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IT’S an amazing tale that Amazing Phiri (11) from Mberengwa, Midlands province, will live to tell. For an orphaned boy turned bread-winner to wake up one day to catch an early morning bus from his semi-arid village in yonder Mberengwa for a long and winding journey to the capital, Harare, was only a far-fetched dream.

Having been left with the unthinkable task of looking after his 77–year-old visually impaired granny and a mentally challenged 56-year-old uncle following the death of his parents, the 11-year-old’s life revolved around his grandparents’ pole and dagga homestead and the school.

It needed an article by this publication, highlighting the boy’s plight, for the corporate world to reach out and come to his rescue.

And his dream of boarding a bus to town, let alone to a big city like Harare, came to reality for the boy thanks to the newspaper article which he said opened linkages and contacts that seem to have turned his miserable life for the better.

Since then, well-wishers who came to know of his predicament after flipping through the newspaper, have been scrambling to help him and for the first time in his entire 11 years, Amazing found himself embarking on an excursion to Harare at the invitation of a well-wisher.

But for a first timer, Amazing had to ask a neighbour to accompany him in his maiden journey to a city let alone the capital city.

“It was like a dream, a well-wisher who had read about me in a newspaper traced my whereabouts after getting contacts from my school. The well-wisher sent bus fare but I had to ask her to send bus fare for two people because it was my first time to get onto a bus to travel to a city,” narrated the excited boy.

Burying one rustic village after the other. Skipping one town after the other, passing through farms and large swathes of land on a long but unforgettable journey is what will remain etched in his mind.

“It was one journey that changed my world view. I can’t tell the feeling but it was just something else. To see myself in the middle of a big city beaming with lights and traffic, cars of different shapes crisscrossing in a rather confusing pattern was rather a spectacle,” he said.

Amazing said he was taken on a breathtaking journey around Harare and had the chance to push a trolley in an expansive supermarket in the heart of the capital city.

While in Harare, Amazing said he met with various well-wishers, some who pledged to pay his fees up to university level while others pledged to buy monthly groceries for his visually impaired granny and mentally challenged uncle.

The journey to Harare was one amazing journey for Amazing.

Finding himself in the middle of Harare, pushing a trolley in one of the city’s spacious supermarkets, picking up groceries of his choice and throwing them into an equally amazing three wheeled stainless steel trolley was surreal for him.

“I can’t even explain how my life seems to have changed for the better thanks to the warm-hearted corporate world. I’m still out of words. I’m really grateful to the people who are assisting me. I get monthly groceries from various people,” he said.

Amazing said he has since secured a Form One place at a local school with well-wishers paying his school fees.

“I’m now doing Form One and for the first time in my school going life, I went to school with a full uniform, putting on shoes and my fees fully paid,” he said.

Amazing said well-wishers had also cleared his fees arrears at his former primary school.

“I enjoy going to school now, leaving my grandparents with food and going to school in full uniform for the first time in my life. It feels good.”

Mr Sorton Shumba, a neighbour who has since assumed the role of a guardian to Amazing after he accompanied him to Harare to meet with well-wishers, thanked the corporate world for the help they were giving the boy. “The boy is receiving overwhelming support. It’s unbelievable how the boy’s life has just changed for the better. He has been struggling to lead the family at his age,” he said.

Mr Shumba said some of the well-wishers were considering adopting the boy.

“When I accompanied him to Harare, some of the well-wishers we met were even suggesting to adopt the boy and stay with him in Harare but they later considered that his granny and uncle needed a care giver given their condition,” he said.

Amazing has been taking care of his two ailing grandparents after the death of his parents some five years ago.