Standard Style 25 May 2014 Amended

26 Supplement to The Standard May 25 to 31 2014
Building People Building Dreams Building the Kingdom
I am no longer a squatter, says Ngirichi
EDISON Ngirichi was raised in a
squatter camp near Glenview with
his parents when their church
found them a place to resettle at
Mari Mari, a resettlement area on
the outskirts of Kadoma along the road to
Chakari in Mashonaland West.
Then aged 25 in 1998, Ngirichi says his
life was transformed so much that his family
moved away from that filthy environment
near Glenview where they survived
on handouts.
“But when we were moved to this farm
with my parents who are now late, we were
taught how to farm various crops like tomatoes,
peas and many others.
“Some of the tomatoes we grew were
sold to Cashel Valley but today the situation
is a bit different because we need a
pipe to pump water from the tanks up there
on the hill into the gardens,” Ngirichi said.
Ngirichi says they were over 80 families
when they were resettled but there remain
about 38 families.
“Others died due to old age, disease or
just left and went back to Harare. The rest
of the people live by the Word and that
Word has transformed us totally from body,
spirit and soul.
“Through Compassion Ministry, which
is a branch within Celebration Ministries
International, we have been liberated from
a life of poverty and begging because we
grow our food and through the church we
are spreading the word of God,” he said.
Ngirichi says the church gave them a water
pumping engine that ensures food production
all year round.
“The engine is currently faulty and we
are waiting for a mechanic to repair it so
that we restart our farming projects.
“The life we are now leading is a far cry
from the one we lived as squatters in Harare
because we are now able to utilise this
land that was given to us with the help of
the church to grow food and raise our children
in a free and clean environment away
from the rent, rates and power charges
that most people in the cities are grappling
with.
“We drink clean water and eat healthy
food and we just give thanks to Pastors
Bonnie and Tom Deuchle for this kind gesture,”
Ngirichi, who is now pastor of the
Mari Mari branch of Celebration Ministries
Interrnal, said.
He said he attended bible college at the
Celebration College in Harare and hence he
is now a fully-fledged minister of religion
who spends his time encouraging Mari Mai
resettlement residents to live by the Word.
“It is through the compassion ministry
of the church that we have discovered a
new and better life. I never thought that I
would ever own land where I can grow my
farm produce to feed our families.”
The resettlement covers six hectares and
there is plan for a clinic, secondary school
and irrigation where each family was given
huge pieces of land.
“We need to sit down with church leadership
so that more people can be resettled to
replace the ones that have died or left this
area.
“We are no longer beggars and excess
produce is sold to neighboring rural areas
or Patchway mining areas,” Ngirichi.
“We thank the then Governor of Mashonaland
West that offered this land for this
resettlement programme as this has transformed
our lives in a great way. Pastor Tom
always preached about Deutronomy 28
which talks about people being taken to a
better land somewhere and that is how we
Edison Ngirichi
landed on this piece of land,” he said.
Another resident Givemore Kapuya (34)
came to the resettlement area with his parents
from a squatter camp in Glenview
when he was 25 years old.
He says his church brought them to this
place because the Word had something to
do with this development.
“It is by the love of God that we are here.
We may have a couple of problems but
these are just minute when we compare the
life we had before we came here.
“I now have my own homestead which
belongs to me, something that could not
have happened had we remained at the
squatter camp. I now have a wife and two
children and we are happy. The word has
surely transformed my life,” he said.
The African Seed Company