About Us
“I knew how much our people at home were suffering”
The contrast between life in Australia and their former homeland of Zimbabwe is often on the minds of Bowral couple Fatuma and Godfrey Mkolo, who two years ago set up Shekinah Helping Hand to help Zimbabwean windows and orphans.
“I knew how much our people at home were suffering,” says Fatuma, a nurse at Bowral District Hospital, “I was always thinking of the orphans and widows who had nothing. One day I said to my husband, ‘We have plenty here, there must be something we can do to help.’”
Originally from Matabeleland North in western Zimbabwe, Fatuma and Godfrey have lived in Australia since 2005 and have three daughters and two granddaughters.
Godfrey and Fatuma Mkolo
Founders
Shekinah Helping Hand supports women and children of Matabeleland North’s Binga and Hwange districts which lie along the drought-prone Zambezi Valley. A goat, pig and chicken pass-on program provides food and income to women. The goat program has been particularly successful, with thousands of goats now in the program. “We give each widow two goats to breed”, says Fatuma. “When she has 12 goats she has to pass on two to another widow.”
Goats do well in harsh conditions and are not difficult to look after.”
Helping children is also a priority. “So far we have bought uniforms and sent 60 mainly primary-aged orphans in the remote area to school. We hope to help more orphans next year and this will include students who have dropped out of high school due to being unable to pay the fees.”
Other projects include purchasing bicycles for transport, building huts, teaching agricultural skills and providing health care such as vaccines and medication. “We have bought wheelchairs for disabled people from previous year’s
‘We have plenty here, there must be something we can do to help”
Shekinah Helping Hand is proud to be a partner for J1020N Matabeleland Community Development Project with Global Development Group (ABN 57 102 400 993), an Australian AusAID approved Non-Government Organisation carrying out quality humanitarian projects with approved partners and providing aid to relieve poverty and provide long term solutions.
Global Development Group takes responsibility of the project according to AusAID rules providing a governance role and assisting in the areas of planning, monitoring, evaluating and auditing to ensure the projects are carried out to AusAID requirements.