THE Jairos Jiri Centre in Rusape is on the brink of collapse owing to lack of resources and the 78 disabled children at the home face a bleak future.
STAFF REPORTER
Juliet Mavango, the centre’s manager told NewsDay on Sunday during an early Christmas party organised by a Rusape business mogul David Tekeshe that they were now surviving on food handouts from members of the community.
“We are facing many challenges including school fees shortage for our 78 children. The major donor was government through Beam (Basic Education Assistance Module), but it withdrew its 100% support and only left 10%,” Mavango said.
“We are operating with virtually zero cents at the moment and everyday we have to extend a begging bowl to local churches and the community so that we manage to raise food for the children.
“As it stands we cannot give the children the recommended diet and keep them in the best accommodation and we are failing to get them medical attention they deserve especially for those ones with difficult conditions,” Mavango said.
She added that as the rehabilitation centre, they were supposed to give out the assistive devices to disabled children, but because of lack of resources, nothing was being done.
She also said their income-generating projects had stalled owing to lack of capital.
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The Jairos Jiri Mukuwapasi Children Centre in Rusape was founded in 1952 by the late philanthropist Jairos Jiri and has been managing to rehabilitate disabled children since then surviving on its own income-generating projects and sponsorship from the donor community.
The centre has not been paying its employees now for so many months.
Tekeshe, who initiated the Christmas celebrations also pledged to renovate the premises.
He said it was imperative for all members of the community to come together and save the centre from total collapse.
“This is the first time that we decided to come here and spent time with these children. They need love. They need support and everyone should play a part in making them fulfil their dreams,” he said.
