Father Lameck's Sabbatical

Our Rector, Fr Lameck Mutete, has loyally served as the Vicar of Tattenhall since 2004. He is well loved in the village and his kindness, welcome and laughter are known to us all. He was born in the village of Hera near Rusape in Zimbabwe, and we chose to support this village for our Advent appeal as Fr Lameck is spending his sabbatical leave there.

In recent years Zimbabwe has suffered from economic and political difficulties. It has gone from being the "Jewel in the Crown" of African education standards, to a country in crisis. inflation is running at over 1000% (!) and what was free State provided education now requires funds to be paid and schools are struggling to source basic equipment such as pens and paper, let alone electronic and IT apparatus as supply chains are in chaos.

Educating girls is crucial to the long-term prosperity of families. An educated mother will educate her family. Keeping girls attending school regularly is essential. One of the biggest hurdles is "period poverty ". And so, with Fr Lameck visiting his homeland and family in January we aimed to ship out two drums of items to help the schools there, St David's Primary School and Sanzaguru High School so they could arrive whilst Fr Lameck is there and he can oversee their distribution as we offer help from one village to another.

Our Appeal wa supported with incredible generosity by the community and businesses of Tattenhall and we gathered enough goods and had enough financial donation to ship not 2, but 4 packed drums to Zimbabwe.

A huge thank you to the Tattenhall Brownies who came to help pack up the drums which are now on their way. Father Lameck has arrived in Hera and once the drums arrive he has promised to send further updates and photos to keep us posted. Thank you to everyone who has donated and helped with this project.

Article originally in Parish News, reproduced with permission.

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