Burombo Feeding Scheme Faced With Possible Collapse
A German organisation has been assisting the scheme for the past 12 months. It was supplying the community with food such as mealie meal, sugar beans, cooking oil among other complements. The food has been manna for the children of Burombo Flats, as most of them were solely dependent on the rations to survive.
The feeding scheme caters for 260 children, who range from the ages of 2 to 16 years. The children receive lunch rations every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.
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The donor was introduced to this invaluable community project by ZDDT. This union was made possible through the Trust’s Councillors’ based community mapping exercise, which seeks to establish the resources and needs of every Ward in the city for the maximum utilisation of the resources and positive exploitation of potential with which the neighbourhoods are endowed.
When the ZDDT Team visited the feeding scheme recently, it found a group of committed and dedicated volunteers preparing what could become one of the last meals and consequently the last ember of hope for the needy community.
Most of the children in the area are HIV orphans and some are living in child-headed families, making it difficult for them to fend for themselves. The feeding scheme also cares for children living with disabilities.
Children receive their rations at the Scheme
“We are faced with a number challenges. We have difficulties in paying school fees for these children. We also face challenges as to acquiring firewood to prepare the meals for the children. Most of these children are victims of HIV as their parents have either died from the virus or are living with it, making it difficult for them to take good care of the children. Some of the children are in child-headed families and have nowhere else to go or anyone to look after them, hence they look to us as parents as we can feed them with whatever food we can lay our hands on,” said the treasurer of the feeding scheme, Mrs Grace Makhalima.
The senator for the area, Senator Hlalo, has dedicated himself to providing firewood for the “soup kitchen” and has lived up to expectation by making sure they never run out of this vital fuel.
ZDDT PDO, Jasmine Toffa, joins the women in preparing a meal for the children
The Germans also financed the education of about 14 of the children and has paid a year’s advance for 2012.
The volunteers also made a plea to Government to assist them in acquiring identity documentation such as birth certificates for the children.
In a lengthy interview, the scheme’s secretary, Andrew Ndlovu, said the children’s inability to acquiring these vital documents hinders personal growth and narrows any chances of breaking the poverty cycle as they cannot sit for public examinations such as Grade 7, Ordinary Level and Advance Level.
“I think our main, and biggest, challenge is that the children do not have birth certificates. Some of the children live with their grandparents and these old people cannot get the birth certificates for them. This situation leads to a problem as the children cannot progress with their education as they cannot sit for Grade 7 and form 4 examinations without proper identity documents,” said Andrew Ndlovu.