Sponsor a lamp for a Golden Oldies – https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=XRV7T22RE3N8W&source=url
Adopt A Golden Oldie $60 via PayPal – https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=6SPFLV4L39PKU
To donate your own amount via PayPal – https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=2HXXZLWCERNK6
So hopefully by this time next week I should hopefully be well on my way to Bulawayo, this is of course all dependent on the current situation in Zimbabwe. With their sudden currency changes and banning use of Forex we are not sure what the future is going to bring. One thing I can say for sure is it is not going to make life any easier for our Golden Oldies. This whole situation is having a severe on many of our Golden Oldies, some of whom we have been supporting since we started. Getting basic meds is almost impossible, one can physically the strain and pain on so many of their faces, the weight loss and air of frailty that is hanging around these proud people. This is our way to let the World know of and show their support for our Golden Oldies still in Zimbabwe, whom we have been helping to support with food aid parcels and basic medical supplies for over 17 years. Our Golden Oldies are part of an era that no longer exists, they stayed behind showing faith in a system, that not only let them down but totally ceased to exist. They have lost everything, farms, homes, life savings and in a lot of cases hope. This is where you come in, with your donations we show them that people all over the world still care about them. They may not necessarily be friends or family but there is a worldwide network of supporters who make what we do possible
Some words from Dave” While visiting these homes I was saddened to hear of the spiraling costs of basic necessities that are just out of all our Pensioners reach. For some their chronice meds cost twice their pension if not more, so now they are having to do without or play inni mini mo and decide which meds they will take this month. How these folks are surviving and making it under these very difficult circumstances is beyond understanding What with power outages and the cost of diesel / petrol going up almost daily yet they go on and I’m quite sure support help comes from within and ALL those around them. Also from Our Heavenly Father. AMEN. “
It is truly heartbreaking that a generation that worked hard their whole lives,
made adequate provision for their old days should have to go through something
like this not once but twice.
Once again THANK YOU to everyone who supports us in whatever way, you are truly Angels!!!
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Cathy Buckle – June 20 2019
Dear Family and Friends,
Returning to Zimbabwe after a short time away nothing can prepare you for what awaits. The sky is bright and blue, the grass tall and golden and the people always friendly and welcoming. Fleeting glimpses of starlings, kingfishers, louries and hoopoes remind you of the wonderful diversity of life in winter in Zimbabwe. On the roundabout as you approach the capital city, beautiful orange Kurrichane thrushes stab at the dry grass around life- size, wrought iron sculptures of elephants, lions and hyenas and start your heart beating again: you are home, the pulse of our beautiful Zimbabwe starts thumping in your chest.
Going into a supermarket for the first time in a fortnight is a monumental shock. Prices of everything have soared, many items have more than doubled in ten days. Locally produced butter and margarine not available and imported butter, for those who were still able to afford it a fortnight ago, has increased from $35 to $80 for 500 grams. A packet of locally produced sausages has gone from $14 to $24 dollars; locally produced breakfast cereal from $11 to $24; imported breakfast cereal from $24 to $48; instant porridge oats from $24 to $61. Locally grown sugar has increased from $8 to $12 and is in very short supply: two per customer, if you happen to be there at the right time. And then there’s bread, or rather there isn’t any bread. One of the country’s biggest bakeries said they had stopped production because they had run out of wheat. Bakery employees quoted in the media said: “We have been told to go home and wait for news.”
Standing motionless in the supermarket, staggered at what I was seeing and trying to work out what I could afford and what I would have to do without, there was a sudden buzz of voices and people started running past me towards the back of the supermarket. Careful not to get knocked over it took me a minute or so to work out what was going on. Apparently bread was coming out of the in-store ovens and by the time I got to the end of the line there were over fifty people in front of me. In fact it wasn’t a line at all, just crowds of desperate, hungry people, pushing in from every direction to try and get to the front before the bread ran out. I did reach the front and got two precious loaves of bread but they didn’t make it home with me because a friend was desperate. A monthly salary which had only lasted until the 10th of the month and no money left at all for food. Hungry children to feed, rent and bills not paid, no money for medicines; the trauma is being repeated from one person to the next and the next and we spend our days wiping away tears of anguish at the pain of it all.
