News

Magda and Sławek, two volunteers from Poland, often came to the Mthunzi and played with our children during their stay at Mujo’s school in Linda. Thank you very much for your heart?

Ewelina and Faustyna, two volunteers from Poland who came to volunteer at Mujo’s school in Linda, also came to help our children in the M’thunzi House. Thank you for the time you spent together with us!

Fr Jacek, who came from Poland to Linda for the ASBIRO Business Camp, visited Mthunzi House. A meeting was held and we talked about current affairs and plans for the future. The Mthunzi House is ready to open up to receive volunteers from Poland. One part of the house facing the street can be easily adapted as a volunteers’ flat with a bathroom and an independent kitchen. Before Fr Jacek came, we started breeding chickens to raise funds for our statutory purposes.

The year 2021 was still a year under the scare of COVID-19. However partly due to the strict measures we had put in place, none of our community members fell a victim. We still continue to have three core-members and three assistants. From about July 2021, the main house had a major facelift. All the twelve broken doors were replaced by more durable Mukwa doors, complete with new padlocks. The floors in the whole house and walls in the bathrooms, toilets and kitchen have been tiled. The remaining walls have been painted, giving the house a bright outlook. Around Christmas time we sold 300 chickens, our first batch. The chicken rearing project has been put in place as a source of income. We now have our own water supply. The headaches of having erratic water supply from the local utility company are over. A borehole was drilled and a 5,000-litre tank erected.

Fr Jacek Gniadek SVD wrote an article for the Polish missionary magazine “Misjonrz” in which he talks about how the idea of ​​creating a home for people with learning disabilities was born in Linda:
“(…) Mildred, Hellen, Emma and Foster came to my office next to the sacristy in Linda in 2015. We started to meet regularly in the working group. I told them about my experience of working as an assistant at L’Arche. The Ark taught me that everyone has a certain degree of disability. In the presence of someone who knows the Chinese language, I am disabled because I do not know the language and I cannot communicate with it. This line of reasoning turned my understanding of the world completely upside down.” Read in full “Build on the rock”

Two volunteers from Poland visited our community in August 2022. Natalia, a special educator by training, wrote to Fr Jacek on her return to Poland: “During my visits to M’thunzi, I conducted therapeutic activities, focusing on the children’s perceived difficulties. I mainly developed their eye-hand coordination and visual and auditory perception. I also focused on speech therapy exercises to improve the articulatory apparatus. All the activities I carried out took the form of play, and I used aids and objects that can be found in every home, including in Zambia. Seeing the interest and involvement of the carers in the activities I proposed, I took it upon myself to run short training sessions for them. These were based on different spheres of child functioning. I described and presented exercises that improve small and large motor skills, cognitive functions and the articulatory apparatus. I tried to ensure that each activity was appropriate to the children’s age and level of functioning, and could be carried out by any carer. In addition to presenting examples of exercises, I described what their role is, what function they play and what positive effects they can have on children. The carers were very engaged and eager to listen. I left behind notes from each training session, on which I described the additional tasks and also prepared the basic aids for carrying them out. I hope the children continue to practise and strengthen their skills. “