The Sunday News
Mehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter
HABANE Pirates Football Club sponsors, in conjunction with their friends mostly based outside the country have organised food parcels for their community in Esigodini to be handed out to 75 beneficiaries tomorrow.
United Kingdom-based Thembani “Yena” Mpofu and Franklin Sibanda, working with Sinikiwe Ncube, Singatsho Mpofu, Ntombifuthi Thusi, Queen Thami, Prince Gumbo, Jedmos Moyo as well Qaphelani Sibanda put together the resources to assist the elderly who have been left more vulnerable by the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. Beneficiaries will each receive mealie-meal, cooking oil, sugar beans, potatoes, tomatoes and salt to be handed over to the beneficiaries, with the items to be handed out at Habane Township Small Hall.
Mpofu said the items were in the custody of Moyo in Bulawayo and were now waiting to be transported to Esigodini where they would be distributed to the needy. The process of identifying the recipients was done with assistance from the Esigodini Residents Association.
“We, as Habane Pirates would like to plough back to the community that has birthed our beloved team. We can’t go it alone as the common adage states that ‘it takes a village to raise a child’. As such, we therefore appealed for other people’s involvement in the ‘Hope for Habane initiative’. The lockdown measures imposed by the Government nationwide as a response mechanism to the pandemic have unfortunately put elderly people in our beloved Habane community at a heightened risk of unprecedented hunger,’’ Mpofu said.
Habane Pirates sponsors pledged financial resources to buy the food parcels, with the response from other well-wishers being overwhelming.
The sponsors have also appealed for more co-ordinated approaches in handling tomorrow’s activity and hence sought written permission from the Zimbabwe Republic Police for people to meet and receive their parcels. – @Mdawini_29
