INSPIRED by her mother’s tough upbringing, Sibonginkosi Moyo (19) started an organisation to help children living and working on the streets and those from vulnerable backgrounds.
She named the organisation, which she started when she was only 16 years old, Amazing G, where the G comes from her mother’s name, Gremmar.
The teenager sources donations from individuals and companies which she distributes to less privileged children.
Sibonginkosi said she also covers disadvantaged children in rural areas.
She donates food parcels, clothes, sanitary wear and blankets to vulnerable families and children.
The Scripture Union, Sibonginkosi said, helps in rounding up children who live and survive on the streets so that she can give them food and clothing.
Scripture Union Child Support Officer in Bulawayo, Ms Best Ndlovu said she was impressed by Ms Moyo’s innovation and passion in raising funds.
“She is very resourceful in mobilising clothes and food for the children who are living and working on the streets. We worked with her sometime in June when she celebrated her mother’s birthday with the children and recently when we hosted the Christmas party,” she said.
Next year, Sibonginkosi will be studying for a degree in Social Work at a local university because she wants to understand how people behave and how best she can help vulnerable communities.
The teenager recently held a Christmas party for vulnerable communities including the elderly people.
A Chronicle news crew attended the event at the Scripture Union building along 14th Avenue and Robert Mugabe Way and experienced first-hand, the joy Sibonginkosi’s work brings to the underprivileged.
“Christmas is very special to me because we made our first donation in 2019 to Thembiso Children’s home around this time. My mother had a really tough upbringing; she lost both her parents at the age of two during the war. After they passed on, no one was really keen on taking care of them for a long time, so they used to be passed on from one relative to another. Because of how my mother suffered, I decided to start the organisation,” she said.
The teen said she worked with a friend to raise the donations for the first outreach.
“Ever since then, Christmas to orphanages and rural areas has been something that we do every year. When Covid came, we stayed put for a month or so, but after we realised that Covid was here to stay we started improvising and would go out to feed children on the streets,” she said.
Sibonginkosi said they would go to the rural areas while following all the precautions against Covid-19 to give disadvantaged families food.
She said she started directly working with children working and living on the streets early this year. Nothing makes me happier than being able to help all the less privileged people because it makes me feel like I am helping the little girl in my mother who had a tough upbringing. I wish I could do more than donations.
“At the moment I am working towards getting a back-to-school programme for all the children who are living on the streets and have no means of going to school,” she said.
The teenager said working with children who live on the streets has helped her understand their behaviour and she has never felt safer than when she is their company.
Her mother, Mrs Gremmar Moyo said she is proud of the young woman her daughter has grown up to be.
“When I was two years old I lost my parents. They were killed during the liberation struggle. My mother was 9 months pregnant when she died so after dying family members started taking us in. Living with relatives was not all rosy because I had a bedwetting problem so no one wanted to live with me,” she said.
As a result, Mrs Moyo said they used to be moved from one family to another, but she is grateful to her older brother who made sacrifices to make sure they got through school.
She said seeing that her daughter has fallen in love with helping other people as young as she is makes her happy. – The Chronicle
