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Bongani Ndlovu, Showbiz Correspondent 

REIGNING Miss Zimbabwe, Belinda Potts, Zimbabwe football giants Highlanders FC and renowned designer Thembani Mubochwa on Wednesday brought Christmas cheers to orphans at Queen Elizabeth Children’s Home in Bulawayo.

Through an organisation called Fashion Advocacy Trust set up by Mubochwa and Potts last year, they donated groceries and clothes to the children at the home.

Highlanders Football Club was roped in after being approached by the trust to identify a children’s home in Bulawayo. They chose Queen Elizabeth which is home to kids aged 10 years and below.

Mubochwa, Potts, Farai Chapoterera,  Highlanders chairman Kenneth Mhlophe and his vice Modern Ngwenya, CEO, Nhlanhla Dube, strikers Bukhosi ‘Zaku’ Sibanda, Tinashe Makanda as well as defender Vincent Moyo handed over the donation. 

It was an emotional handover ceremony as Dube almost shed tears on learning that there were some children as young as two months who had no parents.

“It’s very touching to realise that there are children so young that don’t have someone to call a parent,” said Dube.

Spokesperson for Fashion Advocacy Trust, Chapoterera said they wanted to demonstrate that there was more to the fashion industry than just beauty.

“It is the hope of the Trustees (Potts and Mubochwa) to demonstrate that the Fashion and Beauty industry can be harnessed to make a change in society. 

“The Trust also seeks to use whatever resources that can be mobilised to assist various underprivileged and vulnerable groups in the communities across the country,” said Chapoterera.

She said this was only but one of 10 more donations around the country.

“It is the Trust’s mission to assist at least one vulnerable group in each of the 10 provinces. That’s why they’ve chosen to put together the little that they’ve set aside during the course of the year to cheer the underprivileged,” she said.

Chapoterera said they hope other young people will join them and increase the number of underprivileged being assisted. 

“It is a clarion call to young people across Zimbabwe, especially those that have influence at any level, to remember their underprivileged brothers, sisters, mothers or fathers. Together we can make a difference,” she said.

Director of the Seventh Day Adventist Church run home, Ellen Mfumu, commended the association for remembering the children during the festive period.