Liffy Gorton has previously served in West Africa, where she taught English and worked with street women. This summer, she returned to her birth country to work with a project called Talitha Cumi, which aims to teach vulnerable girls in rural Zimbabwe about the Lord Jesus and to provide funds so they can complete their schooling. Here she shares how the Talitha Cumi project began:
In 2011, Violet Myambo, a teacher at a Zimbabwe mission high school, was approached by two young sisters whose father had died and whose mother was unable to work.
They were left with responsibility for their two smaller siblings and needed help. Violet’s friendship with the two girls led to practical and financial support for them to continue at school and eventually find work.
This was the start of Talitha Cumi and it later became one of SIM Zimbabwe’s ministries.
There are many more girls in need of help, such as Rosemary, Vimbai, and Brunette, who were kidnapped and abused by a man pretending to be a businessman, who offered them shopkeeper jobs.
Eventually, they all escaped and were helped by Talitha Cumi and their story has a happy ending: Rosemary learned how to cut and design clothes; Vimbai started a vegetable business and Brunette found a proper job.
Today, Violet continues to give practical help and to be a strong advocate for young girls who through poverty, bereavement, abuse, child marriage or a host of other reasons are trapped in circumstances not of their own making.
Talitha Cumi teaches the Bible to help girls discover their value in Christ and their worth to family and society.
As well as enabling them to stay in school, they develop vocational and life skills so that they can make good life choices. Today, 25 young girls are currently receiving support: seven girls are in higher education, 15 are in secondary school and three are in primary school.
An extension of the Talitha Cumi work is helping women to start small businesses in order to provide an income that help them to send their girls to school and to care for them better.
Violet says, “I desire that these girls and women may know Christ and his power to change their lives.”
Talitha Cumi needs your help to raise funds, and support more young girls, expanding their impact in the community. Here are specific things your gift can help with, so these girls can keep learning:
- A gift of £25 will buy a school uniform and provide personal hygiene items.
- A gift of £50 will pay for a girl’s education for one term at a primary school. £150 will pay for a full year.
- A gift of £100 will pay for a girl’s education for one term at a high school. £300 will pay for a full year.
- A gift of £616 will pay for a girl’s education for one semester at a university. £1,232 will pay for a full year.
- A gift of £200 will give a micro-loan so a mother can set up a business to support her children.
Please go to sim.co.uk/respond/ if you would like to support Talitha Cumi, and mark your gift Overseas Project 96397.
Please pray
- Pray that God will continue to encourage and protect the girls supported by the Talitha Cumi ministry that they may mature and become the young women God created them to be.
- Pray that the Talitha Cumi ministry will receive the support needed to continue rescuing young girls from vulnerable situations.
- Pray for Liffy’s work on a manual to help the girls have a better biblical perspective of their place in the world and their value in Christ.