Retired teacher inspires supply shipment to Zimbabwe

By Heidi Robinson*

Francie Markham and high school student Jeremy Wilson unload a box of school supplies bound for a United Methodist-supported high school in Old Mutare, Zimbabwe. UMNS photos by Heidi Robinson.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (UMNS)--Like the curtain on opening night, the warehouse door slides back to reveal an eye-popping scene.

Inside the 2,000-square-foot building are furniture, computer equipment and school supplies stacked six to eight feet high. Boxes of seeds, hospital beds and crates of textbooks sit on wood slats ready to empower a small community in famine-stricken Zimbabwe.

All of the supplies were donated by churches, businesses, schools and families across South Carolina to provide hope for families living on the other side of the world.

Retired high school teacher Francie Markham inspired the project with stories of her mission trips to Old Mutare Mission Center, a United Methodist-supported mission that includes two schools, a hospital, a children's home and church.

During her four trips that begin in 2001, Markham noticed that students at the mission's Hartzell High School approach learning with enthusiasm, but often without textbooks--or lunch. Her last trip in 2006 enabled her to take inventory of the school's specific needs.

The needs reflect the larger problem in an African nation where electricity is available for only about two hours a day and store shelves are barren of many food staples.

"These students are living in a country that is collapsing," said Markham, 55, a member of Trenholm Road United Methodist Church in Columbia. "This project is about dignity for every student. Every student of any school anywhere in the world should have dignity in his or her quest for knowledge."

Blood, sweat and tears
A self-proclaimed "scavenger," Markham began "a year of blood, sweat and tears"--gathering items from anywhere and everywhere that could be shared with Hartzell's 900 students.

She arranged for three large truckloads to be hauled to the storage warehouse from Dreher High School before the Columbia school was torn down and replaced with a new building. "We got everything from bookcases and pencil sharpeners to outdated textbooks. We pulled blackboards off the wall," said Markham, who spent her 28-year career teaching English at the school.

Many other individuals and groups contributed as well. Monetary donations from United Methodist churches and other groups went toward the $11,000 in overseas shipping costs.

"I'm a very persuasive beggar," said Markham. "Some of our excess will become someone else's treasure. That's such a sweet thing. It means we are recycling ourselves."

She also was moved by the phone calls from strangers offering assistance and expertise. "The Holy Spirit works in amazing ways," she said. "There were so many workings going on, and they were not happenstance."

Packing day
The logistics of getting the goods to Zimbabwe was daunting. They had to be packed to travel almost 9,000 miles and then loaded into a 40-foot-long cargo container for shipment. The packing job required manpower, and the shipping job required money.

Early one Thursday morning during the packing process, Markham was alone to survey the project. "I need an army to help pack all this," she sighed.

Soon, three vans filled with high school seniors from Midland Middle College in Columbia arrived to help and, in the process, received an unconventional lesson in global studies.

"Each box you pack here today will result in an improved life in Africa," Markham told the seniors. "Students in Africa will have textbooks because of your work here. Teachers will have chalk so they have the freedom to teach. Families will have a crop of beans because of your time here. You are needed on this site."

Breaking into teams, the students began to wrap furniture, pack textbooks and sort seed packets. "Wow! Look at all this stuff," exclaimed Samantha Shumpert.

"I had no idea how hard it is for those students just to go to school," said D'Aundra Tyler as she loaded boxes of chalk. "The things I take for granted, like water and power … they don't have."

Markham moved from team to team to offer encouragement. "We have to dream for this community. We can't just leave them there, and say 'Oh, well sorry you don't have any electricity.' We have to dream for them while we are here."

Within a couple of hours, boxes were labeled and taped, and three pallets stacked high. At the end of a school day, the army of students has packed enough boxes to fill at least one cargo container for shipment.

As the tired students walked toward their vans, several offered to come back if Markham needed more help.

"Today, they got it," she said while watching them drive away. "This is about something bigger than any one of them. They just know that there is a reason they feel good doing this, and God is that reason. They helped work a miracle today."

Though the container left Columbia on Nov. 17, it isn't expected to arrive until early March due to a rail strike in Mozambique. Markham plans to return to Zimbabwe with a Volunteers-in-Mission team in April or May to follow up on the project and also to conduct similar needs inventories for two rural schools, Clair High School and Nyakasapa High School. Those schools will be the recipients of the next container project.

*Robinson is a freelance producer based in Winston-Salem, N.C.