Everywhere the stories are the same: shops are full but pockets are empty. People’s salaries in Bond dollars have not gone up and are worth less and less by the day as the exchange rate between Bond Dollars and US dollars grows ever wider. People with US dollars are either helping family members survive, buying medicines and paying for medical procedures, or they are trading on the black market and getting very, very rich. At the time of writing you need ten Bond dollars to buy one US dollar on the black market. More and more things are being quoted and charged in US dollars or “at the street rate of the day” so today a cup of tea in a restaurant is US$1 or multiply by ten and pay Bond $10. The official inflation rate is 97% but in reality in the shops prices have increased by 350%.
And then there’s the electricity cuts: currently up to 17 hours a day, in many places power is going off at 4 or 5am and coming back on at 10pm. Between 4am and 10pm your geyser goes cold, fridge defrosts and you can’t use your stove, computer, internet, machines. Water can’t be pumped, production has virtually come to a standstill and even critical sectors including hospitals, schools and institutions have not been spared. ZESA (electricity suppliers) said a couple of days ago that: “Every effort [to keep the power on] will be applied to make sure we get to watch AFCON,” (African Cup of Nations) football games on TV. Football games, you exclaim, what about production, fridges, stoves, geysers, hospitals, old age homes, schools, water? Where are on earth are the priorities; where is the humanity of our government?
Our leaders seem unconcerned and oblivious to the tragedy unfolding across our country or to the enormous suffering of people. They seem to have completely forgotten us. They say these “austerity measures” are necessary for economic recovery and yet show no sign of curtailing their own extravagances: hiring luxury Dreamliner aircraft, buying thousands of weapons to quell protests, hiring American consultancy firms for US$1 million to lobby for sanctions removal; buying US$19 million worth of new vehicles for legislators and so it goes on and all the while we wrestle for a loaf of bread.
The immediate removal of the BOND dollar and return of US dollars, our US dollars which the government unashamedly converted to Bond dollars in February 2019, is the only way countless millions of Zimbabweans are going to survive yet another collapse of Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe’s leaders have learnt absolutely nothing from the economic collapse of 2008 and without drastic, immediate action, we are heading full speed over the cliff.
Until
next time, thank.com (Pictures of images described in this and other letters
can be found at:
http://www.facebook.com/cathybuckleafricantears)s for
reading this Letter from Zimbabwe, now in its 19th year, and for supporting my
books about life in Zimbabwe, love cathy 20 June 2019 .Copyright © Cathy
Buckle. www.lulu.com/spotlight/CathyBuckle2018
For information on my new books “FINDING OUR VOICES,” and “WHEN WINNERS ARE LOSERS,” and other eye witness books about life in Zimbabwe: “SLEEPING LIKE A HARE,” “MILLIONS, BILLIONS, TRILLIONS,” “CAN YOU HEAR THE DRUMS,” “INNOCENT VICTIMS” “AFRICAN TEARS”, “BEYOND TEARS” ”RUNDI,” and “IMIRE,” please go to www.lulu.com/spotlight/CathyBuckle2018 or to subscribe/unsubscribe to this letter, contact cbuckle.zim@gmail
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Please note according to my records I only have one or 2 people still requiring a Tax Certificate for the past financial year. If you think I might have missed you and you require one please email me ASAP as I am going to be in Zimbabwe for 2 weeks with the upcoming trip.
Please Note for a Tax Certificate I require the following:
- Physical Address
- Contact Number
- If Business – Registered Name, Comp Number
- Private – Initials and correct Surname
A huge THANK YOU to all our supporters out there who continue to enable us to
keep doing what we are doing, you are all truly amazing. THANK YOU and God
Bless.
If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact me.
The 3 most important pillars of our cause:
UNIQUENESS – being one of a kind and knowing that the ZPSF is driven by good
will and very passionate members.
TRANSPARENCY – enforcing the rule that all members must be fully informed
before taking part in this noble venture.
ACCOUNTABILITY – Having a traceable paper trail for every cent handled, and
regular revues conducted.
Kind Regards
Linda Schultz
Director – Fund Raising & Awareness for the Zimbabwe Pensioner Support Fund
(C) 079 6082676 (T) 013 7900934
Fax to Email – 086 267 8499
Section 21 Co Reg. 2007/034036/08; NPO Number 096733; Section 18A PBO No 930031642
Alone we can do so little, together we can achieve much more!!!!
Director: Hannes Botha
084 5893221