…Chitowa condemns stigma of handicapped children

“After having six healthy children together, with our oldest child now 30 years old, he deserted me after our seventh child Ropa fell ill and became paralysed at the age of one year and nine months. He said he did not want a paralysed child.  Right now he is somewhere in Mozambique and I have been taking care of all the children,” said Marange in a sideline interview at the donation handover ceremony at Holy Ghost Postulate in Marange yesterday.

 Ngoni Dapira

AFTER being abandoned by her husband six-years ago when their daughter suddenly got paralysed from cerebral malaria at the age of one year and nine months, a 46 year old Marange woman, Ivy Marange, cried her heart out yesterday (Wednesday) after the Mutare based Tendai Chitowa Foundation (TCF) came to her aid.

Cerebral malaria which is known to have a mortality rate up to 50 percent, in some patients, particularly in children, has neurological complications which often lead to transient muscle paralysis resembling periodic paralysis during febrile episodes of malaria.

Having heard the story of 10-year old Ropafadzo Shanguro on ZBC news on Monday and through some social media posts by local (Mutare) journalists, the TCF followed up on the matter and yesterday put together a few resources to assist Ropafadzo and her mother. Marange, the mother of seven children, three boys and four girls, including her last born Ropafadzo, emotionally explained her ordeal since August 2012, when her husband Timothy Shanguro neglected them because of the paralysis of their daughter.

An emotional Ivy Marange (blue), the mother of 10 year old Ropafadzo Shanguro wipes of some tears after being touched by the donation.

“After having six healthy children together, with our oldest child now 30 years old, he deserted me after our seventh child Ropa fell ill and became paralysed at the age of one year and nine months. He said he did not want a paralysed child.  Right now he is somewhere in Mozambique and I have been taking care of all the children,” said Marange in a sideline interview at the donation handover ceremony at Holy Ghost Postulate in Marange yesterday.

Marange who is a cook at the Roman Catholic Church Holy Ghost Postulate in Marange has been under the care of the Young Spiritan Lay Associates (YSLA), an arm under the postulate, which also has a boarding school. Over the years, YSLA Marange has been supporting her morally and financially where it could, but it was through the call for help on a WhatsApp group by its committee member Rutendo Kanyemba that the case of Ropafadzo came to the ear of The Manica Post correspondent Liberty Dube who raised awareness on the sad matter.

The TCF, a private, voluntary non-profit making organisation based in Mutare which focuses mostly on orphans and vulnerable children, the physically handicapped and the elderly destitute in community, decided to help and yesterday donated a wheelchair, walking aid, a carton of pampers and $500 cash towards the upkeep of Ropafadzo.

“My prayer was answered as I always asked God what will become of my children, particularly Ropa if I die. I now know God will always send helpers and I am grateful to the Tendai Chitowa Foundation that has quickly come to my aid when I badly needed a wheelchair for Ropa. She can now be easily moved around with. Before we had to carry her on our backs always and with this wheelchair she can now also play outside with others on a wheelchair instead of being left indoors always,” said Marange.

Father Sylvester Oyeka, head of the postulate thanked the foundation and said even in our current times in a world full adversities, people should never lose sight of the bible verse that says ‘blessed is the hand that gives.’  He said without love this world has no meaning and encouraged people to continuously help one another in the spirit of love, no matter how little.

Ropafadzo Shanguro

TCF patron Tendai Chitowa said the foundation does not have funding but currently funds itself through its members, mostly local businesspeople that put together resources for a worthy cause within its focus groups.

Chitowa said the inspiration behind starting the foundation was his background having grown up in the rural areas in Sagambe in Mutasa district, where he went to school barefoot and had to start from humble beginnings to become the entrepreneur he is today.

“We don’t have much as an organisation but we are just guided by the principle that helping each other in our society is good. With as little as $1 you can make a difference in a person’s life and this is what we are doing in our own small way today, helping Ropa. Please continue to work hard to take care of your daughter and children and I thank YSLA for its support towards you and your family. We should continue to look out for one another in society and we should never condemn the handicapped or less privileged among us, you never know tomorrow it might be you,” said Chitowa.

Tendai Chitowa handing over $500 cash, the wheelchair, walking aid and carton of pampers to the mother of Ropafadzo.

YSLA patron Medlin Njikizana and committee member Cecilia Dengura who were also present applauded the philanthropic work by the Tendai Chitowa Foundation and encouraged it not to end with them but continue to plant its footprint the lives of many less privileged people countrywide.

The vice-chairman of the TCF Callistus Kombo was also present at the handover whilst its chairman Lloyd Mapunga was away on business. Since its official inception in 2017 the TCF has assisted Sakubva’s Zororai Old People’s Home with Christmas groceries worth $2000, it also assisted a 21 year old handicapped man from Sakubva, Tendai Mazuru, with an electric wheelchair imported from China worth $3000 and a laptop, it has an education bursary of $3000 supporting underprivileged rural children in Mutasa, and last year in October it contributed $1000 towards assisting a group of five destitute elderly men from Chipinge that needed money for prostate cancer treatment and kidney dialysis treatment, to mention just a few of its outreach programmes so far.