Bulawayo – Pastor Tapiwa Maponga, a founding Director of Educate a Child Foundation, a Bulawayo based non-profit making organisation, was on Monday captured by ZimEye.com lenses buying school uniforms and paying school fees for orphans he adopted in December last year, after he was touched by a news article on the dumping of orphans by the City Council.
The orphans and their guardians have thanked journalists for uncovering their plight and also for the assistance in touching the pastor’s heart. “Thank you ZimEye for your determination in assisting us, God bless you and the man of God Pastor Maponga,” said Mrs Ndlovu of Sidojiwe.

The Bulawayo based and Masvingo born man of the cloth yesterday paid school fees and bought school uniforms for the orphans and also promised to improve on their upkeep, as soon as he secures more funding from well-wishers.
“When I read about this sad story from your publication last year, I made efforts to visit the mentioned places, and found out that there are kids with the ability to go to school. I worked hard to ensure that their basic right is filled. I also visited Sidojiwe flats where a good number of orphans are staying and also found heart breaking scenarios. I will soon be taking the fight to help the orphans acquire birth certificates with relevant authorities,” said Pastor Maponga.
Last year ZimEye.com carried a story on the dumping of street children at Bulawayo’s biggest dumping site. Bulawayo Mayor Councillor Martin Moyo, vehemently denied ever carrying that exercise, but a quick early morning visit to the area found hundreds of street children dumped, with a number of vagrants also dumped there, in what the city fathers claim is an effort to clean the city while they were preparing for the just ended youth games.
Pastor Maponga who has taken it upon himself to attend to the needs of the disadvantaged, has now gone on a fundraising preparation, that will attract a good number of churches and well-wishers to commit themselves to his noble cause.
The Pastor has since paid school fees for the first group of Sidojiwe and Ngozi dumpsite orphans, with some still waiting to acquire birth certificates soon.