By Joyce Mukucha
Motivated by the desire to change and enhance the lives of psychiatric people and their families to meet their basic needs and medication across the world, Nenyasha Trust, a non-profit making organisation, is extending support through donations to mentally challenged people.
This comes after realising difficulties being faced by psychiatric patients’ families during this Covid-19 national lockdown as they struggle to put food on the table and sustain themselves.
In an interview, Nenyasha Trust Assistant Director Makanakaishe Kutyauripo said they have seen it necessary during this February ‘month of love’ to show their commitment in giving a shoulder to lean on to this group of people.
“As Nenyasha Trust we welcomed the move by our government to extend the national lockdown for our own safety.We also noticed that due to this extension some of our patients are now left without anything to eat together with their families so this February we are mainly focusing on providing groceries and food humpers to our patients,” said Kutyauripo.
So far, the organisation is mainly focusing on those in rural areas and marginalised communities and has managed to cover Nyamukapa and Kaunye villages in Murehwa as they donated groceries and clothes.
“In Murehwa we managed to donate mealie meal, rice, clothes among other things. Our focus is on rural areas because they are the ones encountering a lot of challenges during this lockdown. The other reason why we focusing in rural areas is because we also do farming as an organisation so that will enable us to have access to enough land that will allow us to carry our projects.
“So this February, we are aiming to donate enough food and clothes and anything that can help our patients to sustain themselves during these trying times. We just want to support them giving them motherly love they deserve.”
Nenyasha Trust, Kutyauripo said, has complied a list of psychiatric patients in Mutoko, Mudzi and Bhora which they aim to cover before this month ends.
He called for other well wishers to support the organisation with donations in form of cash and in kind.
“Every donation counts and there is no donation which is small. It might seem little to someone but mean a lot to somebody. So let’s support these people as much as we can.
“Let’s help our fellow citizens. They deserve motherly love also so I’m urging people to feel free to come through with their contributions, it makes a difference to someone’s life.”
Kutyauripo also stressed the need to unlock the mysteries of the brain and find new ways to treat people with mental health problems such as eradicating stigma and discrimination towards mental illness in society.
“Being a mental patient doesn’t necessarily mean that someone will be roaming around in the streets, if it reaches that stage it means the patient is lacking support and access to medication.
“So our aim is to advocate on behalf of those who have been underserved or ignored by the system for too long eliminating the stigma associated with mental illness.”
In as much as sustenance is concerned, Nenyasha Trust gets support and source of income from stakeholders and farming projects which include poultry and gardening.
“We are embarking on farming projects so as to keep generating source of income to ensure that we support our patients. We also receive support from different stakeholders and partners,” said Kutyauripo
The visionary of the group is Chikonyora Godfrey, a Zimbabwean man born in Nyakudanga village in Nyamukapa ward 11 in Mutoko District .
He had a critical psychiatric problem from 2013 to 2017 but with God’s grace he recovered from this illness.
He went through a lot of embarrassment, labelling, and emotional abuse during the time of illness. Through family support, love and care he managed to sail through.
With all the challenges he faced, he conceived the idea to start Nenyasha Community Trust for psychiatric people aiming to change their lives by enabling them and their families to meet their basic needs and medication across the world.
Nenyasha Trust strives to be the leading charity organization providing quality services worldwide, be the best service provider, building a psychiatric home, clinic, and school for the marginalized psychiatric people.
It aims to initiate long term projects to encourage innovation, creativity and change to psychiatric people families world wide .
