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Zimbabwean children's home widens horizons

Photo courtesy of Barry Barnes

As they exchanged memories of visiting the Matthew Rusike Children’s Home in Zimbabwe, the five couples enjoying a meal together back in 1996 had no idea that their conversation that day would result in a charity that helps support thousands of Zimbabwean children each year.

In the mid 1990s, the situation in Zimbabwe was radically different from the one that exists today.

The Friends of Matthew Rusike Children’s Home (the Friends) was founded mainly to support children from Zimbabwe’s nearby capital, Harare.

Funded by government grants, business sponsorship and its own fundraising events, the Friends group began by raising money simply for Christmas presents and other 'extras'.

Now, in a country shattered by political unrest, poverty and unquantifiable inflation (see 'And you think our credit crunch is bad?'), the children of Matthew Rusike receive no financial support from within Zimbabwe. Paddy Coles, Treasurer of the Friends, says that without the charity, which now has some 250 members, the home’s future would be bleak, perhaps non-existent. The organisation provides up to 80 per cent of the home’s funding.

In its first year it raised £1,000. Over a decade on - in 2008, through the usual mix of coffee mornings, half-marathons and concerts, the Friends raised an astonishing £65,000 for the home.

"Just £10 can feed a single child in Zimbabwe for a month," says Paddy. Supported by the Friends, the home not only feeds its own 140 orphaned and abandoned children but is supporting thousands more in childcare projects in other communities.

"Prayer draws Friends, children and staff together," says Paddy, but the Friends also have a more detailed picture of what most of us only hear through bleak news reports. They understand, for example, that every child has to pay to go to school and has to have a school uniform (the home has its own tailor to make them). They count Zimbabweans as friends, not as statistics.

Paddy’s world has been widened, he says. And you know, as you talk to him, that there is real truth in the notion that those who give will receive.

To find out more about MRCH visit www.friendsofmatthewrusike.org