| John & Priya Buzzard
John and Priya are working with Isubilo in Ndola, Zambia. Priya is a nurse and John is a Teacher. They work with Orphans and Vulnerable Children.
'Many children are malnourished and unable to go to school due to lack of funds for fees, uniforms and books. Isubilo's priority is to support them and their carers within their communities and to resource the already established local schools. Children are individually assessed and provided with food, medical care, uniforms, books and fees as required. Isubilo does not run an orphanage, but resources children and their carers within the community. Games, spiritual and social instruction, crafts, education and life skills are organised at the Centre several times a week with some meals provided.
Assistance with rent and food to take home are given to the most needy families. All OVCs are encouraged to grow vegetables in their gardens with the help of our agriculturist. who supplies seed, fertilizer and expert advice.'
To see more of what John and Priya are up to visit the website www.isubilo.org/ or for their latest news click here.
If you would like to contact them they would love an email.
7 March 2009
To our supporters,
As many of you know, North Star is now up and running and we wanted to write and thank you for your support in our work and to give you an update on how things are going.
2 weeks ago we had our first training day with the leadership team of Chifubu Christian Community Church. It was an excellent day and was also a bit of a trial run for us in all the practicalities of training people here in our home, organising transport, lunch, adequate breaks, avoiding the sun and rain and also trying some new teaching material. It was a real success; we learned a lot from it as well as the team we were training. We were pleased to have the ‘classroom’ (a converted car port!) functional - the canvas curtains kept out the rain and sun really well. We just had the welder finish that job the day before the teaching so we were relieved to have it working!
It was an organisational 'challenge', especially for Priya who was also fitting her teaching around Joseph needing feeding, nap times, lunch times etc... We had a friend come to help take care of Joseph whilst Priya was teaching or running activities. John then continued whilst Priya was busy with Joseph. It worked well, it just took a bit of planning! Joseph was an angel and complied with the days plans... lets hope he's like that next time too! So we were very pleased and encouraged to see how well everything can work.
Just to give you the flavour of what we're doing, here's a little overview of what we looked at...
We focused on understanding the way we relate to others and how the rest of our team relate to those around them. The team really grasped this material and with much laughing about the hard realities of working together we were able to look at the things that can cause conflict and disunity in our team. We then had a session on communication involving a great activity which usually provokes a lot of 'bad' communication mainly due to frustrating restrictions (for example, not being allowed to speak or wearing a blindfold) and when overcome, gives a great sense of achievement. This paved the way for a good discussion and learning on the ways we communicate and how to do this more effectively as leadership.
We also has a session on teamwork with another activity and looked at God's heart for team and how this can be a huge witness to the world and those we lead when we really get focused on unity (John 17 v23). We even managed to look practically at the things that the enemy (and ourselves) can throw at our team that can disrupt the unity and get us off course. Things such as gossip and backbiting, lack of personal responsibility, lack of trust, poor communication and more, all of which can have such a destructive effect on God's plan for our team to be united. It was great to be able to tackle some of these deeper problems and help this team to take responsibility and act to make a stand against these things. What a witness to their church!
We're pleased that they learned a lot from the day and want to come back this month for some more training. Next time we'll be focusing on trust which is the foundation of any functional team, and coping with and managing change. We're really excited by what God is doing and are busy preparing for the next training day, along with fixing up some more bookings.
John has just returned from South Africa where he attended a training course to deliver a personal strengths assessment tool which we have been looking forward to incorporating into our training. This will mean we can start offering our material to businesses to generate some income for the charity.
Many Thanks for all your care and support,
John and Priya Buzzard
North Star Training
Zambia
NORTH STAR TRAINING MARCH UPDATE
We’ve had another good month with North Star having the return of Chifubu CC Church leadership for their second training seminar. It was a successful day and all seemed to go more smoothly than the first - hopefully this means we’re creeping along the learning curve with organising these seminars!
As the dry season is nearly with us, we managed to avoid the rains which enabled us to do some outside activities. This time we were able to build upon what we learned together last time about God’s desire for unity, and go a little deeper with building their team. We focussed much more on character development rather than the behaviour skills and tools we need to work in a team, as we explored last month. It was exciting to venture further into why we behave the way we do, and the character issues and Godly lifestyle we need to develop in order to play our role in the team and accomplish our vision.
