Tendai Rupapa in ENGLAND
First Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa yesterday met representatives of organisations that are keen to partner her Angel of Hope Foundation in health, education and economic empowerment of vulnerable groups as she continues making a global impact through her dedication, hard work and transparency.
Mr Harpal Mann, founder of Gujiri Foundation, which focuses on healthcare and education said he was inspired by the First Lady’s love for mankind and high work ethic.
He added that he was touched by her hands-on approach to humanitarian issues.
“The three areas that we intend to work with the Angel of Hope Foundation include healthcare, which is something we are passionate about.
“The second area is of education and the third one is financial empowerment of women and rural people to be able to transact and build a marketplace to sell their wares.
“In the area of education, we have worked on curriculums for three-month, six-month and two-year courses. Through our foundation, we will offer these courses in partnership with the Angel of Hope Foundation. We will start with the area of healthcare because it is what my wife worked in and that includes from technicians to nurses and going to registered nurses. We also would be working with some of the students that want to go to medical school and become doctors to mentor and make sure that they are successful. The second area of education that we want to work in is technical skills. The technical skills will be mostly for people who may want to train into customer support, specialist people who can install software remotely and also into other areas such as for example electrical technicians, wiring technicians, welding technicians and mechanics,” he said.
As the world goes into the area of technology, Mr Mann said it was essential to have enough trained labour in Zimbabwe because technology is the future.
“So there is healthcare and general two-year technical educational courses. I can tell you that I was completely taken aback by Dr Mnangagwa’s passion, her energy and her hands-on approach and the amount of work she has done. I was born in Kenya in Africa and I know what happens when you reach a certain level of leadership. You forget about the people and I think the love that she has for the Zimbabwean people, especially the girl child and people in rural communities I have not come across anyone in my career that is that passionate and I think for us to be successful in Zimbabwe and in Africa people like her Excellency, the First Lady are needed and I just do not have enough to say that I am actually completely speechless to see the amount of work that she has done. We need that partnership with someone who has a vision and Angel of Hope is the one. You need to have a good partnership in which you are thinking alike and as you see from our conversation with her there is pretty much similar things in all fields and that to me is a headstart and you do not need to convince her on what needs to be done,” he said.
Similar sentiments were echoed by Mr Jawad Sheik, the chief executive officer of Arcadia Care who also paid a courtesy visit on the First Lady.
“It was wonderful for me to meet Her Excellency the First Lady and we would be happy to assist her in her Angel of Hope Foundation with a view to partnering her to provide some expertise around education, around curriculums about how to improve young people’s lives and have meaningful outcomes for the future. We have been in children’s education and specialist needs for 17 years and also with a lot of hospitals for mental health, eating disorders so for us although it is a part of our business, it’s a mission, it’s something we provide with the anticipation of improving young people’s lives and adults lives that matter and give them better outcomes to provide a better future,” he said.
Asked why he saw it prudent to partner, Angel of Hope Foundation, Mr Sheik said he was, like Dr Mnangagwa, committed to making a difference in people’s lives.
“Our heritage is from Africa. We really want to try and participate because we try to make a difference and it’s an amazing work that she is running in Zimbabwe and we would like to support her on the basis of humanity, improving lives,” he said.
Another potential partner for AOH is Dr Sunil Gupta who expressed willingness to work with the First Lady mainly in the fight against cancer in children, men and women.
Dr Gupta is a consultant haematologist and haem-oncologist based at Lewisham and Greenwich NHS trust.
He has over 25 years of experience in clinical and laboratory Haematology.
Dr Gupta’s area of specialty is haematology-oncology, but has keen interest in clotting disorders and anaemias as well.
“I have been associated with many charitable hospitals in India where we increase awareness in cancer and black disorders. We can train medical personels and increase awareness on preventable diseases that are killing people. We discussed with the First Lady regarding cooperation in Zimbabwe, we will go there and complement her works by raising awareness on various ailments, train doctors and nurses, provide resources and medical healthcare, build hospitals so that we provide a better healthcare.
“We are happy to join hands with her because we were touched with the way she goes to remote areas with her foundation’s mobile clinic to save lives,” he said.
Dr Mnangagwa expressed gratitude to the organisations for reaching out to her.
“Thank you very much for coming to see me and hear from the horse’s mouth what I am doing back home. Thank you very much for following up what I am doing and the interest that you have shown,” she said.
The mother of the nation spoke passionately about her charity work in the country and welcomed partnership from organisations and individuals for the betterment of the nation.