WOMEN in Hwange West constituency’s impoverished rural areas are set to benefit from reusable sanitary pads and sewing machines supplied by Love a Child founder, Cindy Schemel.
BY NOKUTHABA DLAMINI
Schemel founded the organisation in 2004 in collaboration with Godfrey Dube with the aim of providing empowerment projects for villagers in Chikandakubi ward under Chief Shana.
Southern Eye paid a visit to the ward which is made up of 10 villages and community members expressed confidence the projects would transform their lives.
Chikandakubi Women Centre chairperson and Batanani 5 Village head, Seline Mutale said they had since been provided with 13 sewing machines, garments and all the necessities to do their knitting.
“We recently tailored uniforms for almost 400 pupils from Chikandakubi Primary School after she (Schemel) came here with her friends to teach us how to sew. We are 110 and our goal is to acquire contracts to supply all schools at affordable prices because that is what she is advocating for,” she said.
“She has built us a factory and now working on putting another structure for craft so that we sell our baskets, mats and vases to tourists. Every villager has something to do here.”
Another villager, Julia Ndlovu, said they had been provided with reusable sanitary napkins that they were distributing to orphans, women and school children.
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“The napkins are imported together with detergents to kill bacteria. They are user-friendly and bacterial-free,” she said.
Project chairperson, Vusumuzi Moyo said men were also involved in wood carving, carpentry and bee keeping as part of the empowerment project.
“We repair and make furniture for our children in schools free of charge and we also have our market along Bulawayo-Victoria Falls Road where we sell our curios and share the profits,” he said.
Dube said Schemel also funded a fully furnished library at Chikandakubi Primary School, which has become a referral centre for all the villages in the ward, electrified the school, built teachers’ cottages and paid fees for some under-privileged pupils.
He said their next project was to build a clinic before year end as the ward did not have good roads or a nearby health facility.