We spent the morning looking at trust with a great activity which really pin pointed the need for trust in our teams in order to perform well and move forward together as a team. The activity required half the team to be in the vulnerable position of being blindfolded and having to negotiate through various obstacles in order to achieve the task. The other half of the team were guiding them with words only. Although very amusing for all involved (especially those of us watching!) the important issue of trust was clearly displayed. This enabled some great discussion as we debriefed this task focussing on trust as the foundation for any effective team. We were then able to explore practical ways we can help others to trust us and therefore build the foundation of trust in our team. There’s little point to building a house without foundations.
We then moved on to looking at the issue of change. This is such a vital subject for any team to learn about, even for any one of us, as change is the only constant in life we can really be sure of (other than God, thankfully!). As we all know, major change can be hard to cope with in leadership teams, but understanding the process we go through in coping with this and how as leaders we can help others cope with the changes they are facing, we can start to effectively manage change so that people feel supported and helped through this time. We looked at this through an activity called the ‘change maze’ which is a great activity for bringing out the strong emotions we have when put through change. The feedback we had from this session showed us how this had spoken into some of the difficult changes this team were facing. We hope they are better equipped now to understand each other, and manage these issues together.
We spent the afternoon exploring specific team roles – perhaps you are an idea giver, or a great planner, or maybe you are good leader. Learning about these roles help us to see each others strengths and understand where we can fit into a team to help it to function better. We demonstrated this through a scavenger hunt around our local area: the team had tasks to complete which needed to be filmed by us as evidence of completion. It was hilarious to watch the team singing a song in a shop, finding a police man to shake hands with and washing car windows of people they don’t know…and many more! The more tasks they finished the more cream doughnuts they won!! It was a really fun afternoon which proved to be a real bonding time for the team as well as discovering the unique roles and strengths that God has given them.
Apart from this training we have been developing opportunities with other churches. In particular we are planning a training series with a local Pentecostal Church leadership team and we are hoping to use the new assessment tool that John has now been trained in with this group. Also Priya has a possible HIV training update with the adherence department she was working with at Isubilo. We are also exploring the possibility of doing some work with our own church during April. It seems we may be in for a busy few months, which we’re very excited about. It’s been amazing to see how God is opening doors for us in these early months and how more and more we are seeing the need for this work – bringing God’s heart for his people in such practical and relevant ways.
Thank you again for your continued support and for journeying with us in this exciting time in our ministry in Zambia.
Many thanks and much love,
John and Priya Buzzard
North Star Training
Zambia
May North Star Update
Things are moving fast for North Star! We have had a really exciting few months with some great new developments.
We’ve just completed our first Personal Strengths and Team Building Course for a local business. It was the leadership team of an engineering company, consisting of mainly Italians, but also Zambians and a Brit. The two day course focussed on understanding our unique motivations and those of our colleagues, keys to effectively managing conflict, and some enlightening team building activities.
The feedback we received from the team was very encouraging – the course really exceeded their expectations and they feel so excited about putting their new insights into practice in their workplace and their personal relationships. Two of the participants have already asked if we can do the course with their respective girlfriends!
We were really pleased to bring in basic biblical principles, and even used Jesus’ model of how to resolve conflicts (Matt 18 v15). They have asked us to do a follow-up day next month with them so we can work more on applying these skills to the workplace and look at how to manage our strengths more effectively.
As well as this business course, we did a team building session with our church – Your People – on trust. The activity was very amusing (and showed who the competitive people are!) and we followed this by relating the activity to everyday life and teaching on trust.
We have been approached by the head teacher of the International School here in Ndola to talk about doing some work with the secondary school pupils. We’ll be meeting with her next week, and there’s even talk of incorporating these sessions into the curriculum.
Thankyou all for your continued support and prayers as we seek to see more of God here in Zambia.
With love,
John and Priya
May 2009
June, July Update
Here are a few of the things we’ve been up to recently…
We had a great time with Priya’s parents who came out to visit us over the time of Joseph’s birthday. In fact we had Joseph’s birthday, Priya’s Mum’s birthday, my birthday (John) and Father’s day all in the space of a couple of weeks. Hence the diet I am now on.
We had a very good programme for some of the grade 10 and 11 pupils from the International School. It was again a 2 day Team Building and Relationship Awareness Course which went down very well. It was particularly appropriate for these children as they go about choosing courses and careers – understanding their motivations in life and what they really enjoy is invaluable when making such decisions. The children really enjoyed themselves and asked for the course to continue beyond the 2 days – even though it was during their half term! Here is some of the feedback from the students:
I enjoyed learning about myself and others,and how to deal with conflict which is something I find hard to deal with.
