Hi
This is just a short message to update you on the work your donations are helping to finance in Zimbabwe. In the past 3 months, our partners Trinity Project Trust have conducted door-to-door community follow-ups and 7 legal advice clinics, in the process attending to 447 children without birth certificates. Out of these, 60 have managed to obtain birth certificates, and 387 cases remain a work in progress.
They have assisted 5 orphans recover assets that belonged to their late parents and are in the process of assisting 10 others. Trinity have also assisted in the registration of 8 deceased estates which will benefit at least 10 orphans.
The feedback we are receiving from Trinity and from the local community is that, whilst the project offers technical and informational assistance, it would be more successful if we could offer direct financial assistance to the children. The lack of access to a project vehicle is also hampering the work of Trinity, who are dependent on hired or borrowed cars in cases which require them to visit households regularly. A project vehicle would also allow Trinity to expand the project and move into rural areas, where they have received several invitations to work.
Here at ZET we a working hard to locate various sources of funding to provide Trinity with the resources they need to overcome these obstacles.
WHEN LOBOLA BECOMES RANSOM ( Cases Story by Muzi. L. Ncube)
They say when two elephants fight; it is the grass that suffers. This saying befits the wrangle between Gogo Mbuli and Mr. Jabulani Xola of Old Magwegwe. Gogo Mbuli’s daughter Thandiwe passed on in 2005 just a few days after giving birth to Bandile. Before she died, her suitor Jabulani failed to pay a dime for Lobola even the so called ‘’ damage’’. However he did not deny paternity but for reasons known to him he did not bother paying anything since he is a financially stable man.
After the death of Thandiwe, Jabulani and his family demanded custody of little Bandile. Gogo Mbuli’s family denied him and requested he pays something to the family. That was the onset of the seemingly perpetual feud between the two families. Now Bandile (12) is now caught in between the two families and is being used as pawn. Gogo Mbuli’s family is determined to make the Xola pay. This then is my story; if this grieving family is still trying to fill the role left by their daughter then the question is what happens to Bandile? What are the results of acting in accordance to culture or of being unreasonable? Both families are not prepared to put aside their issues for the sake of poor Bandile who is set to write his grade seven exams this year without a birth-certificate.
The Xola family cannot get access to Thandiwe’s birth-certificate and maternal witnesses. All of this becomes a puzzle as Bandile’s fate is now dependent on his father paying Lobola for him to appease Gogo Mbuli’s family and make them happy enough to stand as witnesses during the process of birth registration. The child’s right to identity is being violated by the two families as they are so wrapped up in making each other pay. This is a mistake done by many families who view Lobola so highly and let greed and grief cloud their judgment. At the end of it all little Bandile is stuck in a rut. Only organizations such as Trinity Project Trust can intervene and save the life of this powerless soul.
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Many thanks for your on going support.
Zimbabwe Educational Trust