How the Friends began

Carol Banham, our Chairman, visited the Home in September 2011 and conducted detailed interviews with many of the staff members. She has produced an illustrated report of those conversations, which illustrate the many roles the staff undertake as well as highlighting issues concerning the staff and where they feel help is most needed.

Early Childhood Development Centre - information pack

Shelley has produced a detailed document to explain more about the Centre. She describes how the Centre fits within the education system and local community and shows a ‘typcial day’ including a couple of typical games you might like to try out yourselves.

Volunteer at the home by Carol Banham

Could you be a volunteer at Matthew Rusike Children’s Home for a few weeks or even a few months? Have you got a skill which could be useful? Here is a brief snapshot into what it could be like volunteering at the Home. Please contact our Chairman if you would like to know more.

Shelley Cooling prepares to leave the UK

Shelley says farewell and looks forward to her work at the Home over the next 3 years.

Obituary - Lorna Graaff

Lorna Graaff, who has been a passionate supporter of MRCH since it’s earliest days, has died aged 89. Trained as a teacher she went to Zimbabwe in 1956 as a Missionary where she met Rev Matthew Rusike and later went to his wedding. She and her husband Brandon stayed in Zimbabwe for 15 years before returning to England. In 1990 they returned to Epworth for 2 years but Brandon died suddenly. Lorna gave many fundraising talks about the Home which embodied so many of her beliefs and values: the value of education, creating opportunities and aspiration and a loving home for children. Her son David went with her on her last visit in 2002 when she was delighted to meet Astonishment and the children and practice the Shona she had learned in 1956. She put together a fund raising slide show with the photographs she had taken for the talks she gave. This can now be seen on utube.

Visit to UK of Mr and Mrs Mapurisa 2009

In October 2009 Mr and Mrs Mapurisa visited the UK once again, travelling round the country speaking to groups of supporters and meeting old and new friends. As a result of the visit, some churches and schools ‘adopted’ the Home, new friends joined us, and 3 people came forward as wanting to become long term volunteers at the Home. No dates have been set yet but the plans are underway for some time in 2010 and 2011. We look forward to interesting reports and new photographs to add to our collection.

Gift Cards at Cambridge Road Methodist Church, Birmingham. Report by Debbie, July 2007

We have been using Gift Cards to raise money for MRCH. This year we raised a total of £400. In previous years we have raised as much as £700! This year, some of the gifts were gift-aided which will add about £90.00 to the overall total. This has involved a bit more administrative work for me to do, but well worth it for the additional money. We have provided a choice of gift cards in £5, £10 and £20 denominations stating on each card roughly what the money would buy (e.g. £5 for school shoes and shoe-laces; £10 towards a month's medication for a child with HIV; £20 towards equipment for refurbishing the crèche). It's been well worth the effort. In comparison with other fundraising efforts, it's not very labour intensive. To offer Gift Cards just involves printing off them (we used the template from the MRCH website this year) and then taking orders and keeping track of the gift aid. If anyone would like to do this at their Church or work-place next year, I would be happy to help or forward on the templates we have developed. You can contact me via the Chairman. One bit of advice would be to start early! E.g. end of November for Christmas - I was a bit late this year and it made it a bit frantic! The Gift Cards can also be used for one-off gifts for special occasions - for example, my Gran recently celebrated her 100th Birthday and was given over £200 which she decided to donate to MRCH. It was nice to be able to create a presentable Gift Card to give to her.

Astonishment and Bridgety sent us reports following their fundraising visit to the UK in July 2005.

Mandy's visit to the Home in September 2005

UK reports from Astonishment Mapurisa's visit - July 2005

Thoughts from the children

A visitor on a business trip to MRCH in June 2005 made the following observations: "There seems to be an air of depression about the situation as well as uncertainty created by the clearance programme. The fuel situation is awful, people waiting in queues overnight, or for 7-8 hour stretches during the day, mostly unsuccessful. Shortages worse than ever, so MRCH is affected as well. They have had to stop the chicken programme because they can't get the feed - hence no eggs for sale or for the children to eat. Pig breeding has also stopped and slowly the pigs are being sold off. The garden remains the only sustainability project in operation. And so..... money from overseas is critical to their survival in the short, medium and long term"

York Fundraiser: "On Saturday 28th May 2005 over 100 supporters of MRCH gathered in the beautiful 15th Century Merchant Taylor's Hall in York for a black tie dinner/dance, a great opportunity to get dressed up and raise money for the Home. People travelled from far a field, even as far as Kent, to support the event which was a huge success. Almost £5000 was raised in a variety of ways! In between courses there were items auctioned, these included: a Tottenham shirt signed by England star Teddy Sherringham; Boxing gloves signed by over 20 former British boxing champions including Henry Copper; an England rugby shirt signed by England international stars Jason Leonard, Tim Rodber and Micky Skinner. There were also raffle prizes, all of which had been most generously donated for the event. After dinner there was a disco in an adjacent room and the music was kept at a reasonable volume especially for those of us who weren't as fit as others! This was a truly excellent evening of fun and fundraising for MRCH - A big thank you to all involved"

There has been no Government help for the Home since 2002. The Friends of MRCH now contribute substantially to the daily running costs of the Home.