Thanks very much for your R360 Miyet!! That will certainly be most appreciated.

Co-incidently, the Waymakers Missions team is leaving tomorrow morning (Friday)with supplies up to Zim. There’s been a flurry of activity this whole week,so here’s hoping they have a really safe journey, and that all goes well.

We can look forward to some photos and some interesting stories when they get back.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far…they do this trip approximately every 2 months, so we can start gathering donations again for the next trip.

I also saw a report somewhere that they would be taking up a donation for Prison Food Aid as well. Well done!!!

Apparantly these guys are there outside the Embassy in London every Saturday…just reminding people of the plight of the Zimbos…this is awesome!

Here’s the link with some photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zimbabwevigil/page9/

Andrew from AOG World Wide Missions will have contacted your bank and asked them to lift restrictions by now. Perhaps you can try again, and let us know what happens?

He is also investigating an alternative solution, which I’ll pass on as soon as details are available.

I’ve just chatted to Andrew from AOG WW Missions, and he says that when there is a rejected transaction his bank sends him an email to this effect. He then follows it up by contacting the donor bank and requesting them to lift any restrictions…..so he is already working on the 4 rejected Aussie transactions and the Canadian one.

He also says that he has received other deposits from Australia and Canada…so it must be individual banks that have a problem, and not the entire Aussie system, for example. There have also been deposits from UK, USA and Germany…so things are ticking over quite nicely.

A special THANK YOU to everyone who has contributed so far…and….remember to pass the Sokwanele link to as many people as you can…you never know….there are many kind-hearted souls out there who aren’t even aware of the catastrophe in Zim. I passed on the details to a Canadian friend last night, and she was absolutely horrified, she was totally unaware of anything. The last she heard was about “some little problem last year”….go figure!!!!

We can’t take it for granted that people from the outside world know…..THEY DON’T KNOW!!! The 30 second snippet on CNN isn’t enough to make them sit up and take note. We have to contact people and TELL them!

So…even if you don’t have money to donate right now, you can make a very valuable contribution to this effort simply by emailing your friends, posting the link on facebook, speaking to your local church leaders, asking your local radio station to start a discussion, etc.

I’m feeling inspired this morning….how about you?

I emailed Andrew of the AOG from an email address I found online and alerted him to the problem from oz – that was before I knew of the canada one..

I now think it must be a glitch at their end.

We’ll persist!

That’s really strange. Embejo managed her donation perfectly in New Zealand. By the way, does anyone remember Embejo? She’s the remarkable lady that managed acquire that garage load of donated medical supplies for a hospital in Zim…

I may be able to get a phone explanation on Visa’s 24hr number, otherwise I will contact my Bank on Tuesday, after the long w/e.

Pleased to hear Pounds to Rand go OK.

I can only suggest that you re-try the transaction using the other currencies…and see what happens. If it still persists, I’ll ask Andrew from AOG WWMissions to help. I know that they receive donations from all over the world into that account, so it shouldn’t be a problem.

Thanks for your donation Anonymous…appreciate it!!

Two of us here in Oz who have tried to donate using our Visa cards, have been knocked back! We can only think that our banks will not transact in Rand, because we already know from experience that we can make online purchases in NZ dollars and US dollars.

Any suggestions?

Those now alerted to the cause live worldwide, so I wonder if there are problems donating from any other country?

You would be correct, Ozzie, in saying that the AOG WWM fund will definitely NOT let it be diverted to anything other than food..to the prisons. The worst that could happen, is that some will go to cleaning materials and medical supplies, because obviously they need medical attention and sanitation if you want to give them a shot at staying alive.

But…the plan is to keep you up to date every step of the way.

You ”address book’ plan is an excellent one. Maybe you could encourage your friends to come onto this thread and post here once they’ve made a donation. They can tell us where they’re from and how they found out about this initiative.

Is that a good idea, or what?

I think I’d be correct Kathy and Sokwanele in saying this AOG WWM fund will definitely NOT be able to be diverted to anything other than food??

How immoral, Mutambara – announcing it may be exercising transparency, but it is still theft!!!

Sok – I’d like to clarify where you say “NB: The UK government donates 28p for every £1 donated”.

The UK government does give 28p, but only if the person giving money makes a point of checking a box that says “GiftAid it” or something similar.

What it means is, rather than paying tax on the money you donate, the government in the UK takes your tax and gives it to the charity instead. But you have to indicate that you want your ‘tax’ to go to the charity rather than the government.

So… make sure you look out for ‘GiFTAid’ options on the form you fill in etc…..

I’ll look into setting up a direct debit tommorrow.