Marondera’s needy get support from Red Cross

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By Style Reporter The Zimbabwe Red Cross Society (ZRCS), through support from a former board member in Mashonaland East province Michael Masimbarasi, last week donated food to vulnerable people in Marondera.

By Style Reporter

The Zimbabwe Red Cross Society (ZRCS), through support from a former board member in Mashonaland East province Michael Masimbarasi, last week donated food to vulnerable people in Marondera.

ZRCS, as an auxiliary to public authorities’ humanitarian interventions, has been playing a key role in the fight against Covid-19 through a number of initiatives.

As a voluntary organisation, ZRCS relies mostly on donor funding, corporate and individual support as well as income generated from its own projects.

As part of its funding strategy, the organisation, which has branches across Zimbabwe manned by more than 20 000 volunteers, has come up with enhanced collaborations that have seen the organisation receiving support from the corporate world, including multinational companies.

This is the second time that Masimbarasi has donated to the organisation, which is also on the forefront in mitigating the spread of Covid-19.

“We received 100 x 10kg mealie-meal bags and 100 packs of soya mince. The identification of beneficiaries was done together with the Department of Social Welfare and targeted were the most vulnerable members of the Marondera community,” said ZRCS manager for Mashonaland East province Mathias Begede.

“These include households which fit in the following categories: Households headed by an elderly person, households with a disabled person, households with orphans, and households with a chronically ill person.”

Begede said more than 90 households benefited from the scheme with each getting 10kg of mealie-meal and one pack of soya mince.

Old people’s homes got 50kg of mealie-meal each and five packets of soya mince.

Health officials ensured Covid-19 guidelines were being followed during the distribution exercise.

Marondera assistant district development coordinator, Mrs Mukonda hailed ZRCS and the benefactor Masimbarasi for supporting the vulnerable people in Marondera.

ZRCS has been working in partnership with a number of corporates in its efforts to mitigate Covid-19.

With the US$100 000 funding from the Coca-Cola Foundation, the organisation managed to assist 35 old people’s homes around the country reaching approximately 1 293 old persons at the institutions.

Nestle Zimbabwe chipped in and donated $1 508 000 to ZRCS to support the most vulnerable people, especially those in higher risk areas during this period of Covid-19.

The China Red Cross Society donated ventilators to ZRCS which were later distributed to major hospitals in the country.