women in charity

from Vicious Collections 2nd Issue

by Viciouscollections

goal getters

DAISY FOUNDATION

Article by Anesu Chingoka

BE KIND... always

Part One in our Acts of Kindness

True kindness lies within the act of giving without the expectation of something in return. There is something about giving to little children that makes one feel so much warmth and joy. We are living in a challenging world with so many people living each day desperate for food, shelter, clothes and LOVE. So many of us ought to stop for a moment and appreciate all they have and still be able to lend a helping hand to someone in need.

My inspiration to help and support children came from my Mum. She always taught me to do things for people not because of who they are or what they do in return, but because of who you are - and who you are should always be kind and loving. My mum, who was known as Daisy Chingoka sadly passed away in May 2015 after a long battle with colo-rectal cancer, lived a life not only filled with kindness but also happiness, hard work and love to everyone she came in contact with. She left a great legacy which I strive to emulate each and everyday and the one of the ways to achieve this was to create a bucket list with charitable acts of kindness. One of the things to do on my bucket list was to change one child’s life every year. After some research and reflecting upon this, I decided to start a small non profitable charity organization known as The Daisy Foundation which would

help to implement and execute these acts of kindness. Our first project was the Christmas Shoe Box Appeal. This concept has been used in many countries and we found it to be an amazing way to start our acts of kindness as it brought out happiness and joy to many children. We decided to start the Christmas Shoe Box Appeal at a local learning center in Harare known as Mavambo Learning Center. Mavambo Learning Centre is run by the Catholic Redemptorists led by Brother Benjamin Posvo and is situated in Mabvuku. It is a Centre that educates mostly orphaned children. The children are taken at a young age from the community with many of them not able to read and write. This all changes at Mavambo Learning Centre as they are taught basic life skills as well as how to read and write, by teaching them subjects such as English, Mathematics and Shona. As they progress with their education they end up in High School, Colleges and Universities but Mavambo Learning Centre continues in supporting their growth and stages in life. At the end of the year every year, the Learning Center has their Annual Graduation and Prize Giving Ceremony and this is where the Christmas boxes are presented to the children as a way to add some love and light to their Graduation Ceremony and Christmas. We appeal to friends, colleagues and family for Christmas presents for the children in the form of a shoe box filled with goodies such as books, clothes, shoes, sweets, and toiletries. An average of 45 children are given presents

at the prize giving each year. Once all the items are bought they are packed and wrapped in a shoe box ready to be presented to the children. The beauty about this initiative is so many of these children have never received a gift before so these are life changing moments for them.

We have carried out the Christmas Shoe Box Appeal for 4 years now and it is our hope and dream to continue. We owe it to our many friends and colleagues that continue to make this possible and we will be looking for more life changing projects to take part in in the very near future. Look out for our next article on more acts of kindness which we are carrying out.