Andrew
Online Reporter
LOCAL non-governmental organisation, Vana Vedu Trust, is supporting youths and the less privileged through vocational training as it seeks to deter them from engaging in drugs.
The Chitungwiza-based NGO is a family-funded project, which supports child-headed families with food and tuition fees.
Over 300 children have benefited under the initiative, acquiring skills in baking, carpentry, poultry, vegetable marketing, computer science and life skills.
In an interview on the sidelines of a media tour of the Trust’s facilities on Tuesday, founder and CEO, Mrs Chipo Mahamba said:
“We are working as a Trust to try and reach out to the children with the little that we have. We have boys that have joined carpentry and I am happy to announce that now they are seniors who left illegal gold panning and we welcomed them under our shelter.
“Since we are a family-funded project, we have a very small budget. We rely on the sales we get from baking done by the girls and my oldest son to supply local tuck shops in Chitungwiza.”
Some of the beneficiaries of the project said the initiative by Vana Vedu Trust had empowered them and changed their livelihoods for the better.
“I quit drugs and illegal gold panning when Vana Vedu Trust reached out to me,” said 21-year-old Delight Ayani from Chitungwiza.
Another beneficiary, Clive Chikore (18) said:
“I would like to thank the Vana Vedu Trust, which gave me a second chance of life as I was one of those who stayed in bridges, stealing and doing all sorts of things because I was doing nothing at all.”
Online Reporter