No Child To Be Left Behind

TOKWE MUKOSI: NO CHILD SHOULD BE LEFT BEHIND

As we gathered in our council meeting to deliberate on several issues pertaining to the running of the church all deliberation came to a halt when  the Tokwe-Mukosi  donation we as a church had pledged to give. It was a personal call to give to the cause of the victims in the down steam of the dam who have now been relocated to the Chingwizi camp. Among other things I just posed to think about the children and some of the reports already circulating and I felt that no child should miss their destination because of this disaster.

Approximately 1000 children are not able to attend school because they are still to be relocated to permanent higher ground areas in Chivi. The ministry has pledged to build schools as soon as possible in fact the government has appealed for $20million from the international community to avert the situation in Tokwe-Mukosi. Several local international organisations and individuals have helped and pledged to help the people in this arid region of Masvingo which this year got a double of its usual rainfall forcing the porosity on wall of the dam.

The children of Tokwe Mukosi are unfortunate but they deserve a decent home, food , access to health, basic education and protection. The vulnerability of these children is very high firstly from the disaster they have escaped from, and secondly to be forgotten by the world and wallow in poverty and risk tracking to South Africa or engage in illicit businesses speciality considering their proximity to Ngundu business Centre and South Africa. When I was teacher at Rencho Mine (near  Tokwe Mukosi Dam) last decade we lost a number of school going children as they tracked down to South Africa and later came back to seek readmission at the school. The moral values at schools were changed because of the influence of such teenagers who saw no value in decency or education.

A disaster of this magnitude will leave children with a few options since they are equally vulnerable as their parents who have the primary duty to help them become what they have always dreamt of when they had houses to sleep in. Some will try to help their parents in ways that will be regrettably devastating and irreversibly detrimental to their health and future.

Should the people of this country wait for the international donor agencies to help with the $20 million, or should wait for the rich men and women do the donation. Have we ever thought how much does a child in the rural area need per day to survive? If the children in the camps during the liberation struggle were fed and taught by willing educated cadres what more of a free country.  Recently, Reverend Mashamba of Reformed Church in Zimbabwe travelled to Masvingo to hand over the donations made by individual congregants and the church council to the people of Tokwe Mukosi as a Church.

If the children of Tokwe Mukosi are remember their days when they have gone past this will they be able to remember certain names that may not have been published in the media but hat have made a personal commitment to help a single child to reach their destination and impact their communities. Several calls have been made on different platforms to donate but it is time to take a very long short and help at least one child to get to his or her dream. The criteria of choosing a child may differ but it is time to choose a child a secure their future. It does not need an NGO, rich man or a political figure to reach a child it takes one man or women’s heart with the little they have and sacrifice it for the life of a promising child. Notably most of the donations from the developed countries are from simple not very rich people but people burdened with the plight of a struggling soul like the children of Tokwe Mukosi. Zimbabweans are known for their large hearts and love even for foreigners what more for the relatives and friends in Masvingo. Some of them have the same totem or surname as yours and share so many in common should we let the pride associated with Zimbabwean resilience be drowned in the dam of despair. Let us arise and secure and protect our children’s future and have more friends for the Children in Tokwe -Mukosi  and let no child be left out.