Meet Team Member Diana Smith from Iowa

 

 

 



My name is Diana Smith, one of the team members and blog master for the 2014 Zimbabwe Ubuntu mission experience.  I live in Des Moines, Iowa.  I am a lifelong United Methodist and am a member of the West Des Moines United Methodist Church.  I enjoy traveling and learning about other cultures and countries, especially in a mission capacity.  I have participated on several mission opportunities in the past.  In July of 2012 I was an adult chaperone for our church's youth mission trip to Colorado for the Week of Hope mission experience where my team worked at a senior assisted living facility.  In 2007 I spent four months in Guatemala as an individual Volunteer In Mission (VIM) through the United Methodist Church.  I volunteered at a low-income daycare facility in the mornings and taught English to elementary aged children at the local Methodist church in the afternoons.  In 2006 I was part of my church's mission work trip to Buffalo, New York.

 

Through my church I have also been involved in many programs and ministries.  I currently sing on our Praise Team and help lead our contemporary worship service as well as co-leading our young adult small group.  In the past I have taught children's Sunday School and English as a Second Language to adults.  I was a co-chair of our missions committee, volunteered with vacation Bible school, sang in the choir, participated in small groups and local service projects.

 

I currently work for the State of Iowa at the economic development department as the trade show coordinator on the marketing and communications team.  Before joining the IEDA, I worked for Children and Families of Iowa at the domestic violence shelter, where I coordinated donations for the families using our services as well as facilitated staff trainings and gave community presentations to raise awareness about domestic violence. 

 

I am a recent breast cancer survivor, having been diagnosed in October of 2012 and I finished my last treatment in July of 2013.  I am now cancer free and thankful that God isn't done with me yet.  I am a strong, quiet individual who is very passionate about my faith and women's issues around the world.  I enjoy history, traveling, practicing speaking Spanish, gardening, reading, music, spending time with family and friends, volunteering at church and helping people.  I have never been to Africa and I am very much looking forward to this trip to learn about the women of Zimbabwe and their lack of healthcare and how we can help.  I hope this is the first of many international team mission trips I will be involved with and someday I hope to be a team leader of one of these trips.

 

I have one cat, Chloe, who provides me with daily enjoyment.  I have two wonderful parents and one younger brother plus many more family members and friends.  Below are pictures of me from my time volunteering in Guatemala.

 



Meet our Team Leader

I am Jane Dunn and am privileged to participate in the Ubuntu Zimbabwe Journey as leader.  I am a life-long Methodist/United Methodist.  My husband Richard and I have enjoyed 25 or more United Methodist Volunteer-in-Mission experiences to Panama, Honduras, Guatemala, Cambodia, Senegal, Chile, Belize and to disaster areas within the United States.

 

We have 3 adult children.  Two sons live in the Portland, Oregon area with their families and a daughter resides with her family in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.  We are the proud grandparents of  5 grandchildren ranging in age from 8 to 16.

I have a masters degree in Nursing.  My background includes experience as a hospital staff nurse, clinic work, a hospital service line manager and Assistant Professor at Lewis University School of Nursing’s Baccalaureate Program.  I am retired from full-time work but for the past 5 years have served as Consultant to the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries as Manager of a Blog for Health Volunteers at www.umvim4health.blogspot.com .

While on an UMVIM experience in Cambodia, a United Methodist Medical Missionary Nurse named Irene Mparutsa served as one of our hosts.  Irene showed me the work she was doing regarding Community Health.  Irene is originally from Zimbabwe, is now retired and has returned home.  She will be volunteering to help host our group in February when we visit Zimbabwe. Pictured below is a photo of Irene and me during the Cambodia visit in 2007.

 

 

 

Zimbabwe Background Info

Zimbabwe /zɪmˈbɑːbweɪ/, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in southern Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. The capital is Harare. Zimbabwe achieved de jure sovereignty from the United Kingdom in April 1980, following 14 years as an unrecognized state under the conservative white minority government of Rhodesia, which unilaterally declared independence in 1965.

Zimbabwe has 16 official languages with English, Shona and Ndebele being most common. The present territory was first demarcated by Cecil Rhodes of the British South Africa Company, becoming a self-governing colony as Southern Rhodesia in 1923. President Robert Mugabe is head of state and commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Renowned as a champion for the anti-colonial cause, Mugabe is also viewed as an authoritarian responsible for Zimbabwe's problematic human rights record and substantial economic decline. He has held power since internationally recognised independence in 1980: as head of government since 1980 and head of state since 1987.

 

Most of the country is elevated in the central plateau (high veld) stretching from the southwest to the northwest at altitudes between 1,200 and 1,600 m. The country's east is mountainous with Mount Nyangani as the highest point at 2,592 m. About 20% of the country consists of the low veld under 900m. Victoria Falls, one of the world's biggest and most spectacular waterfalls, is located in the country's northwest as part of the Zambezi river. The country has a tropical climate with a rainy season usually from late October to March. The climate is moderated by the altitude. Zimbabwe is faced with recurring droughts; and severe storms are rare.

