Rose of Charity transforms disadvantaged children’s lives

Leonard Ncube Victoria Falls Reporter
LET the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.

These words by Jesus in Matthew 19vs14 seem to inspire the love for disadvantaged children by a Victoria Falls woman Simangele Khumalo-Moyo, who while others are thinking of fattening their pockets,set her sights on improving the socio-economic lives of the disadvantaged.

What started as a simple little talk on the streets, with street children, has transformed into a big children’s home housing 15 disadvantaged tots and serving a total of 70 orphans from the resort town and surrounding communities.

For the past eight years Khumalo-Moyo has been using her house in Chinotimba suburb as a charity home. Now, with the help of well-wishers, she has expanded and has built an orphanage in Sizinda area, about 20km outside Victoria Falls town.

The First Lady Grace Mugabe, whose passion for children has seen her running one of the most charitable homes in the country, visited the new site in Sizinda, Hwange West Constituency last year and donated a fridge.

“My child gave me the nickname Rose of Charity because of the way I was helping disadvantaged children and I didn’t know that one day I would run such an organisation.

“We have 15 orphans whom we’ve taken in, the eldest being 14 years and the youngest is three months old. In total we’ve 70, including some whom we feed and clothe on weekends and they go back to their respective places. The government says we should release them at the age of 18 but I wonder where they would go because they won’t be independent then. That would only drive them back to the streets.”

The country, a few years ago, started an Orphaned and Vulnerable Children (OVC) programme whose aim was to gather data on the number of orphans and the disadvantaged children countrywide so they could receive support.

Khumalo-Moyo’s inspiration was probably her professional hospitality background as a hotel employee and what she termed “my background which I can’t disclose now.”

“I started helping street children as far back as 2007 when I would see them fighting or abusing drugs on the streets. I felt sorry for them and started engaging them through counselling. I would give them food and also go with them to Victoria Falls Christian Church,” said Khumalo-Moyo.

She said after counselling them, one of the street children opened up-saying he ran away from his blind parents’ home in Chitungwiza because he did not want to go into the streets to beg with them.

“I took him to Harare and we managed to locate his parents and he is a big boy now going to school,” said Khumalo-Moyo.

Rose of Charity was officially registered as a charity home last year.

Khumalo-Moyo, who has two adult children of her own, said her vision is to develop a bigger “charity village” like SOS Children’s Villages. Rose of Charity observes the children’s right to education by sending them to school.

“We take them to school because that’s their right. I wish one day this will be a big place serving the whole community,” she said.

However, as it may be, financing the day to day needs of 15 children, plus her family and other orphans becomes a challenge for Rose of Charity.

“We manage through the help of well-wishers,” she said.

Some of her helpers are hotels, supermarkets and individuals. Last week a leading chain store gave a grocery voucher worth $1,000 so she could feed the children.

The Hwange West Constituency Development team led by MP Cde Bekithemba Mpofu, Councillors Alderman Elias Muzamba and Dennis Thebe, Cdes Ndabezinhle Moyo, Phathugwalo Masuku and Angela Mudenda mobilised youths from Sizinda and Monde areas to help clear the land where the home wants to establish a garden and sports field as income generating projects. More than 30 youths turned up, in solidarity with the noble cause.

“We’re clearing this land because we want to establish some grounds where youths from around would be kept busy to stay away from crime and reduce teen pregnancies. We still have to expand and build more hostels and a training centre so that they get skills. We also want to build an ECD block and administration office,” said Khumalo-Moyo.

“We started building this home after receiving a donation of $20,000 from the US Embassy. We mobilised more resources through well-wishers.

“Sometime last year we received a delegation from the Mexican Embassy which was sent by the First Lady Dr Mugabe and that gave us courage.

“She personally visited last year and gave us a fridge which the kids are using,” Khumalo-Moyo narrated.

The children will be transferring from Victoria Falls to the new site in the next few weeks as the building is already complete.

She said some of the challenges they would want addressed are how to sustain the home in terms of daily basic needs, staff welfare and transport for the children to school in Victoria Falls as most of them are already in school.

There is a board of directors and a committee to help run the project and they report directly to the department of Social Welfare.

Also assisting on the project is popular Victoria Falls music producer Prince “Smokey” Dube who has started some programmes to empower the children especially the girl child. These include music, performing arts, cutting and designing.

“We’ve also installed wifi services because we’re training them in information technology so they can realise their goals using technology which is the order of the day nowadays. The world is going technological and we want them to embrace that like their counterparts in the conventional world,” said Dube as he appealed for help with computers.

MP Cde Mpofu challenged youths to work for charity to help the disadvantaged.

“We’ve seen what plans they have here. They want to start income generating projects such as gardening, poultry and a soccer team so let’s all be part of it because this is our project. It needs our support. We want this place to grow into the best children’s home,” said Cde Mpofu.