Sister Mary reports from Sichili, Zambia

“Our patients are doing fine. The rainy season has started. Many areas have been covered with water. The road has become very bad and reaching out to the villages is a big challenge.

However our patients are safe and are busy getting their fields ploughed; one of the medical staff assists us with the ploughing. Together with their monthly allocation of food, maize seeds have been given to them to cultivate. They are busy planting. Protective gloves are difficult to get which could have assisted them much in the fi elds and also during cooking.

This year maize is scarce due to heavy rain and we had to buy it and mealie meal from far away villages and towns. This is costly and time consuming. Hopefully by March we will have our own maize. The prices of necessary commodities are always on the increase.

I would like to end by thanking you in their name. The assistance we get from St Francis Leprosy Guild covers most of our needs. May God bless all your generosity and love. We won’t forget to pray for the repose of the deceased benefactors of the Guild.”

We are taking advice as to the best method of helping with this problem.

This farmer needs hand protection and proper footwear if he is to avoid injury

Hand-watering is heavy and difficult