ZPSF April Trip reports, pending USA close down and what we are up to.

Dear Zimbabwe Pensioner Support Fund Supporters and Friends,

Hoping everyone is having an awesome Monday so far and wishing you a peaceful week ahead. Please find in good order our April 2025 Trip reports and what we are up to currently as you will see there is tons happening. The April round trip on the UD 90 truck was done by Neels Koekemoer & Frans Schultz on the truck while Johan and Angela were on the Bakkie for Bulawayo and surround deliveries. Thank you to the team on the ground who make sure the “Magic” gets packed and delivered. A big thank you to Neels Koekemoer for stepping in to assist us on the truck. I hope you enjoy reading both trip reports and going along for the drive with the team.

Here is a small excerpt from Johans trip report- “We delivered the rest of the parcels to the single homes over the next two days, visiting as we went. It was such a joy seeing at my old friends that I have not seen for so long. Most missed as some just have soft spot in your heart and give a warm and fuzzy feeling when seeing them (Carol Careia and Reta Wythoff). I saw so many faces; we deliver a total of 84 individual boxes in the Bullies area and the past two days are a blur of happy, tearful and tea drinking days. It will be unfair to mention specific stand out visits as they are all special in their own quirky way, like watching Jenny Broughton and Rob Enslin unpacking their boxes and squealing with delight at some of their favourite items in the box, like the custard and dried fruit. Of course, the Beacon Marshmallow Eggs are also a HUGE winner here. Thanks for all the joyful and happy faces. A visit at Rob Heartman, gets left to almost last as a visit there always takes at least half an hour as he walks after the car to have another last say. The oldies are hungry for visitors and some new ears for their old stories. Lots of thanks goes out to the donors and team for what they do. I have experienced another profound thought-provoking experience in how resourceful and resilient people are in the face of adversity. The focus is a day-to-day survival and accepting that there is not much prospect in things getting better in their lifetime.”

We are hectically busy with the final preparation for our first of the 2 Winter trips, June then August. We are once again planning to bulk up the boxes as much as possible with warm nourishing meals. For those wanting to donate a few extra pennies feel free, we are definitely putting them to good use. As always, it’s difficult with finding suppliers who are able and willing to assist us in the quantities we need. So please if anyone has contacts feel free to share them with us. When you read my message below you will understand what an issue at least this week’s delay will cause in our progress. But I guess you can’t always pick what happens when.

From my side I had surgery on my right arm early February this year and it does not seem to have worked or something went wrong. Anyway, long story short, I am off to Pretoria tomorrow after managing to cut a long line for an appointment to see another specialist and hopefully she will be able to come up with a plan or fix. Constant pain is not a problem I am used to that, but pain to this extent I can longer cope with, along with barely having the use of my right arm. So this is also a bit of a heads up that I might once again be undergoing surgery to repair my right arm, and it looks like I will be out of office for possibly the next week.

From the USA-ZPSF side we had an unexpected hiccup –

After careful deliberation we have decided to wind-up and dissolve ZPSF-USA effective August 31, 2025. There are a number of factors which have prompted this decision, including changes in U.S. tax laws relating to the deductibility of charitable contributions.
We are committed to affecting the dissolution as smoothly as possible and will make every effort to help ZPSF ensure that our donors have the information necessary to enable them to direct their contributions to ZPSF-SA. It is not our intention to abandon our pensioners, and we intend to donate to ZPSF-SA each year and will encourage others to do so as well.

Finally, all required steps, mandated by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), will be carefully followed and completed.
Thanks again for all you have done for our precious Oldies over the years. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to work together.

With loads of appreciation,

Caron

ARE THERE ANY RHODIES IN USA THAT WOULD LIKE TO HELP SAVE THE USA BRANCH.

I would not like to jump the gun on closing the USA branch of the ZPSF down and loose the Tax-Deductible Receipts we can currently issue. However, If we don’t find suitable candidates then we will have to revert to only WISE and PayPal SA.

If you have administrative experience and would be interested in assisting ZPSF-USA in maintaining its charitable program, please contact Linda Schultz in South Africa and she will put you in contact with Caron. Ideally, our new executive volunteers will be well organized and detail-oriented individuals, and passionate about helping our precious Golden Oldies as they struggle to make ends meet.

