ABERGAVENNY, WALES – A Zimbabwean woman is preparing to walk 22 miles without shoes to highlight the plight of women in her native Zimbabwe.
"As a child growing up in Chinamhora, in the Dormdoshawa region my father could not afford to buy me shoes so I went everywhere barefoot," said Mrs Musonza-Holman
Martha Musonza-Holman, 39, will walk from Brecon to Llanfoist along the canal in a bid to raise £5,000 for community projects.
Mrs Musonza-Holman, of New Court Farm, Llantilio Pertholey said she’s doing it because many women in Zimbabwe have to walk miles for water with shoes as they are too expensive.
“As a child growing up in Chinamhora, in the Dormdoshawa region my father could not afford to buy me shoes so I went everywhere barefoot,” said Mrs Musonza-Holman, who was forced to leave her two children, Taurai, 20 and Tafadzwa, 19 behind in Zimbabwe in 2001.
“I became a teacher and pledged to make a difference there,” said Mrs Musonza-Holman, now a Fair Trade entrepreneur.
She regularly returns home with husband David, 53, and has set up Love Zimbabwe, a charity which works directly with communities in Zimbabwe to help them be self-sufficient.
She also runs a community interest company that pays crafts people in US Dollars which means they can buy things that they need.
“The situation has never been so bad as it is at the moment. The Zimbabwean Dollar has ceased to exist as a currency and unemployment is about 90 percent,” said Mrs Holman.
The walk starts at Brecon Theatre at 9am on December 12 and funds raised will go towards setting up a community centre and installing showers and toilets at nurse’s homes in a rural clinic.
Anyone wanting to part or all of the walk or sponsor her should call Mrs Musonza-Holman on 07879400897. – Angus South Wales
I also live in Chinamhora area but am yet to see the projects meant for those disadvantaged women. I think Zimbabwean women do not need donors but Sustanaible developers and capacity builders, and may people please stop earning a living using other people’s plights. What is actually happening here is that there are people busy fundraising, using pictures of pathetic looking children and women but those monies never reached the intended beneficiaries. To those who are in this practice know that there shall be a day of reckoning for what you are doing.