ANCIENT WAYS
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Mission Statement
Ancient Ways as an organization vibrates with a uncommon passion for life: the wholeness and care for our earth, a yearning to find resolution to humanity’s suffering, and a belief in all things good and hopeful that promote our species living compatibly and creatively with each other and with our planet. Ancient Ways sponsors “Nhimbe for Progress” in Mhondoro, Zimbabwe, founded in 1999. Our current focus is on preschool children, sponsorship of education, maturing girls monthly care and teen intervention, and the construction and repair of wells, as well as Covid-19 intervention with soap, masks and education.
About This Cause
Ancient Ways was founded in 1993 by Jaiaen Beck, incorporated in 1994 and received its charitable tax status in 1996. For the first several years the organization’s focus on indigenous music and healing practices was primary. As the membership here grew to know their music teachers from Zimbabwe, the humanitarian outreach began. Nhimbe for Progress began in Mhondoro in 1999 with Cosmas Magaya, and then Jangano was started in 2005 in the Dambatsoko region, when Fradreck Mujuru was here on tour with Fungai Mujuru. Jangano was discontinued due to political pressures. Since that time, we have focused on uplifting our Zimbabwean neighbors with support to 1) improve sub-standard living conditions, 2) provide opportunities for education from preschool to university, and 3) offer resources for healing and health reaching all ages. 1) SUB-STANDARD LIVING CONDITIONS We have built many facilities to support the ongoing rural efforts towards progress: - Due to Cyclone Eline and Eloise, as well as other inclement weather, huts collapse due to the torrential downpours or lightening. We have rebuilt over 50 of these traditional huts, with bricks coming from local rural brick makers, thatch from local fields, and cement which we purchase and deliver. All construction is done by local craftsmen. The family provides the windows, door, and frames. - Due to lack of funds, a family often will not be able to build a good pure water well and so we have assisted. Often a hand-dug well without reinforcement will collapse from rainfall. Also the well opening receives the ground water, thereby polluting their water with bacterial runoff. The family digs the well hole, we purchase and deliver the cement, and hire the local well building team. We have built over 130 wells, which do not collapse, and do provide a cover for the top to prevent contamination. We have deepened over 70 wells. - Cooking is done on an open fire in the center of the hut. With the innovative ideas of an Apravecho design, and our purchase of a steel cook top, the women are able to build their own stoves, which are fuel-efficient and smokeless, providing a much healthier environment for the entire family, but particularly the young children, elderly and women who are nearby during the cooking process. These same people are the primary ones to gather firewood and so these stoves also reduce their daily burden, as water is boiled and meals are cooked 3 times a day. - Due to lack of funds many families have no toilet, and so use the bush. We have been able to build about 10 toilets, giving the priority to pure water wells instead. 2) OPPORTUNITIES FOR EDUCATION We endorse creating opportunity so that every child can be educated both due to their country being bi-lingual so empowerment is dependent upon language, and also to expand every child's chance to choose their future with more information. This education includes academics, the arts, as well as public health. - We have sponsored thousands of children to attend the local public schools, paying for examination fees, and providing uniform materials, asking the parent to contribute the sewing. School is not free and a uniform is mandatory in Zimbabwe. - We have build a preschool, which has been in operation since 2002. We manage this school with our team in Zimbabwe including multiple teachers and cooks, as we prepare a varied meal for the child each day. For many, this may be the only meal of the day, and for others, the only time they have fresh vegetables, or fish, or rice, for example. The staple diet is sadza (maize meal) at any meal. Each year parents contribute firewood so that the 75-100 children may have their fresh meal. - Marimba, song, dance, drums, as well as other art forms are enjoyed by children after school or on weekends. We brought and purchased a set of marimbas and provide music lessons. Music is nature in Zimbabwe. - Public health issues have been addressed in multiple ways and venues over the years. We have reached out with herbal education, as well as basic health understanding to prevent further decline in health for the average person. We began multiple COVID-19 intervention strategies in March of 2020. - We have sponsored many children to go onto college or universities to complete their degrees. This has not just helped their parents with the financial burden, but has given these children opportunities they would never had dreamed. OFFER RESOURCES FOR HEALING AND HEALTH Over the years we have worked with all ages in the villages working to create options where there are typically not any: - The local residents appreciate all types of intervention on their behalf. We have brought complementary alternatives to them since the onset in 2000. This has included a molecular enhancer run by a solar panel (the elderly love this as it gives them energy), NMT (see nmt.md), Healing Touch, and traditional as well as English introduced herbs. - We ran a conventional Health Center until the financial disruptions in the country made it impossible to continue. There we provided basic medical assistance to anyone free of charge including betadine, bandages, pain killers, and testing and medicine for bilharzia, scabies and flu medicine. - The preschool students had a resident nurse for many years so that the students were watched and treated for all kinds of childhood concerns. - The current Youth Well Being program includes regular meetings for Girl Guides of all ages (preschool to graduating high schoolers). Although we think of Girl Guides as a scouting organization, we have uniquely tailored our group to cater to the maturing girls monthly needs. They meet weekly, and monthly receive a bar of soap. Each term they are able to have a weekend camp where the girls can be themselves and seek intervention from the teachers and leaders. It was this camp that let us know some girls did not have underwear, nor monthly supplies. - The "Monthly Care for Over There" program also provides each girl with a package of 8 washable reusable pads, and 2 holders, along with a sewing kit, a soaking bucket and 3 pair of underwear so that they can attend school, play sports, and always be equals in academia alongside their male counterparts. These pads are being made by our own tailors and have been distributed to our Nhimbe for Progress, which is a trust, as well as NGOs in Zimbabwe. This is a creative solution making a difference, which is called Mhandara Monthly Care (MMC), meaning "women's days". - COVID-19 intervention strategies was a four-pronged approach and includes providing masks and soap on a regular basis to all families within the six village area of Nhimbe for Progress. We hired the village women to make the masks and assisted with educational resources to be provided to all villagers. We have focused on water availability, deepening and repairing wells, as well as creating a community garden space through the building of a windmill driven borehole and development of a drip-line system. The produce is being provided to the vulnerable, as primarily the elderly and pregnant women. The community garden is also being developed for long-term sustainability plans. During the drought we have provided drip systems for the families in collaboration with Healing Hands International. SUMMARY Many people who have come together under this non-profit ‘umbrella’ may not have even met but we will find a simple dedicated heart amongst all of them: a commitment to evolving together without prejudice, with a desire to uplift anyone less fortunate, and with respect, honor, and integrity as their code. We don’t have to do well-known things in life, but we must imagine the greatest in others, support each other in even the tiniest efforts towards compassion, and embrace optimism as our future’s stronghold.