Editors Visit Adam Molai Foundation Marondera Charity Projects

The Adam Molai Foundation with the Zimbabwe National Editor’s Forum (ZINEF) organised a media tour of the charity organisation’s feeding sites in Marondera on Thursday 26th of November 2020.

They set the trip as part of showcasing projects being undertaken by the community development and hunger alleviation initiative which began in 2016. It is important that the media and supporters know about the foundation and its history and aims and to understand how the media fit in. Developing a relationship and a familiarity with its stakeholders is an essential element of successful communications, and they saw regular contact with the press as crucial.

The Foundation is a Private Voluntary Organisation registered with the Ministry of Public Service and Social Welfare in Zimbabwe.

The tour involved 11 editors from the Herald, Newsday, Sunday Mail, Star FM, Capitalk100.4 FM, Financial Gazette, AB Communications, Business Times, and NewZiana. 

“The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has turned our world upside-down unprecedentedly. As the Adam Molai Foundation (AMF), we realised that there were gaps in the community that we needed to fill. When the coronavirus hit, it jeopardised livelihoods, and we saw an increase in the number of people requiring food aid,” AMF chairperson Itai Watinaye said.

National Coordinator of ZINEF, Njabulo Ncube said that his organisation benefitted from such engagements because it gave the editors a feel and appreciation of what was happening on the ground.
“It’s difficult to take busy editors away from the desks, but as ZINEF we have encouraged them to be part of such initiatives as a way of getting a helicopter view of the issues that make it into their varied platforms,” Ncube said.
The projects visited included those at Dombotombo Primary School, where the Maheu feeding scheme is being conducted for over 1000 pupils. It runs the others that cater for over 500 people with the Seventh Day Adventist Church at Dombotombo, Nyameni, Marondera East and Cherutombo North church sites. Feeding began in December last year.

AMF programmes director Ms Nomagugu Matibiri said they were proud to be among those aiming to uplift communities by giving them the tools and skills that will empower them. 

“We intend to establish self-sustainable income-generating projects to vulnerable communities. We aim to revitalise agricultural support initiatives for the benefit of vulnerable communities and to raise community awareness on the effects of environmental degradation,” she said.

She said that the primary focus of the foundation is to empower people and enable them to reach self-actualisation by introducing projects in the various communities, encouraging poverty alleviation. Another area of interest is facilitating access to computers.

The Foundation also runs a scholarship scheme that for now benefits 8 students, one at the National University of Science and Technology in Bulawayo, another at the Great Zimbabwe University in Masvingo. Of the reaming 6 students, 3 will study at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, and the rest at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.

The editors appreciated the gesture by the Adam Molai Foundation to host them for the day and the experience was an eye-opener as to the level of destitution in urban communities and why it was important for organisations in the civic, public and private sectors had to lend a hand. #Ends