First Lady’s kitchen takes ZITF by storm

Tendai Rupapa in BULAWAYO

VISITORS to the ongoing Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) are enjoying mouth-watering and innovatively-packaged traditional meals from a kitchen being run by First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa’s Angel of Hope Foundation, where proceeds of sales would be channelled towards her many charity projects countrywide.

The food is being prepared by well-trained girls who were taken from orphanages by the First Lady and offered employment at Hotplate Grillhouse, as a way of economically empowering them.

In recognition of the First Lady’s drive to empower the girl child and ward off mischief, Hotplate Grillhouse, a player in the hospitality industry, handed over a fully equipped restaurant to her Angel of Hope Foundation, which is along Samora Machel Avenue in Harare, where the less privileged girls are now employed.

The girls were offered an opportunity to train in hospitality before being offered jobs. Most of the dishes prepared including goat meat, road runner chickens and vegetables that were being served were produced from the Angel of Hope Foundation’s farm and the proceeds thereof will be ploughed back to charity.

So popular was the kitchen that people were flocking there to have a taste of the indigenous foods and fruits the First Lady is promoting because of their high nutritional value and medicinal properties. Sorghum, maize and vegetables like tsunga, cabbages, rape, are grown at the foundation’s farm. Yesterday’s menu featured madora, oxtail, beef bones mixed with vegetables which is popularly known as Haifiridzi, tsunga, goat meat, dried nyevhe in peanut butter, mazondo, sorghum sadza, white sadza and white rice.

For snacks, diners were treated to boiled roundnuts and groundnuts, black berries (tsubvu) and nyii.

Amai Mnangagwa, who is the country’s Environmental patron, is promoting the planting of trees including indigenous fruits. The mother of the nation mixed and mingled with the diners who all were glued to their plates, proving that they were enjoying themselves.

Councillor Abel Matsika, who is the chairman of the Urban Councils Association of Zimbabwe and chairman of the Chambuta board, praises the First Lady for practising what she preaches.

“We have come here to support the First Lady’s charity work. We are working well with her to rehabilitate children who have nowhere to stay whom she is taking off the streets. She is taking the children to Chambuta where they are being rehabilitated. Today we have come to Amai’s kitchen where they are preparing traditional dishes and the proceeds from what we buy here will be used to support the programmes she is doing. We appreciate and pledge our continued support for these projects,” he said.

Equally ecstatic was Mr Elijah Tambala, the chairman of Mashonaland West chapter of Men BelievED.

“We have come to eat from this kitchen because our mother takes everyone on board despite economic status and political affiliation. She deserves everyone’s support because she is doing a lot for the benefit of our nation. By eating from her foundation’s kitchen, it means we are supporting her vision.

“She is supporting the vulnerable and is teaching women countrywide to use their hands be it in towns, or rural areas. We are grateful for the work she does and she goes to every place right up to hard to reach areas. Some people in positions do not even visit such areas but she goes everywhere. She is doing all she does for charity and that is why we came here to support her. All this is for charity. We are going to copy recipes of traditional dishes so that our wives prepare them for us,” he said with a chuckle.

Ambassador Alexander Sidoruk of Belarus was among people who flocked to support the First Lady’s kitchen.

“We are grateful to be part of this charity event. First of all because we have long lasting and very good relations with Zimbabwe. We are here to support the First Lady’s work,” he said.

Ms Fortunate Gundu from the Young Women for economic Development quipped: “We came here in support of mhamha seeing the works that she is doing across Zimbabwe, particularly I have seen her works in Gwanda in Matabeleland South Region.

“She is helping a lot of women there, she is supporting orphans and the underprivileged as a community in general so we are really appreciating her efforts and we are following in her footsteps. We want to be like her as we are an organisation supporting young women in economic development.”

Mr Gideon Chiukira the director Coordination for Zimbabwe Foundation for Education with Production said he was at a loss for words with what the First Lady was doing.

“We believe in teaching our ethics, our values and our norms so the First Lady is doing exactly that. She is moving around teaching the Nhanga/Gota/Ixhiba lessons which had been forgotten. We in ZIMFEP are also going back to our tradition teaching the young men and women the importance of using their hands to earn a living which we used to do a long time ago before the coming in of colonisation.”

Mr Chiukira said they were working closely with the First Lady to promote development in the country.

The First Lady’s charity work has helped transform the lives of many people including the disabled, the elderly, orphans among many other groups.

This has prompted many organisations to seek to partner her to improve the welfare of the less privileged.

Amai Mnangagwa also took time to tour the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Hall where women were showcasing various artefacts as she encouraged them to use their hands to earn a decent living.