This is a Toyota Hilux Surf that we have bought from NOOR MOTORS Company LTD here in Kitwe from the funds that Brother Dan sent us recently. It is a very powerful machine that will work for CAM in providing transportation to chronically and vulnerable TB/HIV patients who cannot afford to provide transportation support to the health centers for themselves so that they can be diagnosed for TB and HIV/AIDS and commenced on TB and HIV treatment early enough. It will go a long way in providing transportation support to the poorest TB and HIV patients in 7 poorest distant communities where Christian Aid Ministries operate from in Kitwe in Zambia so that they too can access Antiretroviral and TB treatment from the various health centers where they are attached to free of charge for them to recover from their devastating illnesses. We are telling you Brother Dan and all our wonderful dear sponsors that what you have done for is so great that we would not even know how we can profoundly appreciate you!!! Because it is a 4WD with a high profile, even the places that we used to fear to reach to visit and distribute our food supplies because of bad terrain such as Luangwa and Mugala, we will be able to reach with less difficulties. It has enough space, and need arises we will be able to fold the 3 seats at the back to create more space where we will be able to pack food supplies such as Mealie meal, Kapenta, beans, cooking oil and vegetables for our needy TB/HIV/AIDS clients during monthly community food distributions in all the 7 communities where we operate from, without spending colossal amounts of money on transportation for booking minibuses and taxis for a 1 or 2-day food distribution program.
This Toyota Surf is a 3 L diesel engine and it is convenient for community programs. Here diesel is cheaper that petrol and petrol is more volatile than diesel. I have now personally driven this vehicle from the time we bought it and it has very vey low fuel consumption. It will cut the monthly organizational transportation expenditure in half. We are SO SO GRATEFUL FOR THIS GESTURE!!!! MAY OUR GOOD LORD BLESS YOU and replenish where this money has come from. We are celebrating Christmas with great JOY!!!
Stanley Mulenga driving the brand new Toyota Surf on the 14th of December 2012. I’m saying Thank you Dan and all the sponsors for this wonderful blessing that has come at the right time so that we can wave goodbye to the lofty expenses on transportation and save many lives in need in the community. We have, without hesitation bought a 4WD Toyota Hilux Surf, Automatic transmission from NOOR MOTORS Japan where the services are much better. From the price, NOOR MOTORS has: 1. Registered the vehicle with Road Transport and Safety Agency (RATSA) and put the Number plates for us. 2. Paid for Road Tax for 6 months from December 2012 – May 2013. 3. Paid for Comprehensive Insurance for One year from December 2012 – December 2013. 4. Serviced the vehicle and do the wheel Alignment and balancing and give us a brand new spare wheel and its cover from the same money that we have paid them. We will be able to do the second service ourselves in May 2013 to cover the remaining 6 months in 2013. In each year, we will only be allowed to do 2 maintenance visits per year for this vehicle. 5. Put full Tank diesel into our vehicle on Monday 17th December 2012. Frankly speaking this was the most blissful birthday that I have ever had in my life and everything seemed to me as if I was just dreaming. Believe me, it was on my very birthday on Monday 17th of December when I finally picked the vehicle from NOOR MOTORS after it was fully registered with the Road Tax, Comprehensive Insurance and Fitness certificate were finally stuck on the vehicle screen and I drove it off back home!!!
Thank you Dan! Thank you my dear sponsors, you have rekindled my spirit and you have enlivened the hardworking spirit of CAM and wipe away all our tears that we were shading as a result of the loss on the previous vehicles. Thank you for this wonderful asset!!! Please! Please! Please, brother Dan, help me to sincerely thank all our beloved and most treasured sponsors for Christian Aid Ministries! Tell them that Stan is saying THANK YOU SO MUCH for all your support!!! Tell them that I love them so much!!! I’m greatly humbled at your great love and generosity that you have bestowed upon CAM and my family. I, together with my family and all the Volunteers and all the working staff of Christian Aid Ministries are saying thank you for showing us love and great great kindness. We LOVE you SO MUCH and we cannot afford to lose you. We are constantly and consistently remembering you in prayers. We wish you a MERRY Christmas and a more productive New Year 2013!!! We LOVE YOU!!!
May the Almighty God Bless all the works of your hands my dear brothers and sisters for all your prayers and financial donations that you have made for us here. May God extend all your financial boundaries in the year 2013 and meet you at your very point of need in your caries, business, and school (for those that are in school and those that intend to start school in any field next year 2013) May you enjoy all the fruits of your labor and may God who answers prayer open many doors of blessings for you. Truly, I sincerely say thank you to you my dear brothers and sisters who have supported CAM through prayers and words of encouragement so that we can keep doing this wonderful work of helping the poor. We cannot forget to appreciate our dear beloved brother, brother Daniel Montes and Dr. and sister Elizabeth Rini who first saw us and believed in what we are doing and who have up to now continued supporting us!
They have over the years continued to sacrifice a great deal of their precious to Christian Aid Ministries so that we can continue to buy food for the patients in the community and at the Chest Clinic, pay our staff members in the administration and community volunteers in all the 7 communities, ferry patients to the health centers and have them diagnosed and commenced on TB treatment and get cured and treated from their illness.
