Thursday, 14 April 2022
Operation Neighbour Care (ONC) supports holistic care for adults and vulnerable children affected by HIV and AIDS in rural Gokwe, Zimbabwe. The ONC team outworks this vision by training church volunteers to care for the sick, providing educational assistance and helping reduce HIV transmission rates in the community through education.
The team also works to ensure food and nutrition security within the community by providing food packs and providing medicines to those who need them. The ONC team also addresses extreme poverty among people living with HIV, including widows and breadwinner orphans, by encouraging income-generating activities and micro-enterprises.
Godfrey’s story
Godfrey* is 49 years old and is married to Anashe*. The couple have three children, a boy and two girls and live in rural Zimbabwe. Godfrey provided for his family by working two jobs. Unfortunately, both businesses struggled due to the national economy and Godfrey became unemployed. He tried to start his own business with meagre savings but it did not take off. As a result, he struggled to feed his family and his children stopped going to school as he was unable to pay the school fees. They lived in an unfinished house with two rooms and fetched water from public taps.
One day a friend of Godfrey’s introduced him to Operation Neighbour Care’s income-generation project, MicroLend. His friend was already benefiting from the loan he had received from ONC. Godfrey applied and was enrolled in the MicroLend training and later got a loan in 2018. With this money, Godfrey was able to expand his hardware venture and assisted his wife to start a trading venture in ladies’ jewellery, accessories and cosmetics. Despite the challenges of COVID-19, their businesses have thrived and their customers continued to use their services during lockdown.
Since Godfrey did the training and received the loan, he has been able to send his children back to school and finished building their home. The family are able to afford three decent meals every day and Godfrey is repaying his loan. Due to the growth in his business, Godfrey has been able to hire two others, enabling two other families to also overcome their financial instability.
Join us in giving thanks to God that ONC is able to assist families who are struggling in poverty. Praise God that from March to September of 2021, another 29 loans were disbursed, 29 businesses established and 39 jobs created.
*Names changed for protection and representative image used.
GIVE: You can give a tax-deductible gift to Operation Neighbour Care
here.
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