By Albert Masaka
THE fundraising efforts for Cyclone Idai victims in Zimbabwe by a United Kingdom-registered charity — Protection of Adults and Children Trust (Pact) — have caught the attention of international broadcaster, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
One of the directors of Pact, Doubt Chimonyo, said BBC radio’s Bridgitte Tetteh interviewed him and another Zimbabwean, Tsungai Tsikirai, about the cyclone and later offered to live-stream the donation of the goods in Chamanimani this month.
“We were invited to the BBC radio station on Sunday to talk about Cyclone Idai and what we are doing as Pact after BBC noticed our work on Facebook,” Chimonyo said.
“We are now receiving recognition, the BBC wants to livestream the handover of the donations in Chimanimani and our director Tsitsi Ndambambi was recently in New Zealand where she was also fundraising.”
He added that Zimbabweans in the UK were raising funds to help the victims and Pact had been offered free space for the goods by a freight company, Air Freight Cargo Zimbabwe.
“We have offered almost 300kg of a pallet for free space for clothes and sanitary supplies to donate to the Cyclone Idai victims,” the freight company owner said. Tsikirai weighed in, saying she was motivated to help after seeing the efforts being made by others to help the victims.
“As an artiste, I wanted to do more, share information, help raise funds and also motivate others to do the same” Tsikirai said.
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“We had the opportunity to be interviewed by Bridgitte Tettteh on BBC Radio Berkshire two weeks ago.
“We spoke about how we wanted to raise awareness and also appeal to the public at home and abroad to continue working together to help the victims of Cyclone Idai.”
According to Tsikirai, Pact recently partnered with the Zimbabwe Musicians’ Union, Women in Music and the City of Harare to raise more donations.
“On March 22, there was a free concert that we were following led by Edith Weutonga of Women in Music and other musicians. Almost a hundred artistes donated performances, their time, resources and ideas to stage the concert and collect donations,” Tsikirai said.
She said more gigs of a similar nature had been planned around the country.
