Golf soothing souls after Cyclone Idai

24 May, 2019 - 00:05 0 Views
Golf soothing souls  after Cyclone Idai

The ManicaPost

Ray Bande Senior Reporter
MORE than 40 youths in Chimanimani, who are affiliated to Matsetso Sports to Conservation Club, are spending time on the course as they use the power of the gentleman’s’ game of golf to put behind the ravages of Cyclone Idai.

Some of them, who are also actively participating in helping reconstruct damaged houses in the area, participated in a golf tournament recently held at Hillside Golf Club, with seven of them making into the final list of 10 players that represented the province in a tournament held in Bulawayo.

Nomore Mwarumba won Nett A Division while Cyclone Matsunda won the B Division and Patience Mapuranga wons Girls C Division.

In a recent interview, Jane High, a Chimanimani resident and coordinator for the Matsetso Sports to Conservation Stars a local youth group training youngsters who show promise as golfers, soccer players or mountain guides, said it is amazing how the youngsters are picking up the pieces with little resources available after Cyclone Idai.

“This has been an amazing story of the youngsters are picking up the pieces with little resources available after Cyclone Idai. They are competing in tournaments and posting good results. They are also actively participating in repairing or building damaged houses in homesteads around Chimanimani,” she said.

Apart from losing their beloved ones, youngsters in Matsetso Stars club also have sad tales to tell on their personal experiences during the cyclone.

17-year-old golfer Trust Mathonore is lucky to be alive after surviving Cyclone Idai. To date, he is hoping to put the episode behind him as he continues with his budding golf career.

Mathonore’s home in Chimanimani’s Matsetso village was destroyed by a landslide when the cyclone struck on the night of March 15 and he was washed down a mountainside.

He received severe injuries to his head and left knee and was missing for two days before friends found him in a local clinic.

“The first thing he said when he came round was, ‘I’ve lost my golf clubs’,” said High.

The golf clubs Trust lost to the storm were a treasured gift from benefactors in Scotland.

Trust had to be airlifted out of Chimanimani for treatment to nearby Chipinge Hospital, then on to the Mutare.

But he has since been discharged from hospital.

Tragically, not all of the Matsetso Stars escaped alive.

The group mourned the death of Johnson Mwarumba, a centre back for the soccer team. He drowned in the flooded Nyahode River.

Despite the tragedy, and the destruction of a soccer pitch that took them three years to build, the Matsetso Stars are confronting the future with amazing courage.

Other members of the Matsetso Stars have been helping to distribute emergency food aid to town residents, repair roads and rebuild houses.

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