 

The country is mostly savanna, although the moist and mountainous east supports tropical evergreen and hardwood forests. Trees include teak and mahogany, knobthorn, msasa and baobab. Among the numerous flowers and shrubs are hibiscus, spider lily, leonotus, cassia, tree wisteria and dombeya. There are around 350 species of mammals that can be found in Zimbabwe. There are also many snakes and lizards, over 500 bird species, and 131 fish species.

 

 

Zimbabwe's total population is 12.97 million. According to the United Nations World Health Organization, the life expectancy for men was 37 years and the life expectancy for women was 34 years of age, the lowest in the world in 2006. An association of doctors in Zimbabwe has made calls for President Mugabe to make moves to assist the ailing health service.  The HIV infection rate in Zimbabwe was estimated to be 14% for people aged 15–49 in 2009. UNESCO reported a decline in HIV prevalence among pregnant women from 26% in 2002 to 21% in 2004.

Some 85% of Zimbabweans are Christian; 62% of the population attends religious services regularly. The largest Christian churches are Anglican, Roman Catholic, Seventh-day Adventist and Methodist. As in other African countries, Christianity may be mixed with enduring traditional beliefs. Besides Christianity, ancestral worship is the most practised non-Christian religion, involving spiritual intercession; the Mbira Dza Vadzimu, which means "Voice of the Ancestors", an instrument related to many lamellophones ubiquitous throughout Africa, is central to many ceremonial proceedings. Mwari simply means "God the Creator" (musika vanhu in Shona). Around 1% of the population is Muslim.

Bantu-speaking ethnic groups make up 98% of the population. The majority people, the Shona, comprise 70%. The Ndebele are the second most populous with 20% of the population. The Ndebele descended from Zulu migrations in the 19th century and the other tribes with which they intermarried. Up to one million Ndebele may have left the country over the last five years, mainly for South Africa. Other Bantu ethnic groups make up the third largest with 2 to 5%. These are Venda, Tonga, Shangaan, Kalanga, Sotho, Ndau and Nambya.

Minority ethnic groups include white Zimbabweans, who make up less than 1% of the total population. White Zimbabweans are mostly of British origin, but there are also Afrikaner, Greek, Portuguese, French and Dutch communities. The white population dropped from a peak of around 278,000 or 4.3% of the population in 1975 to possibly 120,000 in 1999 and was estimated to be no more than 50,000 in 2002, and possibly much less. Most emigration has been to the United Kingdom (between 200,000 and 500,000 Britons are of Rhodesian or Zimbabwean origin), South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Mixed-race citizens form 0.5% of the population and various Asian ethnic groups, mostly of Indian and Chinese origin, are also 0.5%.

 

The information and photos in this post from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbabwe  

UMCOR at Work in Zimbabwe

 

In the past decade, Zimbabwe has experienced political instability, economic collapse, food and fuel shortages, and cholera outbreaks. The United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Index, which examines indicators such as health, education, income, income inequality, and life expectancy, ranks Zimbabwe 173 out of 187 nations studied.
The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) opened a country office in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, in 2009 to develop programs in its four core sectors of expertise:

• Emergency response
• Livelihoods
• Social and community development, and
• Health.

Since then, UMCOR has worked to improve the lives of more than 380,000 people in the country through a combination of programs that specifically address:

• Food security
• Health
• Water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), and Education.

UMCOR is the international humanitarian and development arm of The United Methodist Church. It seeks to alleviate human suffering by providing practical, proactive support to the most vulnerable survivors of chronic or temporary emergencies brought on by natural or human-caused events. UMCOR delivers aid to people in need without regard to race, religion, politics, or gender, and does not tie its relief and development activities to any political or religious viewpoint.
UMCOR works alongside local communities to identify needs and solutions, and collaborates with local and international partners, community groups, governments, and faith-based organizations, to respond to those needs in sectors such as livelihoods, health, shelter, and community development.
In Zimbabwe, UMCOR has focused its work to date in the provinces of Manicaland and Mashonaland East. UMCOR’s memorandum of understanding with the Government of Zimbabwe also covers communities in the provinces of Bulawayo, Midlands, and Masvingo, with scope for expansion.

Projects to Date

UMCOR is currently involved in the direct implementation of projects in the following sectors.

Food Security, Agriculture, and Livelihoods

Since 1999, UMCOR has enabled thousands of smallholder families in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, and, as of 2009, Zimbabwe to achieve increased food security and improved incomes through:

• Access to basic seeds and tools
• Cultivation of thousands of new hectares of land
• Training in improved agricultural production techniques, and
• Improved conservation agriculture and watershed management techniques.

