When SMRUC puts their hands together in Winnipeg, the ripples of change happen in Mwenezi.  The support and prayers of the church has a direct link to two new projects in Zimbabwe.  As part of the Men can Cook program, both SMRUC and SCORE representative paid three curtesy calls to the Canadian Embassy in Harare, updating them throughout the year, on the progress being made by the program, which was funded by Global Affairs Canada.  Those calls built a strong trusting relationship and when we wrote to the embassy in December outlining the need for a response to the Cholera epidemic in Mwenezi, they responded quickly and generously.  Last week SCORE received over $40,000 Cdn to deliver a program of education, supplies and fuel to assist and partner with the Ministry of Health in and around Mwenezi.  The Red Cross Estimates the number of people affected is in the thousands, and Mwenezi has seen hundreds of cases.  With the unique approach and bridge building that SCORE has developed with the traditional healers and prophets, SCORE is now able to take information on prevention and treatment to a segment of the population that does not believe in going to the hospitals.  On average there are double the number of people going to these healers rather than to the hospital.  Because of this, we know that due to relationships developed, hundreds will have access to information and supplies that would not have been it not for SCORE and the funding from the Canadian Embassy.  

​

In a related project, SMRUC was able to join up with another Canadian charity, Global Peace Heroes and through the Manitoba Council for International Cooperation (MCIC) we will be able to operate a pilot project, run by SCORE which will reach a small diverse group of children in the only refugee camp in Zimbabwe.  Violence has been a way of life for these children and we trust that through the medium of storytelling, using peace heroes from around the world, we can stimulate conversations and actions of peace rather than violence.