnerable groups at the hospital, and aimed to enhance mental well-being and address the knowledge and skills gap around this therapeutic approach in Mwandi. With further training it should become an ongoing project which staff will be able to run independently in the future.

The new Diagnostic Centre for X-Ray and other ECG, Ultrasound  and CT Scan is now complete, although issues around the electrical supply and power cuts are having an impact on these services.

Unfortunately they have had to lay off two of their full-time brickyard workers and offer part-time work instead because there are not enough orders coming in currently and they are having to compete with cheaper, poorer quality blocks made with sand and cement that are readily available in the village. The project’s main client is the Mission Hospital and a few NGOs who are constructing public buildings.

The schools didn’t re-open after the Christmas/New Year break until mid-February because of a cholera epidemic, mainly in the more densely populated areas, which highlighted the need to improve the water and sanitation infrastructure in compounds.

The impact of El Nino this year has been devastating in Mwandi, with poor rainfall and unseasonably high temperatures most days affecting the whole country, leading to the worst drought in 40 years. Between 2 and 3 million people are already facing hunger and malnutrition and in Mwandi District 85 per cent of households face food insecrurity from crop failure, with 90 per cent of the crops destroyed.

Keith and Ida have been working with World Renew and have also been awarded a grant by a church in the USA which will go towards a nutrition programme for malnourished patients in the hospital and provide a standard food package for selected vulnerable patients on their discharge.

In April they welcomed two medical students from Edinburgh who have been doing their tropical medicine placements, as well as two women from Hands Around the World and an American surgical team.

Keith and Ida arrive in Edinburgh for two months furlough at the end of April and are looking forward to catching up with us at Morning Worship on June 23, followed by our Congregational Lunch.