Hello from Zimbabwe
Firstly a big apology for the long delay in writing. More than a month ago I changed my email for the new broadband but seem to be having endless problems with it.
Well life goes on here. On one hand I can say things are better and on the other no. As far as food in the shop and petrol in the service station yes you can buy any amount of food and you can now go to a petrol pump and get some fuel most of the time. The problem is that since the US dollar is being used it is harder to earn that dollar to afford the things. The first priority is rent and an average house in Harare costs between $500 and $800 which is quite expensive.
After that is food and school fees. Private schools are very expensive. People are not spending money on repairs for pipes when there is no or poorw ater pressure from the council. Most houses have tanks and buy their water from people with boreholes. They only spend money on emergencies, burst pipes, tap washers, leaking geysers but half the time, because the pressure is poor, they close the valve to the mains supply and wait a day or two while getting quotations and until they have some spare cash. Because of this we are now using quite a lot of fuel so we can try to get work although we pick and choose because we cannot spend the day using up our petrol and time on quotations we will not get. We are still waiting for the Construction Industry to notify us ofthe salary increase that was due in July. They are still negotiating but in the meantime the staff need their increase to survive. We still hold our monthly meetings to discuss what a room costs and what a family spends on food and workout amongst ourselves a salary at least double to the current wage but putting something aside incase we run out of work on one or two days.
Then there is the hardware shop which we have opened. We have finally got our papers and are now registered. We had a good laugh because we thought we were calling ourselves Mardon Hardware nice and simply because it is related to the plumbing but the registrar has registered us as Mardon City Hardware and couldn't explain why. We are still trying to correct the error.
We don't have enough stock as we are concentrating firstly on the plumbers so we have enoughmaterial for our jobs but are proud to say we have sold a few things and people are beginning to know that there is a hardware nearby. We hope this will help us to get some work and help to increase our income. For now that is all I have time to say. I trust that you are all well and enjoying your work. We are all well and thank you for always thinking about us. We have a new member of staff who we hope will ease the work load in the officeand keep you updated of our progress. Thank you, God bless you.
Love from
All at Mardon Plumbers
With a little help..
Some world events are closer to home than others and when we got to know Sammy, the owner of Mardon Plumbers in Harare, Zimbabwe, she lived here in Newcastle. Then, 2 years ago, when the situation in Zimbabwe worsened, she decided to go back and look after her 12 employees in Harare whose livelihood depend on a job with her company. Unfortunately, it didn't get any better since. Zimbabwe is suffering an economic and political crisis, with annual inflation of 100,000%, and unemployment at 80%. There are severe food and fuel shortages and recent outbreaks of Cholera. Some friends and colleagues decided that maybe we could help. Since then we have been supporting Sammy, the employees in her business and their families with fuel vouchers, because fuel is the key not only to transport and enabling business and freeing up resources but these vouchers can be traded for other vital goods such as food or medicine. It works via an organisation called Mukuru that organises the supply of goods and money in some countries in Africa. We buy the vouchers online and Sammy gets a code on her mobile that enables her to pick up the fuel at a petrol station in Harare. Since January 2008 we have been sending close to 2,000 litres of fuel and Sammy has been stressing that every litre of that has helped Mardon Plumbers to stay in business and support the families of the staff. We would like to continue this journey for as long as the situation is precarious. Here is an opportunity to read, comment and maybe join in.
Christoph
Christoph
Saturday, 17 October 2009
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