In response to chronic food shortages in 2009 and 2010, UMCOR provided 816 metric tons of food relief to 195,840 individuals across Zimbabwe.
In 2011, UMCOR implemented the Local and Regional Procurement program, a pilot project of the United States Department of Agriculture, with a grant of US $1.7 million. The program supported 68,129 vulnerable persons in Chipinge District, Manicaland province, with 1,596 metric tons of food relief, including cereals, pulses, and oil in accordance with World Food Programme (WFP) standards.
In October 2012, UMCOR began working in Uzumba-Maramba-Pfungwe (UMP) District, Mashonaland East province, as a WFP cooperating partner. Through the Seasonal Targeted Assistance program, UMCOR is helping 27,774 vulnerable individuals there, through March 2013.
Given the need to transition from food aid to sustainable food security in Zimbabwe, UMCOR, with local and international resources, is building internal capacity in conservation agriculture and developing a range of pilot projects in this sector for implementation beginning in 2013.
UMCOR’s Sustainable Agriculture & Development program is providing support for capacity building and training to United Methodist missions and smallholder farmers in the surrounding communities in three districts in moringa tree cultivation, apiculture (bee farming), and Integrated Crop and Pest Management (ICPM).

Health

The United Methodist Church’s Imagine No Malaria initiative aims to raise US $75 million toward the eradication of malaria across Africa by 2015. UMCOR is a contributor to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and to the UN Foundation’s Nothing But Nets campaign.UMCOR has developed institutional capacity and experience through the implementation of malaria-fighting programs in Cote D’Ivoire, Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, and Liberia.
In Zimbabwe, UMCOR has completed two malaria-prevention programs, covering 12 high-malaria-burden wards in Chimanimani District, Manicaland province. In coordination with the National Malaria Control Program (NMCP) and district partners, UMCOR has:

• Provided 45,437 long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets to 19,199 households.
• Trained 449 stakeholders in malaria prevention and monitoring and evaluation. Stakeholders include village health workers; community care givers; local, traditional, and religious leaders; environmental health technicians; government health staff; school health masters; and ward councilors.
• Supplied Information, Education and Communication/Behavior-change Communication (IEC/BCC) support through drama and publicity materials in all program areas. This is complemented by a strong monitoring and evaluation component in coordination with NMCP and other nongovernmental organizations. UCMOR also works closely with church partners to increase the effectiveness of IEC/BCC components.

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)

In March 2012, UMCOR completed the renovation of the water system at the Nyadire Mission of The United Methodist Church in Mutoko District, Mashonaland East province. It now provides clean water to more than 4,000 people. The work included the rehabilitation of boreholes and reservoirs to provide safe water to a hospital, a preschool, a secondary school, a teachers college, a nursing college, and an orphanage. The program also included Participatory Health and Hygiene Education training for 30 health workers and 10 teachers, and WASH awareness training for 250 students and staff.
An assessment has since been commissioned to review the [clean water and hygiene] needs of the hospital and orphanage at the church’s Old Mutare Mission in Mutasa District, Manicaland province.

Social and Community Development/Education

UMCOR is currently developing a pilot project to support orphans and vulnerable children in Chimanimani District, Manicaland province. In coordination with local authorities, Child Protection Committees (CPC), and the Mutambara United Methodist Mission, UMCOR will provide support to 350 of the most vulnerable children in this area. Already, 300 primary and secondary school students have received support for school fees, uniforms, and learning materials, and another 50 children are receiving vocational training support. The program will also build the capacity of CPC members and support them through IEC/BCC activities to reduce stigma and improve the care of orphans and vulnerable children in the community.


http://www.umcor.org/UMCOR/Programs/Country-Offices/Zimbabwe/Zimbabwe
 

Ubuntu Journey 2014: Zimbabwe Introduction

Ubuntu is an African word and proverb meaning
"I am human because you are human."

Ubuntu Journeys are unique, short-term mission service opportunities for United Methodist Women to interact with the world through mission partners. Ubuntu Journeys are about women of faith coming together though shared mission to address social issues and discover new ways of working together, supporting one another, and growing spiritually. United Methodist Women Ubuntu participants will expand their understanding of issues that impact the world and their community through mutual learning with women from other cultures. Each Ubuntu Journey connects women to women for a faith and mission opportunity that will:

• Witness love and struggle; share challenges and opportunities.
• Enhance cultural awareness; exchange ideas and skills.
• Learn where the United Methodist Women’s Mission Giving goes to support more than 200 programs in 75 countries.
• Understand daily life with Methodist and United Methodist, grassroots and ecumenical sisters around the world.

Together with global sisters, United Methodist Women will share the human experience of worship, prayer and spiritual reflection to engage in mission that will cultivate faith, hope and love into action.

http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umw/programs/ubuntu/

Coming Together for Women and Children in Zimbabwe

February 6-18, 2014

This is an exciting first for an Ubuntu Journey, hosted by the coordinator of the health board of the Zimbabwe Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church, established in 2010 to oversee and promote health and development work in Zimbabwe in collaboration with the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR).

The Journey will include the following:

• Visits to the three United Methodist Church mission hospitals.
• Work in some of the waiting mother’s shelters and the Old Mutare orphanage.
• Discussions on maternal and women’s health.
• Talks on health care for children. 

See firsthand how the Zimbabwe health board is implementing its strategic plan to support three of the U.N. Millennium Development Goals: reduce child mortality, improve maternal health and combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. We will interact and dialogue with the United Methodist women of Zimbabwe, whose strong mission program includes working with the “waiting mothers” who walk many miles to the shelters several months prior to giving birth to ensure they receive good prenatal health care.


http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umw/news/events/item/index.cfm?id=1166