I was asked to speak to the Year 5 class at Ocean Forest Lutheran College in Bunbury about the Cosmos work I am involved with in Zimbabwe. I spoke about the story of the 5 loaves and 2 fish (Matthew 14) where the disciples asked Jesus to send the crowds away so they could buy food. Jesus said ‘you feed them’ and the disciples brought what they had to Jesus (5 loaves and 2 fish) and 5 thousand people were fed.
Jesus asks us to bring what we have (skills, efforts, passions) and he multiplies this. The class decided to fundraise for an 8 year old boy called Valentine who lives in Fort Rixon, Zimbabwe. He sits at the front of his room at school but isn’t able to see the board. His family has no means to buy glasses.
The Year 5 class decided to have an ice cream stall at school to fundraise. They asked family and friends to donate supplies. They set up their stall and sold ice creams and sundaes over three lunchtimes. An incredible $434.60 was raised. What a great thing it is that kids love icecream. This amount will cover the cost of Valentine’s glasses, and also contribute to the treatment of a girl called Samantha. Samantha is also in Zimbabwe and has lived her whole life with severely bowed legs from rickets.
The Year 5 class brought their 5 loaves and 2 fish and Jesus multiplied their efforts. What a blessing they are to these other two children in Zimbabwe.
Cosmos Medical Director Dr Darryn Rennie
‘As we landed in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe on Monday I immediately felt at home. The landscape was similar to the desert land of central and Western Australia. I love the bare vastness of it all. The streets of Bulawayo are also not busy as in the big cities of the world and that is comforting to me.
I learn’t the Cosmos house we stay in has a miraculous and divinely confirmative story to go with its purchase and in a few words, it is truly a blessing! It is a sanctuary and one couldn’t be more comfortable in a foreign country!We visited two local hospitals (private and public) today to gain a picture of the health system. I was thrilled to meet one of the two Physics at Mater Dei Private hospital who immediately invited me to conduct some lectures while I was visiting! He said they were taught that the “best Physiotherapists in the world come from Australia”! I think he was more thrilled to meet me. It’s this common bond we Physios share wherever we meet around the globe and one of my team mates managed to capture the moment! I suppose it is similar to other professionals meeting their own kind!
Anyhow it was sad that the private hospital was so empty as it was unaffordable to the majority of the general public whereas the public hospital seemed very busy but was lacking adequate supplies and equipment. These shortages mean that patients can sometimes be given a ‘shopping list’ for the items required for their surgery, they save to buy these slowly, before they can have surgery.
Team discussions later that afternoon grew around what we interpret to be needless expenditures versus the necessities of human life.
We are all very excited for our first clinic tomorrow in the community of Mazwi and I’m very excited to be using a human skeleton for education purposes!’
Vandana Thavare – Physiotherapist