It was helpful to learn how people see things from other perspectives. Now we can see how many arguments are caused and how to avoid them. It has shown me another side of me that I never knew.
The head teacher has noticed the change in many of the pupils, and has asked us to do another course for this year group and also have some involvement in prefect training, and courses for older year groups.
We've had a frustrating month with a few cancellations but it looks like future months will be quite busy. We have a course booked for a locally based NGO that has orphan and vulnerable children, and home-based care programmes based in many parts of the country. We’re excited to be working with their management team and have the possibility of training with the project co-ordinators at a later date. We'll also be working with a Christian co-operative that is being established for builders, electricians, plumbers and other tradesmen.
The adherence course that Priya devised while at Isubilo for those starting on Antiretroviral Therapy is provoking some interest with a number of community projects and mission stations. Some recent visitors expressed an interest in the programme, so Priya has been compiling all the notes and materials used so it can be taken round to other HIV/AIDS organisations as they visit them. There's also an opportunity for her to do another 2 week training programme with Isubilo to train up the next lot of volunteers for the adherence department.
We're excited to have a few other opportunities that may be going ahead – even one with a large communications company in Lusaka. We'd really appreciate your prayers in terms of knowing who to approach for training programmes, and that God will open the right doors at the right time.
We had a good North Star board meeting last week. We spent time praying through various issues and people really felt excited at the opportunities we have of bringing God into the business place. They caught hold of the vision that we will be able to have influence in the places where the church seldom gets to reach. We are all very excited to see how God can open this up more and more as we have already seen how much people in the business world here in Ndola really need more of God in their lives.
We have eventually received our tent from South Africa! It's a Freeform stretch tent so it can be erected in any way that suits us. We've played around with it already, and it's ideal for what we need it for and it looks great. We'll be using it for the team building activities that we do as it'll provide sun and rain protection. We can't wait to use it!
We'll be back in UK in September – earlier than we planned as Priya's brother is getting married at the start of October. So it'll be great to catch up with the family members we rarely see from Malaysia, and also catch up with some of you and the churches that are supporting us.
Thanks as always for all your interest and prayers. We look forward to seeing some of you soon,
With love,
John, Priya and Joseph
North Star November Update
We have had a very busy and exciting November ! A two week course training up volunteers for Isubilo, a careers course for A-level students and a course for the management team of a local NGO. It's been so
encouraging to see how the work is taking off, and to see the positive effects of what God has called us to do.
Adherence training course
At the start of November we ran a 2 week training course at our house to train volunteers to work in the Isubilo adherence department. Due to previous income generating courses North Star was able to fully fund this course for Isubilo. The course trains volunteers to work with HIV positive
people who are starting lifelong treatment for HIV. It involves understanding about all the different drugs, their side effects and how to advise and support a client through the start of their treatment. Priya developed the course alongside another nurse 3 years ago and she set up the adherence department at Isubilo. This year she fully updated the
course and trained up 18 volunteers for Isubilo. It was a very busy 2 weeks especially for Priya who was teaching every day, but the group were so committed and keen to learn, which made the teaching part very
enjoyable. We had a very good intake of volunteers on this course many of whom are HIV positive themselves. Some of them were very open about their HIV status and were even able to share their own difficulties with taking treatment. Altogether it was a really great two weeks and we feel very confident that these volunteers will do a tremendous job in the community. They received their first clients on Thursday last week and
with much enthusiasm they all visited them on the same day. It's so good to see a group of people who have such a heart to help those in the community where many others simply stand and judge. They really are bringing God's love to many who desperately need support in this difficult but essential time in their lives, as they start treatment and get on their road to recovery.
Student relationship awareness course
The weekend after the adherence course we ran a 3 day Relationship
Awareness and Conflict Management course at Simba International
School. It was focussed very much on understanding ourselves more and making wise career choices. We trained 23 Grade 13 pupils over the 3 days and we had such a good time with them. Again, an amazing group of people - we think they will go very far in life and hopefully have a positive impact in Ndola and the rest of Zambia. Instead of us telling you how it went, here are some of their comments from the course...
It helped me confirm some of the things I know about myself and some of the things people say about me. This course has really helped me and made me more aware of myself and others. I will look at situations from a different angle now and will not be so quick to condemn or judge others.
I realised that in teamwork everyone has a role to play, and every role is as important as the others. I learnt a lot about people I didn’t know a lot about before, but especially me! The conflict topic opened my eyes on how to handle conflict better.
