…One-year-old Squatter celebrates on seeing donated food hampers
Admire Chatindo
One- year-old, Cephas Runesu who resides at a squatter camp at old Mucheke bus terminus could not hide his joy as he danced, jumped around clapping hands after seeing some food items that were donated by the Zimbabwe Council of Churches to the camp on Tuesday November 28.
The boy’s mother Princess Mutongi (32) said she has been staying at the squatter for 21 years and she gave birth to his son whilst in the squatter.
“I have been living in these squatter shacks for 21 years and it was in these shacks, put together with pieces of reject timber and black plastic to cover the wooden frames, I gave birth to Runesu and he is now one-year- five months now” she said.
Mutongi, a single mother, says she is battling to raise her child without food and says she felt as a social reject together with others she share the shacks with but felt loved seeing an organization like ZCC coming to their aid.
“We have a number of challenges here, we don’t have blankets, food, clothes and soap to wash napkins for Runesu it’s a bit challenging to cope up with this life.
As a squatter, sometimes we feel unwanted by the community and we have some with disabilities who cannot work for themselves so we are grateful for the gesture by ZCC and we call upon others to come to our aid.
Women Association for Council of Churches, a women’s division of ZCC) Masvingo Provincial Chairperson Chido Kuiparima said the donation came from 13 main line churches who contributed after identifying 20 needy people from the Mucheke camp.
“As women in the Zimbabwe Council of Churches we have managed to identify 20 people living in old Mucheke bus terminus shacks, with food challenges. We discovered that a number of people here have disabilities and cannot fend for themselves and decided to come to their aid,” said Kuiparima
Each beneficiary got 4litres cooking oil, 10 kg maize meal, salt, 4 green bars laundry soap, 2 litres Mazowe Orange Crush, 6kgs brown sugar, 6kgs white rice, 2kgs washing powder, 2kgs flour, 2kgs powdered milk and Vaseline.
