Sundaymail Editor
Society Correspondent
Waterfalls-based Patricia Jabangwe Children’s Home is appealing for funds and donations for the upkeep of children at the facility and maintenance of the place.
The home caters for 17 orphans and vulnerable children aged between four and 18 years. It was established in March 2009 by Patricia Rhoda Jabangwe, or Gogo Jabangwe.
She is the widow of the late Reverend John Jabangwe. According to Gogo Jabangwe, the fallout from the coronavirus has seriously affected them.
“Over the years, we were able to meet the children’s needs such as food, shelter, medication, education, training and toiletries, but we have been struggling of late due to the prevailing economic situation,” she said.
The institution offers beneficiaries educational support in addition to receiving all-round care, love and emotional support.
The home is in urgent need of a facelift, while the five workers assisting Gogo Jabangwe to run the institution also need support.
As part of self-sustaining projects, the children and staff members are growing vegetables such as cabbages, onions and carrots.
Further, there is an orchard for fruits to eat and sell.
“We have a poultry project in which we keep road-runners for eggs and broilers for meat.
“However, the fowl run also requires mending and sprucing. Another challenge we have is that of unreliable electricity supply to pump water for our boreholes.”
In addition to expanding the poultry project, the home also plans to employ a second in-house matron and enlist the services of a qualified teacher or a social worker who is best-placed to handle the adolescents’ transition into adulthood.
Children at the home have been nurtured in a Christian environment and are mostly members of Methodist Church in Zimbabwe.
Gogo Jabangwe was trained in the United Kingdom as a social worker specialising in residential childcare from 1969 to 1971.
She also studied crèche management and child psychology. She and her late husband ran Matthew Rusike Children’s Home between 1971 and 1980.
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