We greatly thank you my dear brother and sister for enabling us to have our own office with the office equipment such as computers, office desk, filling Cabinets, Flip Chart stand plastic chairs and plastic tables for outreach TB/HIV Counseling and testing. We really Appreciate your great gesture which up to now they are still there and we are still using them in the community.
We are also grateful to Dan and Liz and all of you our sponsors that we have not mentioned who contributed so spiritually, financially and materially to the construction of the medical center that we have managed to finish at the TB Clinic in Buchi in Kitwe- Zambia. After commissioning it on the 25th January 2012, our offices will move from Kwacha East to this place. In this place, we will be able to buy and store food here in this center and it is at this center that we will be able to distribute it to the patients. We will also be using this facility to distribute antiretroviral drugs to the TB patients who are on both treatment instead of them to travel long distances to collect ARVs from other heath centers as it is currently due to lack of an ART center at the Chest Clinic. We are so glad that once this centre is opened on the 25th of January, this problem that our TB/HIV patients will be a thing of the past.
We have chosen a committee that is looking into the issue of the center commissioning. They have already written invitation letters to the Minister of Health, Copperbelt Medical officer, Kitwe District Health Management Team, Copperbelt Health Education Project, Stanbic Bank Manager, and numerous other politicians and business houses including NOOR MOTORS where we bought the vehicle for the organization for them to come and witness this breathtaking event. Early January, the committee will be going round to confirm the invited guests who are coming so that we can plan and budget effectively. Therefore, we will once again request you to support us in any way you feel you can so that this facility begins to work immediately to help the poor TB/HIV patients to access both TB drugs and ART, nutritional support and other services from the TB clinic and CAM at one point.
This is the side view of the medical center. We have successfully completed painting its front. We have used silver paint to pant the 2 big window frames in front and 2 side and 2 back window frames and they are looking beautiful. We have not yet painted the inside of the center. We are waiting for the plaster to dry up. We intend to use cream white to give the medical center that desired exquisite look inside.
These are the 2 Mukwa panel doors that we have fixed on the front of the medical center. Mukwa is stronger than pine wood and is not often eaten by the termites. We decided to fix them with plastic covers after buying them from one of the shops in town to prevent them from bending because of the rains. We will be able to remove them on towards the day of commissioning that falls on the 25th of January 2013 next year.. We have an assurance that these doors will be long-lasting. As the time was drawing closer to the due date of commissioning, we just decided to buy the rest of the doors from town instead of cliff making them because the process would have taken longer. The planks that we bought for making doors inside will go towards making the ceiling board and cliff will do that without paying him.
(L – R) Stanley and Cliff sizing the door in its frame and padlocks for the grill doors to ensure proper security
This is also one of the 5 doors for the 5 offices and departments inside the medical centre. They are not yet fixed. Cliff will be fixing them very soon before the day of commissioning. We have bought all the locks and hinges and the screws in order for them to be fixed. We have bought very strong motice locks. We have taken pains in building this medical center ensuring that the right material is used so that this facility goes a long way in providing the necessary medical and nutritional and administrative support to the TB and HIV/AIDS patients and Christian Aid Ministries. We are so grateful to you our dear sponsors that now, we have finally finished the medical center construction and we will be able to commission it and our work and even our address as Christian Aid Ministries will be known and we will attract more support from other funders. Thank you Dan, Thank you Liz and Thank you Keisha. We would like to say thank you SO MUCH for your support because without you, we would not have managed to finish it. God bless you SO SO MUCH!!!!
These are the louvers that we have made so that there is proper ventilation inside the medical centre. Tuberculosis or TB (short for tubercles bacillus) is an infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria; most often Mycobacterium tuberculosis. TB is spread when people with active TB disease cough, sneeze, speak or spit droplets that contain the mycobacteria, which are then inhaled by surrounding people. Less than ten droplets may cause infection, but a single sneeze can release up to 40,000 droplets. The only way you can prevent TB is to ensure that there is proper ventilation in the room or in the building to avoid catching the disease from infections patients who have not been on TB treatment for not less than 2 weeks. According to the World Health Organization, all TB treatment facilities with congregate settings should.
Taking TB treatment rapidly removes a person’s ability to spread TB, but someone with active TB, if untreated, can infect 10-15 other people per year. So it is very very important that a TB care and treatment facility has enough ventilation to allow the free flow of air to avoid TB infection like what we have done. Where need be even ceiling fans and air conditioners should be in place and should be kept rung and that is what we will do in the future after commissioning the medical center. We would like to follow all the fundamental guidelines of TB infection control that have been recommended by World Health Organization in order to effectively prevent even the care-givers and counselors and whoever nurse or doctor who will be attached to this project t from the ministry of Health under Kitwe District Health Management Team.
Stanley at the medical center checking the performance of the fluorescent tubes
All the five departments in this center have been electrified. We have also managed to electrify the medical centre as you can see by these lit fluorescent tubes here in front and along the corridor of the medical center. We have also put 2 others on both sides and at the back of the center to ensure proper security.
Merry Christmas and a prosperous new year 2013 to you all our sponsors! We love you so so much and we are praying for you. Thank you so so much my brother and sisters for this powerful machine!!! You made made my Christmas this year and our new year 2013 a Blissful one!! Thank you!!!