The friends started a few small fundraising events and now run – in their spare time – a registered charity supported by some big London companies.
Vimba has set up feeding centres in isolated schools and remote villages. They are now feeding 240 children five times a week and are about to open a fourth feeding centre in an isolated village north of Harare.
Starving children can get one meal a day at their local school, which encourages them to get an education. Vimba is also helping the schools become self -sustainable, by sinking a borehole for example so they can grow their own food or helping repair fences to keep animals from eating their crops.
They also aim to get a nurse out to the schools to check the children’s health on a regular basis.
And the impact they have had in just three years was highlighted by the charity’s guest speaker at their recent fundraising ball.
The formidable Betty Makoni, campaigner for women’s rights, spoke about the great impact the charity’s meals were having on the lives of the children they feed.
The award-winning campaigner said: “Vimba was exactly the group of people I needed when I started being a child vendor on the streets of Chitungwisa in 1977.”
She was raped, along with a group of her friends, at the age of six and was the only survivor of the horrific ordeal.
Her mother was murdered by her father after years of sustained domestic violence and Betty was orphaned at 9.
Despite her circumstances, she fought for an education and has now won international recognition, receiving an award alongside Nelson Mandela, for her Girl Child Network which is now a world wide organisation, fighting for children’s rights.
She said Vimba’s work might seem simple, but the small charity is saving lives.
“There are girls who are so hungry they are prostituting themselves out to sugar daddies for a cup of maize meal. The 200 children Vimba are feeding right now, if they did not get that food, they would starve to death. The charity is providing them an alternative to sugar daddies and encouraging them to go to school.”
She spoke about her hunger for education and how she got up at 3am to board a bus to write an entrance exam at a Catholic girls school. She came top out of 3,000 girls and convinced the nuns to let her learn in return for cleaning the school after her lessons.
She said: “If it was not for education, I would not be here. Vimba are feeding children who might make a great difference in our country one day.” The charity, which is organising a number of other fundraising events this year, raised about £5,000 at the ball, to carry on their vital work for the children of Zimbabwe.
Post published in: Africa News