Welcome to Zimbabwe Aid Association.

The Chairman, Fred Nyamhunga

Thank you for dropping by. Let me welcome you to our site by briefly telling you why this charity group was started. The idea of sending assistance to Zimbabwe arose after the horrific images of battered men, women and children started streaming on our screens during the bloody presidential elections in 2008. It was obvious to any rational thinking person that the poor starving villagers were being persecuted by their government for political expediency. The hopelessness on their faces with babies hanging on their backs whilst heartbreakingly walking away from their burning and looted homes pierced our consciences deeply. The quote from John F. Kennedy became very poignant "Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country." The challenge was clear. We had to do something. After a lot of soul searching and weighing various options, sending clothes seemed the most practical, uncontroversial and this could easily be accounted for. Besides, it was easy collecting clothes than collecting cash. Back then in 2008, cholera, hunger, Inflation and Political beatings were the four scourges that stalked Zimbabwe. That year saw hopes of Zimbabweans sink to depths so low that it seemed like a bad dream that we wanted desperately to end. The inflation which had already defied all economic logic spiralled into stratospheric levels that citizens started carrying backpacks full of money when visiting the shops. Long queues of food disappeared because shops no longer had the food stocks.

How did things get to this? When the March 2008 Elections appeared it seemed the political impasse would be resolved once and for all. Everyone looked forward to a new dawn. It was time for a new start and things couldn’t get worse. Little did the world know that it would take almost a month before Robert Mugabe released the results. You didn't a doctorate in sciences to guess what was happening in the meantime. The question on everyone's mind was - "were the results being cooked?". That question was answered amidst disturbing revelations. The Zimbabwe government denied the winner opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai president of Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T). All sorts of very tall stories emerged. The next thing we heard was that the government militia had unleashed such gruesome terror it was had to believe such things were happening in Zimbabwe. The reason. Folks were being butchered, raped, maimed for freely exercising their right to vote for a party of their choice which happened not to be the ruling party. Hope turned to despair as the world watched in disbelief.