To the Shona people of Zimbabwe, the vigilance and kindness of the healers, their skill with medicines, and the ways in which they council, comfort and care for the afflicted, endear them to all they serve. Healers, whether male or female, are affectionately regarded as treasures by those they care for, and the well being and safety of the healer is of community-wide importance. The flowing, connectedness of the sculpture also reminds us of the bond of care and trust that exists between healer and patient, unbroken, one flowing into the other in the unique, caring reliance. How appropriate for DAISY Award nurses!

DAISY's purchase of these sculptures has become very important to the people who carve these beautiful pieces. Just 18 years ago, Zimbabwe was the bread-basket of Africa. Now it is estimated that over 85% of the country is starving, and unemployment is over 95%. The rate of inflation is incalculable. Moreover, along with a lack of food and quality water, Zimbabwe has been plagued with HIV/AIDS, cholera, malaria, and many other diseases and challenges.  Given this desperate situation, there are no tourists to buy the artists’ work. So the money we send to Zimbabwe to pay for the Healer’s Touches is a tremendous help to the artists and their families. Their letters of gratitude for this support are heartfelt and heartbreaking.

Through all the hardships, it amazes us that such beautiful sculpture is produced. With the funds we send them, the artists purchase the stone from a mine near Mashava, paying the stone diggers and their families who cut the stone into smaller, carvable pieces. The artists then transport the stone to their homes around Kwe Kwe and Gweru (a 112 mile journey) which is south of the capitol Harare. More than 60% of the stone is carved away to form the basic shape of The Healer’s Touch. The Healer’s Touch is then sanded down with fine water paper. It is heated in fire and polished with clear wax, bringing out its color from stone-grey to the beautiful shade and texture you see in the final piece. Then it is a 3 day journey to Durban, South Africa, from where the Healer’s Touches are shipped to The DAISY Foundation and on to our Hospital Partners.

The gratitude of the artists is so great as they and their communities are being forced to survive in circumstances we cannot imagine. The incredible work being done by nurses here in the U.S. is reaching around the world to help save the lives of these gifted artists and the more than 300 people in their extended families the artists support.

If you have a Healer's Touch that has a nick or scratch on it, it is fixable. Please send an email to DAISYsupplies@DAISYfoundation.org.  We'll be happy to tell you how to restore it.