Fighting Poverty with Bare Hands

Bulawayo - While others are basking in the glory of their hefty salaries and sources of income, Sukoluhle Ndlovu, aged 35 and who is unemployed, is helping the disadvantaged community in fighting poverty, literally with her bare hands.

Children captured during a play for the birth of Jesus at Sidojiwe. Pic By Chrispen Tabvura

Sukoluhle, as a dedicated community volunteer, is fully committed to serving the lives of the disadvantaged children who stay at the notoriously run-down Sidojiwe Flats.

Narrating why and how Sukoluhle is fighting poverty head on can take a lot of time because, to fully appreciate the situation, requires a visit to enable a one on one meeting and to encounter the experience first-hand.

It was when she chose to live at the flats to engage fully with the community, that she discovered that hundreds of children are not going to school and with very little hope of ever going to school. She gathered her stationery and other resources and formulated lessons appropriate for early childhood which included basic educational skills. Her vending income goes towards the costs.

In 2011, she gathered all children around Sidojiwe for free educational lessons and the response was overwhelming. Ms Ndlovu then looked around for a free and secured corner to conduct her lessons which soon became a success, as many parents stood by her cause.

“I realised that what I saw as a dream for the deliverance of the poor educationally, has become a reality and success, as parents supported it with their hearts. Many children from the age of four and up to 13 started attending my sessions,” she related.

Aove: Sidojiwe parents and children jostling for food handouts donated for the preschool by a pastor Mathe. Pic By Chrispen Tabvura

She is still in dire need of support from well-wishers, some of whom have promised to give a hand. Hundreds of poor parents, who stay at the Sidojiwe village flats, were retrenched from CSC, NRZ and several companies that shut down due to economic fallout of the once flourishing bread basket of Africa, Zimbabwe.

“I am glad that media can now visit the village and I am humbled by the visit and interview. I will be glad, if one day, this place will have a school that will cater for them, as they cannot afford school fees, let alone a decent meal per month. That is why I find it hard to just ignore hundreds of children loitering around without education,” said Ms Ndlovu.

The unemployed mother of two, who has been sacrificing her paltry income acquired from vending, and menial jobs for survival of both her kids and the community, has become the talk of the poor and the hopeless Sidojiwe villagers of Bulawayo.

A Christian by faith, Ma Ndlovu, as she is now affectionately known by her community, has been involved in community work during her stint promoting Christian Faith, an organisation that was assisting the poor in early 2000, before it left Bulawayo for other more adversely affected parts of rural Matabeleland.

Ms Ndlovu was left behind by the organisation after the contract expired in 2004, leaving the Sidojiwe community to fight for their stomachs in a retrenchment infested Zimbabwean economy that needed nothing less than divine intervention.

The establishment of Kings Pre School for the disadvantaged children, by Sukoluhle, has uplifted the children’s hopes for a better future.

Several parents who were interviewed by this journalist, expressed gratitude for the project and appealed for more assistance from well-wishers to support their own contributions.

“We are truly not in a position to educate our children, as you can see. We were ditched by our companies after more than ten years of not receiving salaries. We are now relying on menial jobs from a few surviving Belmont companies, who are also equally struggling to pay, as they also take time to pay as little as $50 per month,” said Mandla Nyoni, a father of five.

Mrs Locadia Pasipanodya, who resides at Sidojiwe Flats, also concurred with Nyoni, as she lamented her tussle to receive her paltry salary from a clothing company in the Belmont Industrial Area.

“You cannot believe that these companies are failing to pay us $13 per week as per our agreed salaries. It’s now more than two years while I have been receiving $28 per month, an amount that is not enough to sustain our basic living,” she said tearfully.

The situation surrounding Sukoluhle Ndlovu is a heart breaking one that needs a loving hand to extend help and relief for the poor children in her hands who need basic education.

Efforts to get comment from the Department of Social Welfare resulted in excuses. The Department has failed to curb the growing numbers of street children in the streets of Bulawayo CBD and adjacent areas.

It is only the hearts of people like Sukoluhle Ndlovu that can deliver to the souls of suffering disadvantaged children and their community, by fighting the ever growing poverty head, on as she is bravely doing.

Recently, Kings Pre School at Sidojiwe, held a graduation ceremony for the Early Childhood Development level, which proved to be a step forward in the lives of these children.