Tag Archives: news

New Website 2014

SONY DSCWe are pleased to present our new-and-improved website, now with the most up-to-date information regarding the Zimbabwe Gecko Society. We encourage everyone to take a tour of the site as much of the information has changed, and is now in a modern, easy-to navigate design. We have included more information on the partnership with Dr Ray Markham under the page “Healthcare“, and  we encourage you to keep an eye on this page as we will be providing periodic updates there as the project progresses.

Thanks everyone for your continued support!

Less Than Two Weeks to the Garage Sale!

garagesaleThe Zimbabwe Gecko Society’s Annual Fundraising Garage Sale is less than two weeks away! Please be sure to collect any new or gently used items you’d like to donate, and join us on Saturday, April 20th for some great deals!

Saturday April 20th 2013
from 8:00am-2:00pm
at the White Rock Baptist Church
(1657 140th St Surrey BC)

How You Can Help:

  • Save your new or gently used items that you no longer use (no electronics or large furniture please).
  • Deliver them on Friday April 19th between 5pm and 9pm to the White Rock Baptist Church.
  • Help us by volunteering on the 19th and 20th!

Members of the White Rock Baptist Church please keep in mind the youth group will be holding their garage sale April 27th and they would like your support as well. Both garage sales will have great bargains!

For further information please contact Susan Janetti at zimbabwegecko@gmail.com.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Our Annual Fundraising Garage Sale is this April!

garagesaleThis year, our annual fundraising Garage Sale is being held on

Saturday April 20th 2013
from 8:00am-2:00pm

at the White Rock Baptist Church
(1657 140th St Surrey BC)

Please join us on Saturday April 20th at the White Rock Baptist Church for some great deals and enjoy Starbucks Coffee, Cobbs goodies, hamburgers and hotdogs.

How You Can Help:

  • Save your new or gently used items that you no longer use (no electronics or large furniture please).
  • Deliver them on Friday April 19th between 5pm and 9pm to the White Rock Baptist Church.
  • Help us by volunteering on the 19th and 20th!

DSC02462And be sure to come and shop on Saturday April 20th!

Members of the White Rock Baptist Church please keep in mind the youth group will be holding their garage sale April 27th and they would like your support as well. Both garage sales will have great bargains!

For further information please contact Susan Janetti at zimbabwegecko@gmail.com.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Nine-Year-Old Helps Feed Zimbabwean Children

Press Release – July 9, 2009

FORT WAYNE, IN – Nine-year-old Emma St. Peters raised $1,180 to help feed Zimbabwean orphans. She spoke with community leaders, who agreed to host silent auctions for beaded wire geckos.

Emma learned from Susan Janetti, director of Zimbabwe Gecko Society, that Zimbabwe’s economic collapse has devastated the usually resourceful orphans. The street kids crafted the geckos from wire and beads and sold them to tourists. Since tourism has dried up, the orphans have no means of earning money to feed themselves.

Emma first met the society’s director in Lithuania. Emma’s parents and Mrs. Janetti taught classes at LCC International University. Near the end of the trip, Mrs. Janetti found a gecko in her suitcase and gave it to her young friend.

“She immediately connected to the story I told about the orphans,” Mrs. Janetti recalled. “She refused the ‘free’ gift and insisted I take $10 to help feed the children.” Ten U.S. dollars can feed one Zimbabwean child for three months. She sent six geckos home with Emma to sell.

By this point, “gecko” had evolved into an umbrella term for all the beaded animals, ornaments, and vehicles made by the children. “I just thought it was so interesting that the kids could make those geckos,” Emma said. “I wanted to help them so they could eat.”

Emma and her parents decided to hold a silent auction. She gave a presentation at Trinity Evangelical Church in Fort Wayne, explaining the orphans’ plight and their creative solution. Zimbabwe Gecko Society used the $300 Emma raised from the auction to start a feeding program in Norton, Zimbabwe.

The Norton orphanage is home to 200 children. “Lives have been saved as each $200 starts a new feeding program,” said Mrs. Janetti. “Enrollment in a feeding program entitles HIV kids to receive medicine.” ZGS has renamed the Norton program the Emma St. Peters Vana Vanokosha (Children are Precious) Program.

Recently Mrs. Janetti returned to Zimbabwe with funds and supplies. She brought several hundred geckos back home and sent some to Emma.

Emma spoke with the owner of Old Crowne Coffee Roasters. He allowed her to put up an informational display in the coffee shop. She also gave a follow-up presentation at Trinity Evangelical Church, and she met with a small group Bible study from First Missionary Church.

Donors have given between $5 and $350 for the geckos. Direct contact with donors has proven most successful. One woman donated a plane ticket valued around $300 for an alligator.

“They think it’s really interesting that a nine-year-old girl can help save lives,” said Emma. “They think it’s amazing that there’s a little kid who can majorly help another country.”

Currently, Emma has geckos for sale at Old Crowne Coffee Roasters. For smaller geckos, sheep, and insects, she is asking for $5 each. For the larger animals, such as giraffes and elephants, she is asking for $15 each.

About Zimbabwe Gecko Society

Zimbabwe Gecko Society provides relief to orphans, widows and other people groups affected by the socioeconomic crisis in Zimbabwe. The organization raises funds by selling wire geckos and ornaments made by Zimbabwean children and by hosting an annual African dinner. The funds are used to support programs already running in Zimbabwe and to finance medical missions going into the country. Zimbabwe Gecko Society is based in White Rock, BC, Canada. For more information, visit www.zimbabwegecko.com.

Starving Children Miss Christmas Rush

Peace Arch News – Jan 15, 2008

Chung Chow photo

Moved by compassion, Sue Janetti helps starving orphans who have lost their parents due to the AIDS epidemic in their former hometown in Zimbabwe. But words can not begin to describe the desperation the Crescent Beach artist is feeling now.
Resourceful children on the streets of Harare, Zimbabwe, made hundreds of hand-made wire geckos and ornaments, counting on Janetti to sell them before Christmas so they could have enough money to buy food. Only one problem: The shipment came too late for the festive season. So Janetti is pleading for the public to come to the rescue, as the children are utterly dependent on the profits of these ornaments to buy food.

She is asking people to donate $10 for each gecko, star or angel they receive – which will be enough money to feed a child for two to three months. Imagine having nothing to eat but rotting cabbage. That’s the plight of thousands of innocent children, and they are thankful for the putrid food because it’s still better than an empty plate. Continue reading Starving Children Miss Christmas Rush