Dear friend,

I hope all is well with you. Our young people in Zimbabwe are in good form and I have just heard some good news about several of them. Ruvarashe, one of our newest girls, is doing brilliantly at St David’s, Bonda, and they expect her to pass all 12 O levels well. I could never have done that!

Thank you for all you do to support us. Without you, we could do nothing for our youngsters. However, we have a big problem with finance and need your help. We have a major gap between income and expenditure. There are two causes of this: during the pandemic a lot of our donations in UK dried up and have not yet returned. Meanwhile in Zimbabwe there has been a sudden rise in inflation. School fees have doubled, as have groceries and other essentials. Basically, we need to find £10,000 a month to restore the situation. This sounds a lot but I am sure we can do it. Only we need to do it quickly. The alternative is to start cutting the number of children we support. This would be terrible for them. We are determined not to go down that route. Can you help?

• If you are able, could you make a donation at once? Please remember gift aid if you pay tax.
• If you already donate by standing order could you think of increasing it? Even increasing it by the cost of a couple of beers, or a couple of coffees, would make a difference. We have just over 100 standing orders. If each went up by £5.00 that would be another £6,000 plus gift aid.
• If you don’t have a standing order could you set one up?
• Do you have another way of raising money? One person who happens to be an excellent cook gave a dinner party for friends and invited them to pay what they thought it was worth. He made about £700. Another lady (aged 70+) slept out in a tent for Lent and made £1,800. Even having Covid didn’t stop her!
• Some people after Covid do have quite a lot of spare money, not having been on overseas holidays, or deprived of other ways of spending it. Would this be a good moment to make a big donation in thanksgiving to God for coming through it all?

Having said that, we do recognise times are hard and many of you may be feeling the squeeze. If you really can’t manage to increase your donation, we do understand. But are there other things you can do?

• Some of our supporters ask family and friends not to give them presents for birthdays but to donate to Tariro.
• Do you like making cakes? People love eating them. If you could make a cake each week and sell it after church, or in the office that would make us a steady income.
• Do tell other people about Tariro: church, work, friends and family. People like to hear about good things happening in Zimbabwe. I have recently made a video in which I explain what we do. Please share it with your friends and family: https://youtu.be/DYQ5MzWROk8

If you have any questions please do write and ask me (nstebbing at mirfield dot org dot uk) I am always delighted to talk about Tariro.

I know you are going to help us crack this problem. Thank you in advance.

Nicolas CR