By Style Reporter
A local non-governmental organisation, Vakundi Trust, was recently launched in Mabvuku, Harare, with the aim of assisting unemployed male youths with self-help skills in order to fight drug and alcohol abuse.
One of the founders of the organisation, Doreen Vimbai Gapare, a lawyer by profession, told Standard Style that most resources in Zimbabwe were channelled towards the girl child, leaving boys at the mercy of societal ills.
She said the trust was formed as a result of the need to help the young men in Mabvuku, one of the oldest high-density suburbs in Harare, just like many youths in this country, who are heavily affected by the economic downturn in Zimbabwe.
“As Vakundi Trust, we feel that there is a huge gap in our society, no one is talking to the boy child preparing him for manhood and building skills needed to develop into positive role models,” Gapare said.
“Once our boy child falls off the ladder of the academic race, there are few people or organisations available to help pick themselves up.
“Our hope is that with our small intervention, we are going to build young men who will in a way help influence other men to stop any form of abuse towards women. If the wolves are eating goats, you teach the goats how to run faster and/or teach the wolves the importance of goats.”
According to Gapare, the thrust of the trust is to complement the vast efforts by various organisations to empower the girl child.
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“It is Vakundi Trust’s belief that the tables are slowly turning on men and most women are becoming the men they wish to marry. We also believe in equal opportunities for both men and women. To complete the circle, men need to understand the cry for equality from a woman’s point of view from an early age,” she said.
“We fear a situation where women are slowly being left to fend for their families because their husbands have taken the back seat or, worse still, they have resorted to alcoholism, lack of respect of families, drug abuse and crime. The Trust is there to intervene and give young men skills that will make them future mentors.”
Gapare said the desire was to spread the reach of Vakundi Trust to as many parts of the country as possible with the next stop being Epworth.
The day-to-day activities of the organisation are managed by Munashe Nauruma, who is now 22 years old and migrated to South Africa with his parents 13 years ago. Upon his return to Zimbabwe, Nauruma quickly embraced the vision of the Trust as he could not believe the sense of hopelessness among his peers he went to school with.
“Having been exposed to one of Africa’s biggest economies, I am optimistic of the vast untapped opportunities at the disposal of young people in Zimbabwe,” Nauruma said.
He said Vakundi Trust was appealing to citizens to support its activities through cash and kind as well as skills to build a rehabilitation centre, library, workshop and showroom.
