Lights... Camera... Action!

ASAP Africa will be a guest on Focus Atlanta airing December 31, 2006 at Noon.

We are so excited to have the opportunity to speak with Keisha Williams, the host of Focus Atlanta and bring awareness to the mission of ASAP. Elizabeth and I will provide local viewers with information concerning the history of ASAP, our current projects, and how anyone can get involved in our Meet or Beat Challenge. Please tune in to the CW Atlanta network,formally known as UPN Atlanta, Sunday December 31, 2006 at noon and tell us what you think.

Focus Atlanta is the half-hour community relations program for the CW Atlanta network and has featured guest such as: Mayor Shirley Franklin, T.C. Carson, AID Atlanta, Kenny Leon, Clifton Powell, Eric Jerome Dickey, Hands on Atlanta, and Usher.

-Shannon

Inspiration from Zimbabwe

By Diana Takundwa, ASAP Africa Nyanga Office
A Churchgoer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. I've gone and done it for 30 long years now," he wrote, "and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can't remember a single one of them. So, I think I'm wasting my time and the preachers are wasting theirs too by giving lengthy sermons at all." This started a real controversy in the "Letters to the Editor" column, much to the delight of the editor.

It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher:

I've been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But, for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this... They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today.

Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!"

When you are DOWN to nothing...God is UP to something! Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible and receives the impossible! Thank God for our physical and our spiritual nourishment! When Satan is knocking at your door, simply say," "Jesus, could you get that for me?"


GOD BLESS

Double your Impact

Global Giving is matching donations made to organizations through their website in recognition of the holiday season. What this means is that if you make a $35 donation to ASAP's Rural Family Nutrition Initiative in Zimbabwe project today - ASAP Africa will receive $70! Your $35 donation will provide a complete home nutritional garden drip irrigation kit, so a rural family will have increased food security all year round. To the family, this means carrying water less often and harvesting crops more often. A welcomed gift indeed!

The matching donations apply to online and check donations (checks must be received by 12/28) and excludes purchase and redemption of Gift Certificates. So please make your gift today.

The RFNIZ project will improve the lives of over 6,000 families by improving the agricultural practices and providing families with relevant skills and knowledge. With the help of ASAP 300 at-risk families will have the opportunity to grow enough food to feed a family of five or more year-round. There is no greater feeling than knowing your family doesn't have to worry about where the next meal is coming from. The families that benefit from the home drip irrigation kits will be provided with appropriate training to ensure the most effective use of the kits.

During the hustle and bustle of the holiday season we must take time to think of our fellow man that is living in poverty. It is our responsibility to help those less fortunate. We all want the best for our families regardless of where we live and your gift of $35 can provide a year supply of food for an entire family. Please take the time to visit www.globalgiving.com/pr/1500/proj1434a.html and donate today.

“There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them." Denis Waitley

Let's Go!

ASAP Africa is proud to announce the receipt of a new grant of $25,000 to support the Health And Nutrition Development Initiative, or HANDEI project. “HANDEI” means “Let’s go” in the Shona language of Zimbabwe. This new project will improve the lives of over 6,000 families with relevant skills and knowledge including
- training in sustainable, cost effective agriculture and perma-culture techniques
- growing and using Moringa trees as a nutritional supplement and for income generation.
(Moringa is a fast growing tree with 7 times the vitamin C of oranges, 4 times the calcium of milk, 4 times the vitamin A of carrots, 3 times the potassium of bananas and 2 times the protein of milk.)
- growing and using medicinal herbs for home remedies and for income generation
- training in psychosocial support and counseling for HIV affected households.

ASAP Africa is excited to welcome this new anonymous Foundation to our team of supporters. Although this list is small, 100% of the Foundations that have made a grant to ASAP Africa since our inception in 1994 have chosen to make subsequent grants to help us fulfill our mission of helping people in their efforts to improve their own lives.

To maximize the benefits of this new grant, ASAP Africa will include training in the use and maintenance of drip irrigation kits along with agriculture skills training. Please visit www.globalgiving to read more about how you too can get involved and support the Rural Family Health Initiative in Zimbabwe. Give the gift of food security, enhanced health & nutrition to a rural family living in Zimbabwe for only $70.

Zimbabwe has world’s highest number of orphans

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says Zimbabwe now has the highest number of orphans in the world due to a severe AIDS pandemic hitting the southern African country. The remarks by UNICEF come as the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) announced a massive US$6 million National Action Plan to improve the plight of orphans in Zimbabwe.

Since 2001 ASAP Africa has been working to address the needs of the ever increasing number of orphans in Zimbabwe, working in partnership with the SIDA to achieve the goals set out by the Zimbabwe National Action Plan for orphans and vulnerable children. ASAP is planning to scale up operations during 2007 – with new project partnerships being planned with also Catholic Relief Services, Plan International and Concern Worldwide.

"Almost one in four children in Zimbabwe . . . are now orphaned, having lost at least one parent, and this number is growing," said Dr Festo Kavishe, Unicef Representative in Zimbabwe. "HIV and AIDS have dramatically increased children’s vulnerability in recent years to the point where Zimbabwe now has the highest percentage of children who are orphans in the world." Kavishe said out of Zimbabwe’s 12 million population, 1.6 million children had been orphaned by AIDS. Zimbabwe is among the hardest hit countries in sub-Saharan Africa with official figures putting AIDS deaths at 3 000 people every week. Swedish Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Sten Rylander praised the Zimbabwe government for endorsing the National Action Plan for Orphans and Vulnerable Children which is being coordinated by the Ministry of Public Service, Labor and Social Welfare. Zimbabwe is in the grip of an unprecedented seven-year old economic crisis that has seen most orphans and vulnerable children barely surviving.

Adapted From Zim Online (SA), 6 December

Harare is Number One!

Zimbabwe's capital Harare ranks as the world's most expensive city for expatriates due largely to the country's soaring inflation, and displacing Oslo and Tokyo from the top slots, a human resources firm said on Tuesday. "Zimbabwe had massive inflation of 1 700%," Lee Quane, general manager of ECA International, told Reuters. "Although the currency has depreciated, there was a huge increase in the cost of living for Harare," he said. Harare was the 57th most expensive city for expatriates in the 2005 survey.

The world's 10 most expensive cities for expatriates (City; Country (position in 2005 survey))

1. Harare Zimbabwe (57)
2. Luanda Angola (2)
3. Oslo Norway (1)
4. Moscow Russia (8)
5. Kinshasa Democratic Republic of Congo (15)
6. Stavanger Norway (5)
7. Copenhagen Denmark (7)
8. Seoul South Korea (10)
9. Libreville Gabon (12)
10. Tokyo Japan (3)
From News24 (SA), 5 December