Email: linda@zpsf.co.za – / zpsf@zpsf.onmicrosoft.com

(C) +27 79 6082676

We have been in around for 23 years and sometimes it’s still hard to believe that just over 23 years ago in January 2002 Hannes Botha received an appeal for help from a pensioner in Bulawayo Zimbabwe. The pensioner had no funds and no food . Hannes bought enough food to fill his Ford Meteor car, took a week’s leave and drove the 1000 kilometres to Bulawayo and delivered food to the pensioner. A few months later he went up to Zimbabwe and supplied the pensioner with food. He was asked to supply a pensioner with food at the Huisvergesig Old Age home in Gweru. This he did and when he noticed how the other pensioners in the home were staring at him and the box of food, he realised that they also needed food. It took Hannes another 8 months to buy enough food to supply 36 pensioners with a food hamper at this home. The pensioners did not know that they would be receiving food and some of them were so overwhelmed that they cried. This is when Hannes realised that there was a crisis facing the pensioners in Zimbabwe. Their pensions were fast becoming worthless as inflation was out of control. Hannes then started the Zimbabwe Pensioner Supporter Fund as he could no longer carry the cost on his own. December 2003 Hannes bought a 4 ton Toyota Dyna truck as he was supplying more than 100 pensioners with food. As donations were received the ZPSF expanded its relief efforts until it was supplying more than 400 pensioners with food, clothing and basic medicine every 3 months. Talk about an adventure and we are still going.

This is not an easy undertaking by any means and trust me we take all the stress and losses very personally. Once again, our Golden Oldies in Zimbabwe tenacity is being tested to the max, but we are still here, and we shall go no matter what in whichever way we can. For those who have been supporting us for a long time, you have read the regular trip reports, read all about the challenges, trials and loses we have had. There are currently reports of shops being empty or just the stock no matter how basic being priced beyond the average Joe’s means. There our so many stories / rumours going around at the moment about the extremely volatile situation brewing in Zimbabwe now one is not sure what to believe. All we know is that this makes life so much harder and more uncertain for our Golden Oldies. However, with everyone’s support out there and your continued prayers we are going to keep doing what we do no matter what.

Also don’t forget if you would like to join us on a trip or be a driver on one of the vehicles to let Johan know johan@zpsf.co.za or call 0824979328.

These food hampers serve 2 purposes.

1 They supply much needed food to the pensioner.

2 The pensioner then knows that someone cares about them

We are an officially registered Non-Profit Organization and Section 21A in South Africa and are registered with SARS as a Public Benefit Organization in terms of section 18A the Income Tax Act (Which means all South African donations are issued with a Tax Certificate and can be claimed back). PLEASE LET US KNOW IF YOU WOULD LIKE A TAX CERTIFICATE STATING ALL YOU DONATIONS. They will be issued once our Financial Year End has been processed, so from about mid-April 2025. The following branches are registered sub branches of the ZPSF-SA, ZPSF-UK supporters can be issued with a Gift Aid Certificate via Anne Tourle and the USA account is a Registered 501(c)3 organization and as such Tax-deductible receipts available for USA-ZPSF donors via Caron Berryhill.

Our Various Banking Details:

Our new 2025 PayPal donate link to make things easier for donors around the world: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=9ZQDM4CW696M2

We have had a few people saying PayPal is no longer an option as of 2 years ago we do have WISE accounts for https://www.zpsf.co.za/how-to-donate/ – wise-bank-account-details-for-uk-canada-euro-new-zealand-australia-usa

SA Account
ZIMBABWE PENSIONER SUPPORTER FUND
FIRST NATIONAL BANK
MALELANE BRANCH
BRANCH CODE 270952
ACCOUNT NUMBER 62239042906
SWIFT CODE FIRNZAJJ
Please if you make a Donation to this account is you can send a mail to myself linda@zpsf.co.za so that I can send you an acknowledgement of Donation.

UK Account – Our NEW UK banking details:
ZIMBABWE PENSIONER SUPPORT FUND
Barclays Bank, West Swindon
Sort code:20-68-15
Account No: 23398579
Swift Code is:BUKGB22
IBAN is: GB49 BUKB 20681523398579
Please if you make a Donation to this account is you can send a mail to Anne Tourle zpsfuk@gmail.com so that she may send you an acknowledgement of Donation

USA ACCOUNT
ZIMBABWE PENSIONERS SUPPORT FUND – USA
A Registered 501(c)3 organization. Tax-deductible receipts available for USA donors.
Donations via PayPal, use the following link: www.zpsf.co.za and go to the USA donation link
USA address to post cheques
PO Box 257,
Summerland
CA 93067
The USA now has Venmo for easier payments.
To request additional information, or receipts, please email Caron at caron.b@cox.net

The new details for donations made in Australia are below
Account Name : Rhodesian Services Association of WA Inc  ” ZPSF Fund”
Westpac
BSB 036080
Account No. 773736
Please include name and ZPSF in the reference. Acknowledgement will be given in our quarterly newsletter. If any queries or receipts are required Neville Abrams is the new contact nevandstell@gmail.com

Thank you so much for helping us support our “Golden Oldies” during these crazy times. Your support is invaluable and we at the ZPSF would never be able to sustain our regular supply of relief parcels if it were not for donations and support such as yours. All of this happens because of people like you, our Donors ensure our wheels keep turning, you are all truly amazing. THANK YOU and God Bless.

We hope everyone is keeping safe and healthy. If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact us, ask your questions, check the references that we give you and then PLEASE support our old Rhodesian pensioners who have nowhere to go.

Thank you for your support towards our Golden Oldies, you make the Magic and we deliver it.

Doing what we say we do, real people helping real people.

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