THE Ryan Gwidzima Trust Fund had by yesterday raised $3 950 of the $26 500 required to send the 12-year-old squash sensation to Wycliffe College in England where he has been accepted for his tertiary studies.
BY FORTUNE MBELE
Gwidzima is set to start in September.
The money has been raised through a funding website gofundme.com, launched two weeks ago.
“A Ryan Gwidzima Trust Fund has been launched to raise funds to send him to the best squash tournaments in Southern Africa. Ryan deserves an opportunity to further his talent and gain an education at the same time. So we believe that sending him to the UK will do him wonders to develop his skills. Ryan has recently been accepted to the best squash school in the UK —Wycliffe College — and we are trying to raise funds to keep his dream alive and send him over for the upcoming school year 2018-19, which starts in September,” the trust said.
The trust said they were desperately seeking £6 000 to deposit for Gwidzima to secure a place at Wycliffe.
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The trust is chaired by Promise Ncube, a senior partner at Coghlan and Welsh, and trustees former Education and Sports minister David Coltart, also a senior partner at Webb, Low and Barry lawyers.
The other trustees are Trefor Williams and Michael Harvey, a former partner at Ernst and Young.
Last December, Trefor travelled with Gwidzima to the United States where he made waves in the Under-13 age group coming out position 17 out of a draw of 124 players in the US Junior Championships.
United Kingdom-based Michelle Williams is the sole signatory to the account and will withdraw funds on behalf of Gwidzima. Sixteen people have made donations to date. Gwidzima is a resident at Suburbs Squash Club in Bulawayo where his father Langton, also a squash player, is a bar-tender.
Gwidzima’s keen interest in squash started at the tender age of two and since then, the 12-year-old has never looked back.
He is currently in South Africa’s East London to take part in the Schools Squash Under-16 Inter-Provincial Tournament (ITP).
“Ryan lives at Suburbs Squash Club in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, where his dad is the club’s bartender. This is where Ryan was raised and fell in love with the game at such a tender age. He started representing Zimbabwe Junior Squash at eight years old, when he played for the Under-13 team in South Africa and currently, he is seeded number one at Under-16 level,” according to the website.
The trust accepts donations which can be deposited to Ecobank account number 00403 176 1064 7301 and NMB 2103 059 28 branch code 113 11.
Gwidzima has taken part in a number of tournaments locally and in South Africa where he has done well and Wycliffe College is reportedly considering a 50% scholarship for the upcoming squash ace.