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Vusumuzi Dube
CLAD in blue denim jeans and a white t-shirt, Mr Moses Mpofu emerges from a white Toyota Quantum vehicle, walking in a bouncy step, one can immediately feel the air of sophistication and success that the step carries.
He smiles as he approaches the small crowd waiting in eager anticipation for him. Maintaining that smile, he effortlessly greets everyone in his native Ndebele language.
While exchanging the pleasantries one could not but fail to see that his golf t-shirt is inscribed Moses Mpofu Foundation by the pocket and a quick scan reveals that even the small group that is accompanying him are all wearing similar golf t-shirts.
The team proceeded to Ingutsheni Central Hospital boardroom and there was an air of excitement although very few knew what was going to happen there. The Foundation is little known but is fast spreading its philanthropic tentacles to touch, comfort and soften the less privileged.
At Ingutsheni Psychiatric Hospital, Mr Mpofu donated a consignment of drugs worth more than $3 000. To add on to that Mr Mpofu also provided lunch for patients at the St Mary’s section, which houses female patients.
The real toast of the day was yet to come. Mr Mpofu surprised everyone with a huge cake, revealing that Sunday 23 July — the very day he made this humble donation — was in actual fact his birthday and he had chosen not to spend this day with his family, which is based in Harare, but travel all the way to the country’s second largest city to be with patients at Ingutsheni.
This raised questions as to the significance of such a gesture, could it be a publicity stunt maybe to raise Mr Mpofu’s profile or just a genuine philanthropic work with no connotations to it?
But if it was a publicity stunt he could have donated to a popular institution, maybe a known football club, maybe Highlanders, maybe a referral hospital or a school, maybe donating to a political party of his choice and not to little talked about Ingutsheni.
It was, however, not until after Mr Mpofu started addressing the people gathered at the boardroom that the pawns start falling in place and questions were answered.
For Mr Moses Mpofu, founder of Moses Mpofu Foundation, Ingutsheni Hospital is a very important health facility as it is where his mother spent half of her life after developing a mental illness soon after giving birth to the now philanthropist.
Having a mental illness can be tricky, and parents with a mental illness can have a difficult time caring for children and providing them with proper and stable nurturing.
Statistics have shown that nearly one in five people experiencing a mental illness at some time in their life will mainly be parents.
Some of these illnesses will only be short term caused by such things as being depressed for a period of time following the loss of someone close, or periods of anxiety and high stress when life is particularly difficult.
However, there are also long-term mental illness which include such conditions as; bipolar disorder, chronic anxiety, chronic depression, obsessive compulsive disorder and schizophrenia.
For Mr Mpofu who grew up in Mpopoma, when he was born on 23 July 1975, his mother developed a mental challenge that saw her spending half her life at Ingutsheni Central Hospital, eventually passing away 17 years ago.
“Apparently today is my birthday, I turned 42 years, as part of my birthday celebrations I thought of coming to Ingutsheni Hospital as Moses Mpofu Foundation, which is my organisation that I started last year.
“The Foundation basically focuses on taking care of the mentally challenged women and less privileged girl children in society. Why I chose Ingutsheni Hospital is because my mother literally spent half of her life here. She was a patient of Ingutsheni, eventually passing away here because of mental issues. Hence I have so much passion for the mentally challenged people because my life history is so much attached to them,” said an emotional Mr Mpofu.
He revealed that growing up was not easy but he eventually got to appreciate the importance of Ingutsheni Hospital as it not only assisted his mother but his family as a whole.
Mr Mpofu noted that the hospital eventually became a second home for him and his family as they frequented it to visit their mother, even considering the hospital staff as part of their family.
“One might not understand the importance of this hospital when all they do is to pass by. Some businesspeople might not even feel the need to donate the little they can to this hospital. However, to me, I fully identify with this hospital and have come to fully appreciate how important it is within our society hence this gesture which I am here for today.
“I tell you when I grew up with my mother admitted here, things were not easy for us as a family. There were a lot of challenges that we encountered as you know that in a family, a mother’s love is critical for family development. However, I must emphasise that this hospital came in and helped us face some of the challenges head on, which made life a little easy for us,” said Mr Mpofu.
After the initial donation to Ingutsheni, Mr Mpofu revealed that they were now partnering with an Indian institution and were in the process of formally registering with the Health Ministry so as to formalise their operations.
“We have so much passion in helping solve some of the challenges faced by our health institutions especially by the mentally challenged patients. In the near future we will be visiting other health institutions with mentally challenged patients in the country to see how we can assist.
“We also have partnered with some Indian institution which I cannot reveal for now as we are in the process of signing our memorandum of understanding. We are also in the process of registering our organisation with the Ministry of Health and Child Care so that we formalise our operations,” said Mr Mpofu.
Ingutsheni chief executive officer Mr Ernest Manyawu said it was encouraging that there were people out there who appreciate the importance of the health institution. He expressed gratitude to Mr Mpofu for his noble gesture.
“The mentally challenged are a part of our society that we have to always bear in mind. Having a mental illness does not alienate you from society hence the need for society to come with such gestures to make our patients feel wanted by society.
“When patients see people like Mr Mpofu coming to spend their birthdays with them it goes a long way in having our patients rehabilitated and also the donations made to us make our job much easier,” said Mr Manyawu.
Senior Matron at the Hospital, Mrs Vongai Chimbindi echoed Mr Manyawu’s sentiments saying there was a need for more people to realise the importance of not only visiting patients at the hospital but also donating the little they have to the institution.
She said such donations made sure that the hospital functioned smoothly and that they fulfil their mandate of treating the patients and rehabilitating them.
“By always remembering that the mentally challenged are a part of us it will help us also in treating them because if we abandon them here this will also have its own psychological effects on the patients and inhibit our efforts to rehabilitate them.
“Further I should encourage more people to have it in their hearts to donate the little they can afford to the hospital. As a joint effort we will go a long way in terms of helping treat our patients,” said Matron Chimbindi.
The psychiatric hospital caters for about 2 000 patients and entirely depends on Government’s budgetary allocations, which have not been adequate over the years.
Last year there were reports of patients attacking staff members due to a shortage of anti-psychotic drugs to stabilise them.
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