The Christmas greeting from Susu brings smiles to our faces and rejoicing to our hearts. It is a tangible illustration of a very fruitful year. In Susu village, abundant harvests of watermelons, cabbages and tomatoes were swiftly taken to market in the new farm truck; launching EL Zambia’s income generating effort - Sweet Susu Produce. The programs in both Zambia and Malawi are having a fruitful impact on the several communities they serve through the mobile library initiative, literacy programs, educational opportunities for all ages, and Bible (both adult and children) distributions.
ELI is humbled and grateful to the Lord for all that has been accomplished through your generous gifts and prayers. In this last issue of the year, we pray that the Good News from Africa blesses and encourages your hearts, for you were instrumental in bringing it about. Thank you.
SUSU, ZAMBIA
A grateful thank you to all who contributed to the New Home for the Kids campaign. All those baby goats will soon be moving into a safe and warm new home. This is a huge step forward in the plan to provide nutritious goat milk to the 300 children attending Susu Primary School and establish another income generating project to support the library.
The Susu farmers were rejoicing as the new farm truck arrived just in time to transport the bountiful watermelon and cabbage harvests to Kabwe market. Sweet and fresh watermelons are a favorite treat, so the 3000 plus watermelons were quickly purchased. Cabbages are served in Christmas and New Year meals, so they too found a ready market.
ELI and Susu praise God for His provision. The truck is a necessary resource for the community to continue expanding their agricultural projects and reach the goal of self sustainability of the library and literacy programs. Another BIG thank you to all who contributed to this campaign.
What the dedication of the new Sweet Susu Product Truck
There was great joy and excitement when the new truck rolled into Susu carrying 22 book boxes shipped from America to Kabwe and then driven to the Susu Community Library! A journey of 10,000 miles.
Included in this shipment are children's picture books, literature, reference books, Bibles, puzzles, educational games and so much more. For those in nearby villages and the 18 schools served by the mobile library program, the Susu library is a treasure trove of information and resources. Even high school students home from boarding schools visit the library to use the reference books.
This shipment was made possible through donations both of materials and funding for shipping costs. Thank you.
Malawi Mobile Library
ELI Malawi celebrates their one year anniversary this month with joy over their newly established adult literacy program and all that has been accomplished in offering educational opportunities to those who would have been left behind in learning and life.
We know you will be amazed and encouraged as you read Jacob's (Malawi EL Director) report of the last 2021 mobile library visit to the villages of Dima, Mphonde and Chimutu.
It’s amazing to see people of Dima, Chimutu, and Mphonde village completely changed in the way they think, and how they enjoy all the books provided through our mobile library activities. The mobile library has become a very important community gathering for these villages; you always see parents bring their children to take part in the many activities. We also have a very impressive literacy program that has attracted a lot of people in the community of Chimutu village. Sporting activities have have attracted people in all three villages, as people did not have sporting equipment like football and netball, which Elizabeth Library International has provided.
The word of God has also helped the people to leave some of their old bad ways. The sharing of children's Bibles and adults Bibles has contributed to this. The demand for Bibles is great, because the people cannot afford to buy a Bible. So when a person is given a Bible it is the greatest gift ever to receive. What the mobile library has done in these villages is exceptional, people have realized that education is a key to everything. The literacy program will also help people to encourage young ones to go to school, which has been a challenge in the past. School dropouts affected them due to the illiterate parents who did not know the importance of education until Elizabeth Library International introduced a mobile library in these communities.
DIMA VILLAGE
In this village, people love our work because they have seen how some people’s lives have changed for the better in the past months. Children can recognize colors very well, do some mathematics, learn English as well as other activities. We have also intensified in teaching English, this is so because English is a key subject here, and if you fail the English subject you cannot be offered a certificate. So we always make sure that we have something to teach in English so the children can grow in their knowledge of it. Our mobile library is setting out a very good foundation for the young ones, to prepare them for school.
MPHONDE VILLAGE
We met Mr. Limiton Chatsika who is our village monitor; he continues to organize classes during the week in our absence, just to make sure that the children in his community are educated. We like his courage and dedication to the work of changing the community through books. The children needed to learn the signs for addition, multiplication, subtraction, and division. Children found it very difficult to differentiate the signs. Miracle had to use local things available there like small pieces of wood and made them look like those signs for easy recognition.
CHIMUTU VILLAGE
ADULT LITERACY PROGRAM
Chimutu village is always visited last because of how it is located. The people there are hardworking and they always enjoy seeing us. We have another hard-working village monitor, Mr. Godfrey Banda. He is always ready every time we arrive to bring education to his village.
Book reading also took a center stage as we concentrated much on reading books to the people. Mr. Godfrey helped us so much in that process as he is much committed to doing that. His hard work is being noticed and appreciated. Chimutu village is the village where we have started the literacy program. We have the demand for literacy classes in all three villages, but we thought of starting with Chimutu village as a pilot program because the demand was just overwhelming. We were receiving requests all the time we visited, and the people had already organized themselves before we started. This encouraged us so much as we began the program.The program has become the talk of the village and we feel humbled for that, as the program has started bringing change within a short period. We focused on developing short-term goals to get immediate results which inspires others. These specific goals include learning how to write and read their names, identifying and writing vowels, alphabet letters, and knowing how to identify and count numbers.
We plan to see learners proudly say, ”I can now read and write this or that” in a short time. This will help the parents to help their young ones with their homework. We are currently able to notice some changes and growth in learning, and we hope very soon that all those who started from the beginning will go to the next level of learning. We are now looking at bringing in an assessment plan as a tool for progress. This will help the learners and teachers to arrive at realistic expectations; through that assessment, teachers will be able to know areas of strength and weakness and concentrate on them appropriately.
- Blessings, Jacob
As ELI has finished an amazing fruitful year, with abundant harvests, new literacy programs, and so many lives touched and changed through educational opportunities or faith building, we are mindful it is through your faithful partnership and donations that make any of these things possible! There is so much more to do, and your monthly support or one time designated gift for a need that touches your heart is appreciated. Together, let’s see what fruit will be produced in 2022. Happy New Year!
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