BY JAIROS SAUNYAMA
GOVERNMENT is set to audit all non-governmental organisations (NGOs) operating in Mashonaland East province to ostensibly expose and flush out groups that were not doing projects that benefit communities.
Speaking during the official opening of Rosaria Memorial Trust Centre in Magaya village, Murewa on Tuesday, Mashonaland East Provincial Affairs minister Aplonia Munzverengi said some organisations are not benefitting communities despite being funded, hence the audit to expose them.
“After seeing the good work being done here, I asked my PA (personal assistant) that I need a complete list of all NGOs (non-governmental organisations) in this province. We want NGOs that are here to change lives, to give a service to the people not to come and look for money; to establish an NGO to make money. We are saying no to that.
“We are going to make an audit, we also want to go and witness what they are doing in our communities. We want to go and launch what they are doing in our communities, we want to know the benefits for the area in which they are working on ,” Munzverengi said.
Meanwhile, gender-based violence (GBV) victims and young girls in Murewa received a major boost after Japanese ambassador to Zimbabwe Iwado Toshiyuki officially handed over the Rosaria Memorial Trust Centre meant to benefit women in the area.
The centre is going to shelter GBV victims as well as offering counselling services and training programmes for the girl child.
Addressing delegates at the centre, Toshiyuki said the facility will provide a number of one-stop services for rural girls.
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“This new centre, right in the heart of the community, will provide counselling, education and shelter for women and girls all in one place. And I hope that it will do its best to promote awareness and educate people on gender equality, not only here in Murewa, but throughout Mashonaland East province and Zimbabwe,” he said.
The construction of the Rosaria Memorial Trust Centre (RMTC) was funded through Japan’s Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects scheme to the tune of US$ 89 839.
Murewa is one of the districts leading in child marriage cases and GBV.
RMTC founder Nyaradzai Gumbonzvanda said the centre is home to all the young girls and women in need of assistance.
“We will be offering a number of services among them counselling services from qualified personnel. The doors are open to all the women in need of assistance. This is the time to end child marriages and abuse of women,” she said.
