October 17th, 2003 Dear Nhimbe Friends and Supporters, It is with tremendous gratitude that we write you. Your continued perseverance in offering your time, ideas and finances to Nhimbe for Progress, is what provides air to the fire. Without that fuel we would have been unable to proceed over the past 4 years. This project is not something that we are doing alone. You and your heartfelt concern, joined by over 1,100 village residents - all empowered by multitudes of spiritual help - are merging, forming a power that is moving the wheel. We nhimbe! We work together, and we see that the whole is far greater than the sum of the parts. Tatenda chaizvo for your consistency, encouragement, and concern for Nhimbe! We appreciate your motivation, deliberateness, and focused action. 2003 has been a year full of satisfying growth both personally and within the project, although some of that was prompted by the family’s loss of Baba Joshua Magaya and his absence as the region’s revered n’anga (traditional healer). Many things have to change when a great soul moves on. The leadership of the community there is now in Cosmas’ hands, and as the sabuku (village headman) of the Magaya Village he will be able to offer the project even more help in this official capacity working with the chief. Jaiaen’s study of healing and indigenous medicine was brought out of the background, re-focusing her life work, and bringing more emphasis to Nhimbe’s health and medical program. Many villagers found themselves with new responsibilities to handle. The family, the project, and the region are all seeking equilibrium. We are preparing the plans for this next year’s work, all of which is funded through your commitments this fall and winter. We will: * Again sponsor 190 children in the 5 main schools serving the villages. * Again sponsor 65 preschool children, with the possibility of accepting all remaining Nhimbe preschool children by opening a new afternoon program, through partnership with Sundborn Children’s House in Albany, Oregon. * Enhance the library, and health and medical program with more services, supplies, materials. * Provide more supplies, services, and materials to our preschool and the Nhimbe Community Center to continue the program development. * Continue landscaping the Community Center by providing more plants, considering our permaculture focus (edible plants, woodlot trees, and useful product plants like bamboo). * Identify the special needs children in the villages in order to later research options for their assistance (hearing loss, minor medical, exceptional intelligence, etc). * Extend help to the area chief, assisting with his responsibility to feed those dying of AIDS. * Work out the logistics of building additional fuel-efficient wood stoves by providing more metal transport, cutting, and welding (the women provide all their bricks, and labor). * Complete the guest house built for visiting practitioners, Nhimbe volunteers or dignitaries. * Rebuild collapsed huts, or building toilets wherever the family’s need is greatest. * Help the textile cooperative work on their business plans to continue making school uniforms for Nhimbe and non-Nhimbe students, as well as making items for export including new dress designs, finger puppets, and domestic items. * Help the sculptors with their business methods, bringing them hand tools, and purchasing our 11th batch of sculpture for retail and wholesale purposes. We also have the pleasure this year of having an Executive Staff Assistant, Molly Sirios, to help with organizing the daily details of work. She will be going to Zimbabwe in January when the wheels are fully in motion. Cosmas returns home from his U.S. visit on December 15th. Jaiaen will be leaving for Zimbabwe on December 6th for 9 week duration, and returning to the states February 12th. We have much to accomplish, but more time together, and extra hands. As an extra bonus, we have the added presence of Dana Vion on staff during January. She is an experienced video producer who recently completed a documentary in Zimbabwe and Zambia. She has offered us her time, expertise, and love of Africa. Molly will be assisting Dana also as we all work together (nhimbe) to carry the heart of our progress to larger audiences. Now is the time to sponsor children for next year, as well as any other way you might want to help (see enclosed insert). If you sponsored a child at or since Zimfest (mid-August), and cannot afford to help this soon with the next school year (January – December 2004), we will cover it (you will still receive their picture and letter). If you are able to, please send in the entire fully tax deductible amount listed on the insert for your sponsored children for the 2004 school year. Also, we want to encourage you to send a letter to your child. Please send Nhimbe whatever you can and a letter to your sponsored child, by November 15th, if at all possible. Sponsored children’s letters and pictures are brought back to the states in February 2004 so expect your update from them around June or July. Thank you, if you have recently sent a donation for our 2004 work! Remember that Nhimbe for Progress is a grassroots volunteer organization. This means that everything takes time. It also means we are always looking for your ideas for fundraising on a larger scale. If you have any time available to help raise funds through grant writing, business contacts for sculpture sales (wholesale or resale) or other volunteer income-generating activities please feel free to write or call. Thank you for your earnest efforts in this regard. As a holiday reminder we would like to encourage you to seriously peruse our website for gifts for everyone on your shopping list! Currently we have pictures of an ever changing supply of the exquisite serpentine sculpture from the villages. We also may be able to provide finger puppets and t-shirts through the website within the month. Website orders need to be received by December 1st to be able to be filled in time. Please take the time to check out our Nhimbe village items and give these gifts that keep on living. Thank you for your intentful support! Jaiaen Beck and Cosmas Magaya p.s. Watch for the Field Reports from the village work in Dec-Feb…do we have your correct email? ANCIENT WAYS Nhimbe for Progress an Ancient Ways Community Project ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Jaiaen Beck, Executive Director P.O. Box 346, Scio, OR 97374, USA 541-258-8710 zimbabwe@ancient-ways.org Cosmas Magaya, Project Director 3046 Gwai Crescent, Glen Nora "A", Harare, Zimbabwe Phone 263- 11-743259 magaya@mweb.co.zw Ancient Ways, a U.S. 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, focuses on learning from and preserving traditional ways of indigenous people. Nhimbe for Progress' mission is to promote recognition of our spiritual and human relatedness to rural Zimbabwean people by providing appropriate assistance where the need exists, in an ecologically sound, self-sustaining, and culturally respectful way, and by creating opportunity for cultural exchange which encourages unity and cooperative empowerment. See www.ancient-ways.org.