I honestly think that because of this, I’ll be able to change a few things in my life for the better. This can be applied to understand and improve all my relationships – both personal and professional.
Management team Training
Finally last week we ran a relationship awareness and team building
course at a Christian NGO in town. They have home-based care and orphan projects around Ndola and other areas of Zambia. This course
was for the management team of 10 people. It was great to hear their
feedback and see the understanding and appreciation of each other grow over the 2 days. Some even commented on how they have really understood so much more of who God has created them to be. The directors have asked us to come back for a series of follow-up training days next year. A Danish pastor visited the NGO shortly after the course and is interested in us coming over to Denmark next time we're in Europe to hold a course for his leadership team!!!
Other highs and lows… Joseph caught a cough, cold, throat infection and then malaria all within 2 weeks! Apart from the illness, he’s been amazing considering how busy we’ve been. He’s really enjoyed his time with Emedy but seems very happy to have Mummy back during the days! Our security wall separating our house from our neighbours fell down in a heavy storm. It was due to the weight of water pushing against it from the neighbours side because they don’t have proper drainage.
Unfortunately in Zambia this doesn't necessarily mean that it is their responsibility to replace it! We're waiting to see what happens.
There’s been a lot of interest from a variety of different organisations since we’ve been back. Please pray that God will open the doors to the right opportunities. We have John’s sister, Rachel and the family visiting us at the end of December for 2 weeks. We’re really excited to see them all and spend some time together. Thank you all for your much appreciated interest, prayers and support
With Love,
John, Priya and Joseph
NORTH STAR UPDATE – MARCH 2010
We have had a very busy and productive few months - here are some of the highlights of the year so far…
- We had a great time with Rachel (John’s sister) and Kevin and the boys who came to stay with us over New Year. It was so good to catch up, and show them a bit of our lives out here.
- We’ve had some ongoing work with a local NGO which runs HIV projects in many areas of the country. The latest training day focused on building higher levels of trust within their team, working on having lively discussions and the giving of ideas from every team member. This discussion based workshop went down very well with the team making many new commitments as to how they will function together. We have another training day with them in May.
- Our first course for a married couple went very well. There were a number of moments when ‘the light bulbs went on’ in terms of seeing some of the areas of misunderstanding and conflict within their relationship. We’re praying that God will continue the work that was started. Comments from the couple… “It not only helped us to understand how our perceptions of life varied, but also to know how to deal with those situations when differences cause conflict in our relationship.”
- The schools work is really taking off. Working with senior pupils, we cover various areas of understanding themselves and each other better, looking at careers that can suit them, introducing tools for managing conflict, learning about effective communication, and other sessions on character building. The response from pupils and parents has been so encouraging, see below, so much so that the parents are now wanting in on it and are arranging a course just for parents!
Another private school in Lusaka is now interested, and we may be doing a course there for staff and pupils at the start of the next school year. We also had an excellent day with the director and head teachers from Chengelo School who would like us to run a training course for their senior management team, with the aim to also offer the course to their 6th form students at a later date.
- We had a very successful 2 days with a group called African Quest – a group of volunteers from around the UK who are working together for 9 months in various ministries in Zambia and beyond. They felt it was an excellent foundation, as they found out so much about each other – their differences and various skills – which will be vital in terms of working together in the months to come.
- We are working with the staff of Kaniki Bible College; a well respected pastor’s training college in Ndola, in a few weeks time. Please pray that the training will have a really positive impact on the staff there.
- We have started meeting monthly with the North Star board to pray for the various organizations we have been working in. All the members seem very excited at the impact we can have on organizations, both Christian and non-Christian, through the training and continued prayer.
We recently held a 2 day training course for all the board members and their partners. It was an excellent time of bonding as a team, as well as each member learning more about themselves. The added bonus is that they now have a full understanding of what we are doing!
Thank you all so much for your interest and prayers. We hope you have had a restful Easter break.
Many blessings,
John and Priya
NORTH STAR JUNE 2010 UPDATE
Hi all,
Those of you in England, we hope you're enjoying your summer. For us we're moving into winter now but to be honest it's still pleasantly warm!
Adherence Training 6 months on...
You may remember that I (Priya) trained up a group of volunteers for Isubilo back in November, to be adherence workers for HIV positive clients. Since then I've been providing support for Lillian (head of adherence department at Isubilo) and keeping in touch with how things are progressing. Last month I went along to one of their team meetings to see how the volunteers are doing and to give them a little encouragement.
