Community looks after its own

A community has started taking care of the less privileged by sewing uniforms for orphaned school children as well as assisting with their food. This is a result of the partnership between the local Area Development Programme (ADP) and the churches around the area.

A group of children brave the scorching October afternoon heat to queue and to receive a well labelled pack. On closer look, one sees that the pack, bearing the recipient’s name, is a modest home sewn school uniform, a set of exercise books and other stationery, as well as a pair of sandals.

It’s all smiles for the group of boys and girls as they receive the package.

The story behind the modest packages is one of a community that has developed a very big heart to make life bearable for the less privileged. 

Community members came together and started sewing projects and then selling their products. They decided to give some of the sewn uniforms to the orphans and other vulnerable children in their communities.

Community members who had come to witness the event, held at one of the homesteads in the village, could be seen dancing and ululating as they celebrate a community initiative aimed at providing for the less privileged.

As Sizman Makurira, the Negove, Ngungubane, and Nyamondo (NNN) Area Development Programme Child Protection Committee chairperson, said this was one way through which the local churches were looking after the poor and vulnerable in their community.

World Vision NNN ADP works with the local churches to create an environment where the poor and vulnerable can cope with their daily challenges.

“We have worked so well with World Vision. They recently gave us goats. These goats have been passed on, after giving birth and this has changed the lives of many people in the community,” says Makurira.

Working with World Vision has enabled them to work with the disadvantaged children in their communities.

Working together in the community

“We gather as church leaders and work to make life bearable for orphans and vulnerable children in the community. We have realised that in as much as we may receive assistance, we may also have to become givers and give back to the community like what you are seeing now,” adds Makurira.

The recipients were all orphaned children.

“As the church, we have started giving food and blankets to the poor in the communities. We have a community garden with an area reserved for these orphans,” adds Makurira. 

He says they were grateful that World Vision had assisted them in a variety of ways including the goats and the trainings on child protection.

Able to continue this work after World Vision leaves

“We are now able to look after the poor and the oppressed in the communities. We are grateful yes, but we also look at our own capacity and see if we can be weaned off World Vision. I am confident to say that even if World Vision was to withdraw support, we are able to continue with the interventions,” adds Makurira.

He says while their interventions on child protection and providing for the less privileged were implemented through the church, they were also working hand in hand with the traditional leadership.

World Vision NNN ADP has a number of projects in Mberengwa District in Zimbabwe. Apart from working with the church to implement child protection programmes, the ADP has also been able to construct classroom blocks, waiting mother’s shelters, assist in sinking boreholes and food security related interventions. The ADP has also helped in the establishment of nutrition gardens as well as starting livestock schemes where a family receives a she-goat or cow, which would then be passed to another family upon giving birth. This ensures that families who have financial problems have livestock they can sell to raise school fees or money for food or other purposes. 

The district faces serious food shortages as a result of recurrent droughts and the interventions have prevented against the effects of the drought. The construction of waiting mother’s shelters has ensured that expecting mothers will live at a health centre until delivery.

For the recipients of the gifts, there is every reason to go to school like other children. They will be putting on their new uniform like any other child at school and will always feel they belong.