Orphans have dreams too!

own” to build a home for the orphans in Mt Darwin district in Mashonaland Central Province.

Mr George Seremwe formed and registered Child Future Africa in 2003 and the organisation started to enrol in 2006.

The organisation that aimed at taking care of orphans started with 24 children and currently it has 18 children after six children were reintegrated into the communities.

“Taking care of orphans is everyone’s responsibility as it is a job that cannot be done single-handedly.

“Born and bred in Mt Darwin, I later got the opportunity to go overseas and worked very hard and decided to come back to Zimbabwe to take care of the vulnerable children.

“I realised the importance of giving back to the society that brought me up through empowering vulnerable children educationally and it is under this backdrop that I formed CFA,” said Mr Seremwe, the director of CFA.

He said the initial plan was to assist vulnerable children in paying school fees until he realised that the performance of these children at school might be affected as a result of lack of basics and decent shelter.

“We built a home to give them a have a safe place to stay where they will be protected and looked after.

“To complement our efforts we started farming activities at CFA so as to fend for the children and generate income.”

In response to the creation of safe learning spaces as a key to quality education, CFA built a classroom block at Rukururwi Primary School.

According to the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture’s Education Medium Plan for 2011 to 2015 and a rapid assessment by the cluster’s Education in Emergency Network (2011), about 2 500 schools countrywide are damaged and in urgent need of repairs.

However, due to funding constraints, the education cluster has only targeted 100 of the worst affected schools.
“As part of our social responsibility we built a classroom block at Rukururwi Primary School and donated furniture so that the entire community will benefit from our programmes.

“We also engaged well-wishers who donated books and furniture to Dotito and Kazai schools so as to promote educational development in Mt Darwin district, said Mr Seremwe.
Children housed at CFA attend Rukururwi Primary and Madziva Secondary School about seven kilometres away.

Of the 18 children, three are at boarding schools through the help of well-wishers who have seen it fit to allow these children an opportunity to be enrolled with the best schools in the country.

At CFA there are two homesteads headed by two passionate mothers, Mavis Pindiwe and Margaret Bafana, who are responsible for the well being of the children.

There are 18 children — six girls and 12 boys — currently staying at CFA were divided equally and accommodated at the two houses, hence creating a real family set- up.

“During school holidays we allow children to visit their relatives so as not to detach them from their historical background that involves important cultural beliefs.

“We don’t want these children to lose their identity and sense of pride.

“During weekends children will be given an opportunity to acquire hands-on agricultural skills from the farm workers,” he said.

The one hour period that the children undergo agricultural lessons every weekend will go a long way in making children acquire important technical skills.

However, Mr Seremwe explained that the intention is not to arm-twist the children into agriculture because they have different talents so with the availability of resources we plan to enrol them with vocational training centres and other tertiary institutions after attaining their academic qualifications to pursue a career of their choice.

He added that due to financial constraints the children are failing to partake important educational events like school trips and tours as well as sending the children to training institutions to further their studies.

Mr Seremwe, therefore, appealed to well- wishers to extend their hand towards building a fruitful future for the orphans.

CFA projects officer, Caroline Zindere said to promote “self-help” we took on board farming to produce food for the children and we sell the surplus to cater for the children’s needs like school fees and clothes.

“The farm specialises in growing crops, poultry production and animal husbandry.

“We grow a variety of crops ranging from maize, potatoes, cabbages and tomatoes.

“We have an excellent piggery and poultry production to produce meat and eggs for the children.

“We sell our surplus produce to the local markets to get money to pay school fees, buy clothes, blankets and other essentials,” said Zindere.
CFA farm manager Itai Kapikinyu is so passionate about “farming for a cause”.

“These children are the reason why I am here so I am prepared to work tirelessly to produce enough food for them.

“We have 14 hectares of land under CFA that we use for crop and animal production a project that is meant to benefit the children.

“Currently, we have 70 pigs, 12 goats and we also keep broilers and layers.

“To maintain a balanced diet for the children we grow vegetables, Irish potatoes and sweet potatoes.

“This year we are expecting 17 tonnes of maize, but we are still working hard to reach our full capacity if we are to meet all the needs of the children,” said Kapikinyu.

This kind of work demands commitment, dedication and incomparable passion so as to achieve positive results.

CFA matron, who is also the head of one of the two homesteads, Ms Mavis Pindiwe (53), said she has a burning passion towards the good welfare of orphans.

“I left teaching after the death of my husband who left me to take care of three children single-handedly.

“I tried cross-border trading so as to fend for the family and immediately dropped it after I failed to cope with the challenge of leaving my children alone while I went out of the country to purchase goods for resale.

“I felt the pain that my children were going through and it occurred to me that several children who lost a parent or both parents will go through the same predicament,” she said.

This is the tale that has seen Ms Pindiwe applying for a job at CFA.

“I love these children and I want to see them always happy as their problems have a direct effect on me,” she said.

She, however, commended the works of Mr Seremwe and urged people to imitate this example through taking a little portion from their proceeds and give to the needy.

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