The ManicaPost
Tendai Gukutikwa
Post Reporter
FOR 26-year-old Mr Tendai Mazuru and many other wheelchair-bound people, the upcoming rainy season is a nightmare as it comes with various discomforts.
“I dread the rainy season. Imagine how hard it is for someone like me who uses a wheelchair to be a tenant during this period. I have to wheel mud onto the house’s clean floors. Many people with disabilities dread the upcoming season,” said Mr Mazuru.
The Manica Post met Mr Mazuru recently as he was celebrating becoming a new home owner.
He said being a tenant is a horror for most people with disabilities.
Mr Mazuru who is a champion for the rights of people with disabilities, faced many difficulties in finding a suitable place to stay.
He said most houses in the country are not wheelchair-friendly as people with disabilities cannot afford to install ramps at every house they would have secured accommodation.
As a result, they have to deal with the mess of mud and dirt that their wheelchairs bring into the house.
“It is very frustrating and exhausting,” he said.
Mr Mazuru’s situation changed dramatically when Destiny of Africa Network, a faith-based construction company and housing cooperative, gifted him with a residential stand in Zimunya.
With the help of other generous well-wishers, the organisation is currently building a five-roomed house for Mr Mazuru.
The house will be accessible and comfortable for him.
Mr Mazuru, an advocate for the rights of people with disabilities, said most of them do not own homes.
“I am elated and I am failing to express the joy that I have today. The builders are busy constructing the house and each time I visit the site, I ask myself if it really belongs to me,” he said.
Mr Mazuru grew up in Muchena Village under Chief Mutasa.
His mother tended to all his needs, including assisting him in the toilet until he turned 17.
“We used public toilets that were inaccessible to me, so my mother would assist me by bringing a bucket that I would use as a toilet. After that, she would dispose the waste. It was very painful to watch her do that.
“The living conditions were harsh and deplorable. I approached the late Minister of State for Manicaland Provincial Affairs, Dr Ellen Gwaradzimba and the late Mutare Town Clerk, Mr Joshua Maligwa with my plea for somewhere decent to stay and that is how I ended up staying at Zororai Old People’s Home in Sakubva pending allocation of a residential stand,” he said.
“I do not dream small. I might be a small man by stature, but I dream big. I grew up in a one-roomed house and do not want my children to do that. I want them to have freewill at their father’s house. I want my wife and my mother to be able to do whatever they want at that house,” he said.
Mr Mazuru, who is married to Mrs Vimbainashe Mazuru, said he is now at peace as he has somewhere to call home.
He aspires to be like the pioneer of disability work in Zimbabwe, Mr Jairos Jiri. As a result, Mr Mazuru has formed the Tendai and Vimbainashe Mazuru Foundation which sources second-hand wheelchair donations from across the world and donate to people with disabilities in Manicaland.
An accessible home is designed or modified to offer independent living for people with disabilities. The modifications can include hand-rails, grab rails and wheelchair rails
His foundation will be headquartered at his new home in Zimunya.
To date, the foundation has donated wheelchairs to at least 10 children.
“I am poor, but I have a vision to help. I know what I went through as a poor person with disabilities without a wheelchair. I do not want my peers to go through such experiences.
“The house will help in furthering my work as a philanthropist and I cannot thank my helpers enough.
“It is not every day that you meet people like these who come out of nowhere and buy you land, build you a home and let you stay there without paying anything. I am very grateful,” he said.
Ms Tsitsi Munyebvu, the chairperson for disabilities in the Mutasa Rural District Council, expressed concern over the housing situation of people with disabilities in the country.
She said many people with disabilities do not have their own homes and rely on begging for survival.
Ms Munyebvu urged Government to take action and ensure that people with disabilities are not discriminated against by other members of society.
“The situation is sad, but we thank those that are lending a helping hand in providing better housing for people with disabilities,” she said.
In an interview, Destiny of Africa Network chairperson, Mr Wilson Masowere said the gesture is part of the organisation’s corporate social responsibility work.
He encouraged other organisations to help people with disabilities.
Mr Masowere said the organisation has donated 10 residential stands to people with disabilities and has so far built a house for only one of them.
“We have allocated free residential stands to 10 people who are visually impaired. We have only built a house for one of them so far, although we wish to build houses for all of them.
“We should constantly remember that the community that we live in does not belong to us, but is borrowed from future generations.
“It is therefore time we save and empower the communities that we live in.
“It is our responsibility to take care of the less-privileged, the elderly and most importantly, people with disabilities.
“If we empower our communities and uplift people’s livelihoods, that will have ripple effects, both to our businesses and the community at large. We also donate wheelchairs, groceries and clothes to the community,” he said.
