A thanksgiving service at Highfield Road Uniting Church in April marked a very special anniversary.
It recognised 30 years of wonderful work done by Uniting Church stalwarts John and Jenny Preston for the people of Zambia in Africa, and the great support the couple has received in the process.
In 1996, Jenny, a Uniting Church Deacon and John, who enjoyed a long career in administration, finance and property roles within the Synod of Victoria and Tasmania, made their first visit to Zambia, a country filled with some of Africa’s poorest people.
The trip was the result of a friendship established in 1992 with Harriet Sianjibu-Miyato, at that time studying in Melbourne but someone determined to make a difference in her home country of Zambia.
What John and Jenny saw there opened their eyes and became the catalyst for 30 years of selfless dedication to Zambia’s poorest and most vulnerable people.
“Our friend Harriet was trying to get some sort of community school movement going and it centred around taking the most educated person from a village and giving them a training manual for teaching,” John told Crosslight magazine in 2021.
“That meant they could then set up under a tree or in a container or wherever they could get a space and begin to teach, and there were about 25 community schools when we arrived.”
Harriet’s work in making education accessible to all Zambian children had touched a chord with John and Jenny, as they soon realised the difference schooling could make in a child’s life.
Adopting the mantra that one child can educate a whole village, they threw themselves into the task of lifting schooling rates within Zambia, knowing that more schools meant more opportunities to educate children.
“We worked with Uniting World to build our first school and that meant children didn’t have to travel 20 miles to go to school, which involved a real risk of molestation,” John told Crosslight.
“It also meant that the children could do their Year 7 exam, which was a major achievement for any child in Zambia.”
John and Jenny Preston have been tireless supporters of the people of Zambia for 30 years.
Over the years, John and Jenny’s immense contribution to Zambia has broadened into other areas, including alcohol and drug rehabilitation support to addicts, their families and communities through the Choma Alcohol and Drug Rehabilitation Organisation (CADRO).
In 2011, John and Jenny set up Kondanani Zambia, which supports CADRO, disabled, orphaned and vulnerable children and continues the work they have been doing since that first visit in 1996.
Through Kondanani Zambia, they have been able to continue supporting schools, as well as provide a range of items from clothing and books to sewing machines and second-hand computers, which were donated by the Synod’s IT department.
The April 12 service of thanksgiving provided an opportunity for John and Jenny to acknowledge the many donors and supporters who have backed their efforts in Zambia, raising $433,000 since Kondanani Zambia was registered as an Australian charity in 2011.
The Prestons are proud to say that every dollar donated goes directly to Zambia, thanks to the ongoing support of many people.
“Thank you for your faithful support over the past 30 years, thank you for your prayers and your generosity,” John said.
“Truly, we could not have achieved what has been done without you, our donors.”
In a reflection delivered during the thanksgiving service, Highfield Road minister Rev Andrew Boyle said John and Jenny’s work had provided hope in a country with a traumatic past blighted by colonialism.
“(Their work is) one of generosity, of equity, of relationship and partnerships which have sought the dignity and flourishing of a people who were trampled over and exploited in systematic and wicked ways,” Andrew said.
“(They have supported) vulnerable, disabled and orphaned children – and by implication, their families; their mothers and fathers, the grandmothers and grandfathers raising children whose parents had died of AIDS, and the communities to which they belong, struggling to cope and to have hope.”