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Tendai Mbirimi
Losing both parents at a tender age is the stuff of nightmares, especially when the parents have been surviving hand-to-mouth.
Picture losing both parents at age four, somewhere in rural Zimbabwe where the nearest school is 10km away and the closest relative is a grandmother in the twilight of her life.
A bleak future beckons.
Many children in such predicaments rely on the goodwill of strangers.
Nashville Baptist Church, which runs House of Hope Orphanage (Zimbabwe) in Gweru — which of late is housing 10 girls — has started construction of a facility on Plawsworth Farm, located in ward 18 of Gweru rural.
The farm was acquired courtesy of the Land Reform Programme and reserved for non-commercial projects. Currently the orphanage is being run from a rented house in Nashville suburb.
Nashville Baptist started raising funds for the purchase and construction of the orphanage in 2011 with assistance of Baptist congregants from the island of St Kitts and Nevis, fronted by Pastor Allinson Da Costa, a missionary who has been coming to Zimbabwe since 1998.
According to Pr Da Costa, US$27 000 has been spent so far on infrastructural developments and construction of the new home, with the first apartment near completion.
“We came up with the idea in 1998 on my first missionary journey to Zimbabwe. We started sourcing funds for the construction of the orphanage in 2011 and to date around US$27 000 has been spent on the project,” says Pr Da Costa. “We intend to construct four blocks with each accommodating around 20 children.”
Pr Joseph Manenji of Nashville Baptist Assembly in Gweru is in charge of the orphanage, says they undertook the project as part of their pastoral duties which entail caring for the vulnerable.
He reveals that raising rental fees for the home has been a challenge. Currently they are paying US$300 monthly.
“As a church, we undertook this as a charity initiative to give home to the homeless irrespective of denominations. All the orphans we have at this institution are not from Baptist Church, but we have received them from other church denominations,” he says.
Due to the size of the current home, the orphanage has been constrained on the number of vulnerable children it can accommodate. The house has a carrying capacity of 10 children and this has been reserved for girls only.
“If resources permit we intend to build four structures at the new place so that we can extend our helping hand to boys as well,” says Pr Manenji.
“At the new place we intend to sink a borehole so that we can embark on self-sustaining farming projects so that we dont depend on donor funding.
‘‘We need to raise about US$3 000 to sink the borehole and we are appealing to well-wishers for assistance,” he said.
Councilor for Gweru rural ward 18, Mr Simbarashe Tatisa, says the community is grateful for the development taking place in their area.
“We are very pleased with this development, since this will also benefit vulnerable children from our area.
‘‘We are doing everything possible on our part to contribute towards completion of the project,” says Cllr Tatisa
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