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Leonard Ncube in Victoria Falls
A heart rendering narration of the plight of vulnerable children housed at Rose of Charity, a children’s home in Victoria Falls, touched accounting professionals who attended the Pan African Federation of Accountants (PAFA) conference here.

PAFA is a regional organisation for the accountancy profession in Africa with 56 member organisations in 45 countries including Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe has eight Professional Accountancy Organisations (PAOs) and they hosted the PAFA conference which ended yesterday in partnership with PAFA.

This was the first time PAFA conference has been held in Zimbabwe and as part of giving back to the community, the accountancy professionals donated groceries and cash to Rose of Charity.

They also donated laptops, Advanced Level accounting textbooks and cash to Mosi-oa-Tunya High School department of commercial subjects.

Few organisations have given back to the community as part of their activities during conferences that have been held in Victoria Falls.

PAFA visited Rose of Charity yesterday where the founder of the home Mrs Simangele Khumalo-Moyo told of how she quit her job in 2007 to help feed street children who she had been seeing visibly hungry on the streets. She was a line manager at one of the hotels in the city.

“I started helping street children as far back as 2007 when I would see them fighting or abusing drugs on the streets. I felt sorry for them and started engaging them through counselling. I would give them food and also go with them to Victoria Falls Christian Church where they got meals and other goodies,” said Mrs Khumalo-Moyo.

She said the children started opening up to her and she discovered that some of them came from other towns.

Rose of Charity was officially registered as a charity home in 2014 and has 31 children housed at the Chinotimba house while 71 others come from the community for meals and help with other needs on a daily basis.

The home has opened a kindergarten, Schiffner Elementary, with 31 kids between the ages of 3 and 6 who are doing Early Childhood Development education.

Some are drawn from the community while others are housed at the children’s home.

“Some were abandoned children and I felt sorry for them especially the girl child. We teach them to do household chores and other duties so that when we release them at the age of 18 they can fit into the society. Our idea is not to keep them forever, but to give them a life, education, a home and release them at the age of 18,” said Mrs Khumalo-Moyo.

The PAOs that included the South African Institute of Professional Accountants (SAIPA), Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya, Institute of Chartered Accountants and Auditions of Mozambique, Botswana Institute of Chartered Accountants, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Zimbabwe, Chartered Governance and Accountancy Institute of Zimbabwe (CGAIZ) and Southern African Association of Accountants (SAAA) mobilised the groceries and learning materials for the two institutions.

They donated cash to Rose of Charity and pledged to donate more when they return to their stations.

“This is our first corporate social responsibility as members of PAFA from different countries. As SAIPA we would like to donate R5 000. We have committed ourselves and we promise that all your challenges will come to an end,” said SAIPA chief executive Mr Shahied Daniels.

SAAA chief executive Mr Taka Svosve said they will continue helping the orphanage.

“We randomly picked Rose of Charity and we are touched by this. We are all instruments to advance the work of God.
This is the beginning of a relationship that should continue. We as Zimbabwe PAOs and PAFA board are ready to support this cause,” he said.

CGAIZ director Dr Nelson Maseko who comes from Bindura, was emotional when he narrated how he was also schooled through charity.

“I am touched. I did not grow up at a charity home but I was sent to school by an orphanage and I am now a doctor. I am really touched and I am going to help this home,” he said.

PAFA president Mr Cosme Goundete commended Rose of Charity for the good humanitarian work and Mosi-oa-Tunya High School authorities for prioritising teaching of accounting.

“These children are the future of accountancy. We are about to leave Victoria Falls but we will remember everything, the beautiful Falls and the wonderful work being done here. Accountancy is critical to any country’s development as we enhance development of economies,” he said.

Mosi-oa-Tunya school head Mr Roland Sibanda said the learning institution has the capacity to produce competent accountancy professionals if supported.

Victoria Falls Mayor Councillor Somveli Dlamini said the gesture will go a long way in helping the orphanage.

“As a local authority we appreciate your efforts. We are reeling from the effects of Covid-19 which you were not spared from. We thank the PAFA team and we appeal to them to go out there and become our ambassadors for this home and Victoria Falls at large,” he said.–@ncubeleon