Feed the Hungry Program 

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We are so grateful to Bright Hope World for enabling us to begin the Feed the Hungry program for people affected by the Coronavirus threat. The program was launched in the community of Mtshazo on the 6th June 2020. The program was started at the time when most of the people in these remote rural communities were beginning to come to terms with the challenges of Coronavirus. Many people who had gone to South Africa and Botswana to get employment are coming back home or are being deported back home as a result of lockdowns which were imposed by both countries to curb the spread of Coronavirus. These lockdowns have left many people without jobs and without any other source of income hence people are coming back home. 

It is unfortunate that they are coming back home to a country with an economy that is limping and where people have been going through drought for the past two years. With a 90% unemployment rate, many people have been surviving on running informal trading. These people who had gone to other countries are the ones who have been sending remittances to their families back home for them to survive. Now they are out of employment themselves and are back home to join millions of people who are not employed and whose informal businesses no longer run because of COVID-19.

The government is so broke that it cannot feed those who are in quarantine centres and many of them are running out of these centres going back to their rural homes. They go back with literally nothing and there is great fear that many people will die of hunger in Zimbabwe. 

It is to this backdrop that we have initiated the Feed the Hungry program to assist affected families with food hampers during this difficult moment. Our target communities are those that we already have been working in and most of these communities are the ones with the largest numbers of people who have been in South Africa and Botswana. We would like to keep on giving each family a 10kg bag of mealie meal (our staple food) and a 2 litre bottle of cooking oil as well as a 2kg packet of sugar. 

The launch was done at Mtshazo community where 20 families were supported with food hand-outs and other distributions were done in Chirogwe, Makamure, Mandiva and Nemauzhe communities. We are so very grateful. A total of 96 families from all the communities were provided with food hampers by our team.  Please see below some of the stories of the people who were supported with a food hamper. 

Personal Stories

Mr Moyo is a resident of Mtshazo community and has been doing menial jobs in South Africa for the past 7 years. This is the way that he has been fending for his family but unfortunately in March this year, South Africa declared a lockdown which brought every business to a standstill. The people who were affected most are foreigners who are not eligible to receive social grants from South Africa. Mr Moyo, who survived on doing menial jobs, was left with nothing to do but to go back home to Zimbabwe with literally nothing. He didn’t even have transport money to come back home hence he had to seek assistance of the Zimbabwean embassy to take him home.

After being brought to Zimbabwe, he was taken to a quarantine centre where he stayed for 21 days before being released to go back to his rural home. He doesn’t have anywhere to start from, and thanks God for the launch of this program; it gave him some food for his family. Thank you so much Bright Hope for the support.   

Shepherd and wife have been staying in South Africa for the past 5 years. The husband is a bricklayer and has been earning a living through building small structures for people in South Africa. He wasn’t formally employed and therefore when the lockdown was pronounced in South Africa, he was left with nothing to do and also with no finances to feed his wife and his two children.

Shepherd and his family were brought back to Zimbabwe through the assistance of the Zimbabwean embassy which provided transport for them to come back to Zimbabwe. He does not know how to start life since he came with nothing and there is no food for his family. He is so grateful to Bright Hope World for remembering them at such a moment as this when it’s so difficult to make ends meet. His family was given mealie meal, sugar and cooking oil. 

Gogo (grandmother) Mandimande has been surviving in the past years with the support that comes from her grandson who works in Botswana. Unfortunately the COVID-19 challenge caused the grandson to be deported from Botswana and is now in a quarantine centre in Zimbabwe. He came with nothing and life is now difficult for this old lady and her grandchildren.

Social Welfare Zimbabwe does not have the means to give or assist the elderly, orphans and vulnerable children because the government of Zimbabwe is broke. This old lady is so grateful to Bright Hope World for this gesture of love and care shown to her during this difficult moment where there is COVID-19 and also drought in the community.