I was so amazed at how things were going and how well all the volunteers are doing. I sat and listened to all the volunteers report on their clients and discuss together any issues or problems their clients were experiencing. It was 6 months since their training and they were all sounding like professionals having given appropriate advice to their clients and making good decisions on more serious medical cases, referring clients back to their HIV treatment doctor on appropriate issues. I was truly amazed! It just goes to show how you can take a group of local people, some with little schooling and give them the skills to be health workers in the community.
What’s more than their professionalism I was encouraged by their enthusiasm for their work, some of them visit their clients everyday (way more than we required of them!). During the meeting a number of the volunteers requested more challenging cases to be allocated to them the following week - to see that level of interest and commitment from people who are receiving no salary is truly an inspiration! Every volunteer we selected was still attending meetings and visiting clients (there is usually a significant drop out rate of volunteers) and they are working together as a team. If one volunteer cannot visit a client or report at a meeting, another will take on their duties willingly and report on their behalf so that a client does not go unvisited.
Lillian has frequently commented to me that the volunteers are now like a family - they spend a lot of time with each other outside of work and seem to genuinely enjoy each others company!! I couldn't be happier at seeing the progress of this team - talk about seeing 'the fruits of your labour'! They really are a special group and the work they are doing in the community is just so beneficial and there is story after story of clients who have dramatically improved and appreciate the care and knowledge the volunteers have given them.
One of my biggest revelations in all the work John and I have done with training volunteers is not only the impact the volunteers have in the community, but the impact the work has on the volunteers. They are genuinely changed for the experience and we see them develop and grow in their own personal and spiritual lives. One such case is 'Maureen' (I've changed her name). She came to the volunteer training and over the 2 weeks Lillian and I became increasingly worried about her health. She was incredibly skinny (wearing 2 layers of clothes to cover it up - and it was around 38C that month!) coughing badly and very tired. It was easy to spot she was HIV positive and we were even worried she may not make it through the course. We questioned her on her health and sadly she denied any problems.
Ordinarily in a case like this we would not select them to be a volunteer as severe sickness would obviously prevent them from visiting clients consistently. However Maureen was a star student! She is incredibly intelligent and contributed so well during the course. We knew she would make an excellent volunteer. We felt God prompting us to accept her anyway and we decided to tell her that we won't be giving her any clients yet until her health improves and she can manage the workload.
In the meantime she started coming to team meetings and forming friendships in the group and Lillian kept talking to her about her health. Over time she finally accepted help from Lillian and told her about her home life. She was living in terrible conditions and suffering major rejection from the family. She said that she was thinking about suicide before coming on the course. After this she went for an HIV test and was found positive and has recently started treatment herself. I was SO pleased to see how well she looked at the meeting, having put on a little weight, she has a new confidence having found a group of people who accept her and support her for who she is. She seemed genuinely happy, now looking after clients herself. Lillian and I often talk about Maureen and we are so thankful God brought her our way. We know she simply would not be alive today if it weren't for joining the adherence team. God really is in the business of saving lives!
Other recent courses
We've had a number of courses over the last few months including working with the Senior Management Team of Chengelo School and the Management of Kaniki Bible College. It was great to be able to offer 'overtly' Christian training, and both teams really felt the benefit of the time they had together.
What's Next?
We have been trying to break into businesses in Lusaka (Zambia's capital) and thanks to an opportunity to present at a Human Resource Management Forum, I (John) was able to spread the word to a large number of representatives from many companies across Zambia. This has led to links with a number of possible training opportunities including Zambia Communications Authority and World Vision.
We're also about to finalise (after 35 emails and two presentations / interviews!) a deal with Barclays Head Office to train 50 of their staff. I was so aware of God helping me through those presentations and giving me the words to say. Please pray that if it's right it will go ahead.
Family News
Zambian TV has been showing the World Cup which has been a treat. England crashing out is a double disappointment as we’ll miss the commentary; the commentators got the score wrong no less than 6 times in England’s first match and made frequent remarks about Wayney Rooney and Emily Heskey.
We’ve had a terrible month of sickness. Joseph came down with malaria towards the end of May and since then has not had more than 2 consecutive days without getting ill with giardia, worms and most recently flu! He kindly passed these on to his parents too. We seem to be getting better now thankfully.
Joseph celebrated his 2nd birthday at the start of June (which luckily was one of his non-sick days!). He had a great day with some of his friends over to play in his new sandpit. Unfortunately the cat had christened the sand pit within the first hour so we had to start again..!
Thank you all as always for your support and prayers. With love,
John, Priya and Joseph
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