Colbert Chimedza may be one of Harare's prominent businessmen, but he has never forgotten his humble beginnings, and the 4May International owner says he has founded a football academy in order to give underprivileged children hope for a better future.
Chimedza is the owner of FC Porto Dragon Force Academy, a project he is partnering with Portuguese football giants FC Porto.
The six months old academy based in Borrowdale has an enrolment of about 150 football playing kids, including girls.
Having forged a path for himself the hard way, Chimedza told the media over the weekend how situations around his difficult upbringing inspired him to launch the Academy.
The businessman who runs a successful clothing company said he is deeply committed to creating more and better opportunities for children from poor backgrounds.
"Having been brought up in a disadvantaged family, I thought this might be my small way to give back and help underprivileged kids to realise their dream. I grew up in Mfakose, and there were things I wished for which I couldn't get. I would see people that I admire and would approach them to assist me, but they were not willing to assist anyone. This is how the idea to help others came about for me. This project is all about assisting disadvantaged kids and helping keep them off wrong things like drugs and substance abuse.
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"When I go to places like Mfakose and Highfields I see kids including girls as young as 14 years involved in drugs and it often results in teenage pregnancies so it's something that touched my heart and I thought I should step in and help. So I decided to introduce the kids to soccer, and it's my hope that by playing soccer, they can stay away from getting involved in bad things."
Chimedza, whose previous philanthropic gestures include dressing the senior men national team, on Saturday morning invited former Warriors captain Peter Ndlovu to interact and inspire the budding footballers at his academy.
The legendary footballer gave a touching story on how he rose from humble beginnings to becoming the first African football player to play in the morden English Premier Soccer League in 1992, at the tender age of just 17.
Ndlovu, who is now the team manager of South Africa Premier league giant Mamelodi Sundowns, applauded the work that is being done by Chimedza, stressing the need for such a noble effort to be supported by everyone.
“We must appreciate people like him who give back to the community, especially helping the kids. It helps to take them off the streets because there are kids from less priviledged backgrounds here. I would appreciate it if more people with Mr Chimedza’s heart and capacity can come forward and do similar projects in our communities,” Ndlovu said.
Chimedza revealed that his academy has kids from as far as Norton, Highfields, Mufakose, Budiriro, Dzivarasekwa, Chitungwiza, Hatcliff and Goromonzi among other places.
"Most of the kids here are a lot more talented but are disadvantaged, so we thought it's a good idea for us to give them a platform to showcase their talent. We give them the necessary support that they need. We are supporting some of them with school fees, training kits, football boots and jerseys."
Chimedza gave a background of his project which has a partnership with Portugal's top club FC Porto.
“FC Porto Academy is a project that we started late last year. It started as a camp. We invited two coaches from FC Porto in Portugal to come and have a camp with us training children from St Johns College. From there, they saw that we have a lot of talent here which need to be nurtured. That is when we thought of turning the idea into an academy. Then in October last year, we launched the academy and it was formally registered in January this year. Like i said earlier on, the idea is to take kids, especially the disadvantaged children off the streets."