Online Reporter
Winter is here and somewhere in Bulawayo, a 28-year-old mother of six is always lying awake at night wondering how she will keep her children warm, fed and together.
Zobuhle Ndlovu’s story is not just another sad headline to read while sipping tea and then forget the next minute. It is a painful reminder that life can sometimes deal one person blow after blow until survival itself becomes a daily battle.
Three sets of twins. Six children. No stable income. No real family support. Fathers who vanished. A half-finished room without proper security. Children crying from hunger. One baby hospitalised with pneumonia. If ever there was a family standing at the edge of desperation, this is it.
Yet through all this suffering, one thing remains powerful and clear: this mother refuses to give up on her children.
While some people abandon children at bus termini or disappear into the night to escape responsibility, Ndlovu has held on. Even when she wandered the streets carrying six children with nowhere to sleep, she still fought to keep them together. Her greatest fear is not hunger or poverty. It is losing her children.
That alone should touch every parent, every church, every company and every community leader in this city.
Yes, some well-wishers have stepped in. We applaud philanthropist Ezra Sibanda, nurse Victor Dube, Believers Woman Organisation, Tendai Charuka and everyone else who has assisted so far. Their kindness may have saved lives.
However, temporary food donations alone are not enough.
This woman needs stability.
She needs a proper roof over her children’s heads before the harsh winter cold fully sets in. Bulawayo winters are unforgiving, especially for children sleeping in poor conditions. Pneumonia has already knocked on this family’s door once. We cannot wait until another child falls critically ill before society reacts again.
Most importantly, Ndlovu needs a steady job or sustainable income project. She does piece jobs for US$1 and US$2 just to keep six children alive. That is not survival. That is suffering.
Surely among the corporates, supermarkets, NGOs, churches, individuals and businesspeople in this city, someone can offer this woman employment, vending support, accommodation assistance or school sponsorship for the children.
The older twins urgently need birth certificates and school enrolment. Without documentation and education, poverty will simply continue from one generation to the next. These children deserve classrooms, books and uniforms, not streets and uncertainty.
The big question is where are the fathers? Society must also stop normalising men who disappear after pregnancy. Children are not women’s burdens alone. Too many women are carrying entire families on wounded shoulders while irresponsible men vanish without consequence.
At times like these, humanity matters more than politics, tribe or social status. Today it is Zobuhle Ndlovu. Tomorrow it could be someone from our own family facing similar pain. As winter tightens its grip, let us not allow six innocent children to become another forgotten statistic of poverty and abandonment.
Sometimes changing lives does not require millions. Sometimes it starts with one job opportunity, one room, one school fee, one blanket or one act of compassion.
For this family, that kindness could mean everything.
