Child Integration Zimbabwe (CIZ) — a non-profit organisation that helps orphaned children by fostering them into families and helping the guardians with all the basic needs — has spread its wings into the rural areas where it has identified 15 orphans that it will help look after beginning January next year.
This week CIZ founder and chairperson Shorai “Samaita” Mutasa (45) led a delegation to Musiiwa Growth Point where he met the newly-identified children who had gathered at the growth point in Shamva.
“We are spreading our wings into the rural areas,” he says. “Many children are dumped with their grannies in the rural areas when their parents pass away.”
He said the grandparents experience serious difficulties looking after the children who are often very ill having been born HIV-positive.
One of the orphans’ mother died of an Aids-related illness, leaving a two-month-old baby boy with a foster parent. The boy, now one year and two months old, was born HIV-positive and his health is unstable.
“Most of the children dumped with the old grannies have stunted growth and are severely malnourished. Besides providing them with school fees, we also give them supplementary food.”
Besides orphans, the organisation, in special cases, also looks after disabled children. One such is Gift Tozivepi (9) who was born with cerebral palsy and is wheelchair bound. His father is struggling to raise him properly. He needs pampers and other stuff that will help him live a comfortable life.
Source Newsday
