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Michael Magoronga, Midlands Correspondent
CHILDREN at St Agnes Children’s Home in Gokwe had an early Christmas feast after they received an assortment of groceries from fast food operator, Simbisa Brands. Established in 1981, the orphanage is home to 20 children and eight caregivers who were all smiles after receiving the groceries as part of Simbisa Brands’ social corporate responsibility (SCR).
Handing over the donation to the centre, CEO Simbisa Brands Zimbabwe, Mr Warren Meares said it was the company’s duty to give back to the community that had been behind the company’s success story. “This is part of our initiative to give back to the community. We are not doing this in Gokwe alone but across the country where we have outlets,” said Mr Meares. He said orphanages and old people’s homes are the main beneficiaries.
Mr Meares said the community has been supporting the company since its establishment in 1987. “We have been working with the community since the establishment and we continue working with them. For example, we support farmers to produce chicken and potatoes that we use for our day-to-day operations. We use about 150 000 birds per week and about 10 tons of potatoes per day and without the farmers, we would not be able to satisfy the market,” he said.
Mr Meares said as part of social corporate responsibility, Simbisa was paying tuition fees for more than 2 000 children across the country. “What we do is to identify talent and then we support those children until they graduate at university. For example, if we identify a Grade 3 child who is talented, we pay tuition fees for them from that stage until tertiary school. For 2022 only, we have used about US$200 000 toward that initiative as a way of giving back to the community,” he said.
Going forward, Mr Meares said, the fast food retailer was targeting to give groceries to the vulnerable almost every month so that they can have decent meals every day. “We have noticed that some are having one meal per day and we seek to address this by giving them groceries every month so that they can also have a decent meal,” he said.
St Agnes Children’s Home patron Sister Lillian Murakwani said the donations came at a time when the orphanage was about to run out of food. “We were staring hunger in the face; we were only left with food for one week and after that we didn’t know how we were going to survive. We are grateful to Simbisa Brands for the timely gesture,’ she said.
She said the orphanage was failing to pay for caregivers and called for well-wishers to assist. “These people (caregivers) are doing a great job but due to limited resources, we are failing to pay them. My wish would be for them to get at least US$100 per month but we are failing to do so due to limited resources,” he said. St Agnes is home to 20 children aged between 2 and 18 years and eight caregivers. The latest member, aged 2, was rescued from the centres’ Blair toilet after her mother threw her in the pit.
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