Online Reporter
Obey Musiwa
Herald Reporter
DZIKWA Trust founder Mr Seppo Ainamo on Wednesday celebrated his 58th birthday by throwing a bash for nearly 600 children.
The trust caters for 400 children while 200 others were from the nearby community.
“As long as I am standing on my own two feet, I have no intention of stopping. I am continuously looking for people to help me continue with this voluntary work,” he said.
Mr Ainamo said the Dzikwa Trust was dedicated to ensuring that the children under its care can reach their full potential in education whether at secondary school or tertiary levels.
“So far, we now have close to 100 bachelor’s degrees, 20 master’s degrees, two PhDs and we are still growing,” he said.
“Apart from paying all the school expenses, that means school fees, uniforms and stationery for the students we have, we also feed them daily, six days a week and cumulatively we are now at 2.5 million hot plates of food.”
Australian Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Ms Minoli Pereira, who was part of the celebrations, reaffirmed her government’s continued support for Dzikwa Trust.
“We are very happy to be partners with Dzikwa Trust in terms of their educational programmes. We have provided funding over many years to help build the coding centre here at the Activity Centre, installing boreholes, solar panels and doing some work with their newer programmes around reforestation.”
She said financial support they have extended to the Dzikwa Trust under their partnership amounted to US$105 000.
“Over a number of years (we) assist with specific projects with the ultimate aim of making sure that we can make a difference to the children of the community here and the broader community members also,” she said.
Dzikwa Trust manager Mrs Priscilla Takawira hailed the Dzivarasekwa community for the support that they give to the trust saying their charity and generosity keeps the trust going.
“They respect us quite a lot as a change agent in the community. As we transform the community, we have students studying abroad under the Presidential Scholarships and through government-to-government scholarships,” she said.
She said some of the students were studying in India, Russia, South Africa and China.
