wfn.org | United Methodist seeks small solutions in Africa

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

March 11, 1999 News media contact: Linda Bloom*(212) 870-3803*New York
10-31-71BP{133}

NOTE: A photograph is available with this story.

NEW YORK (UMNS) - When Zebediah Marewangepo was growing up in the Honde
Valley of Zimbabwe, he didn't even know what a school was until a missionary
came in and started one.

Fifty years later, as an executive with the United Methodist Board of Global
Ministries, he has discovered that little has changed in some parts of
Africa.

Only a few months ago, Marewangepo returned to the interior of the Inhambane
Province of Mozambique, near Morrumbene North. In a small village that
previously had no school, church building, medical clinic or even clean
water, he found three volunteer teachers sent by the church.

"The church was trying to establish a school under a tree," Marewangepo
recalled during a March 9 staff briefing. "That resembled exactly how I
studied." When he started first grade in 1949, Marewangepo was the first
generation of his family to receive schooling.

Currently, the teachers are conducting two classes of 120 students in the
first grade and 30 students in the second grade at what has become
Matsinhe's Primary School. Marewangepo said he is "still struggling" with
how to best improve the situation there, noting that the board had "no
budget line" for that particular project. 

The church in Mozambique is requesting $10,300 from the Board of Global
Ministries for the school. Of that amount, $2,600 would be used to build
three classrooms, $2,700 to build three houses for teachers and $5,000 to
purchase 60 desks.

Marewangepo already has found a solution for a group of homeless women in
the Massinga North area of Mozambique. A local pastor introduced him to the
15 women, ranging in age from 50 to 70 years.

"Most of those women were perceived to be witches," he said, explaining that
superstitious husbands and children had chased them away. "The church
gathered them and sent them to a small house."

Upon his return to New York, Marewangepo explained their plight to staff of
the board's Women's Division. Funding from the division allowed the
construction of four houses, where the women now live, and the purchase of
such essentials as beds, pots and pans, and clothing. The church in
Mozambique gave the women land on which to grow food. Some of the food is
sold, with profits used to buy other needed items, he said.

The women, in turn, have become faithful church members, Marewangepo said.
"These women have been baptized. They go to church. If they sing for you,
you think they are angels." 

For more information on the Mozambique projects, call Marewangepo at (212)
870-3701.

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