Jafuta restores hope for humans and animals in Victoria Falls

IN the rocky area of Chisuma, close to 20km outside Victoria Falls, a beacon of hope has been born. Built by Jafuta Foundation, a non-profit organisation that is focused on helping humans and animals alike, the Batoka Centres of Hope was officially opened by Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Minister, Monica Mutsvangwa, on Friday.

The Batoka Centres of Hope will act as a hub from where Dibutibu, Monde and Chisuma communities will converge for skills development, learning, community interaction, restoration of home through several projects particularly for women and youth self-empowerment.

Already, 130 schools will benefit from the re-usable sanitary pads project that the centre is working on, thereby addressing school drop outs as a result of girls’ menstrual cycle.

Dozens of women and men have graduated with sewing, beads making, iron smiths and gardening skills, among others, which are being taught at the centre and are earning a living out of the facility.

, founded by Gail van Jaarsveldt who is its trustee, strives to create and maintain equilibrium between community, wildlife and conservation, education and culture, forming an integral part of development.

Jaarsveldt said the name of the one-stop facility only came a few days ago while preparing for the official opening and means hope.

The facility comprise a vocational training school with a sewing centre, embroidery centre, bead making centre, snares and blacksmiths centre, nursery and garden, education hub with a computer room and library, a children’s play centre, a safe house for victims of gender based violence and abuse and a sports pavilion making it a unique place and pinnacle of hope in the area.

Construction started during Covid-19 era and each of the centres bear a name associated with hope in local languages, hence the grand name Batoka Centres of Hope.

Scores of community members including traditional and political leaders, heads of Government departments and non-governmental organisations gathered at the Batoka Centres of Hope for the official opening.

Mildred Ngoma, an 18-year-old young woman said she rediscovered her dreams through the centre after Jafuta Foundation helped enrol her for a software computer coding course which she is doing with an international college.

“I was a pupil at Sizinda Secondary and would come here for internet to do my Cala projects. I had failed my Ordinary Level at Fatima and came to supplement at Sizinda and passed five subjects with the help of Jafuta. We are the pioneers of the software engineering course and I am grateful for the place,” she said.

Her colleague Albertina Ncube said she was desperately sitting at home after failing to get money for tertiary education when Jafuta offered to help her.

“Jafuta saw potential in me and introduced me to the coding course. It is a 12 months course, which when we finish next year we will immediately get online jobs while in our community,” she said.

Jafuta Foundation community outreach director, Mr Sipho Moyo, Said: “We constructed these Batoka Centres of Hope as a complement to our education programme. We were offering scholarships but realised we were not all gifted academically.

So, we want to promote education and provide an opportunity for them to learn skills without academic entry requirements, to feed into the Education 5.0 without qualifications being a barrier,” he said.

He said they did a baseline study, which informed the needs for the centre and the goal is to produce people who can create employment in their communities.

Mr Moyo said the project is a community empowerment tool and beginning of a journey that will take the local community to an upper middle income society by 2030.

Matabeleland North Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Cde Richard Moyo, who was represented by acting Hwange District Development Co-ordinator, Mr Simbarashe Kaela said empowering women and youth was key to development.

“As a province, we appreciate these development initiatives. I, therefore, implore all development partners to emulate this noble initiative by Jafuta Foundation,” he said.

Minister Mutsvangwa said Government will help Jafuta Foundation achieve its goals, which dovetail with the Government agenda of empowering communities to address poverty, a key driver of gender based violence, which is prevalent in Hwange.

“Let me applaud the work that was done by the Jafuta Foundation, which complements my ministry’s mandate to promote the empowerment of communities through the setting up of the Batoka Centres of Hope composed of three establishments namely a women and youth empowerment centre, education and technology hub and Bulangazi House for women and girls,” she said.

“The concept adopted by this centre is highly commendable as it addresses all social and economic empowerment dimensions of women and girls empowerment. This will provide economic empowerment opportunities for women and youths, enabling them to start income generating activities to better their communities and families,” she said.—@ncubeleon