The women who are Huwana’s pillar

Langalakhe Mabena

In the thicket of Plumtree in Matabeleland South, a village called Huwana which loosely translates to living together in harmony, is largely carried by women under the Nkiwane Foundation, who provide home-based care for the elderly in that community.

With their open hearts, the women have dedicated their lives and time to helping out the old aged in doing house chores for them including cleaning, washing blankets and their clothes as well as literally bathing them.

Formed in 2019, just before the Covid-19 pandemic gripped the world, the group comprised of 19 women, stood for change in maintaining cleanliness among the old aged people in the community of Huwana villages 1, 2, 3 and 4, as well as in Ntabanda.

An important branch which is under the Nkiwane Foundation, the home-based care women have for the past four years managed to change lives and maintain cleanliness to over 80 aged people in the community.

One of the founding members of the Nkiwane Foundation, Vivian Ncube said the works of the home-based care drive was created to touch lives, not only within Huwana, but also people from different walks of life who may need their services.

“The Nkiwane Foundation was created by Mthabisi Nkiwane who is my son in 2019 as a way of bringing about positivity and change in our community and beyond.

“We came together with other women from our community and we created a group within the Nkiwane Foundation that would help elderly people through cleaning their homesteads, washing their clothes and to the extent of bathing those who are impaired.

“In our community, there are a lot of old people who have been abandoned by their children who went in search of greener pastures in neighbouring countries like South Africa and Botswana. Once they are out of the country, their children don’t send them groceries and the day-to-day needs.

“As a foundation, we then decided to start this movement along with 22 women, in helping the old-aged people who are in need, in helping them in their daily chores,” said MaNcube.

It’s not an easy task for these women to help the elderly.

Sometimes they run out of cleaning materials to the extent that they end up using utensils from their homesteads, something that has made their work ineffective.

“We have donors who usually help us out with cleaning utensils but due to the economic situation in our country, funding is slowly slowing down and this makes our work hard as we end up using detergents from our households in order to help those in need.

“We are therefore asking those who can lend a hand to donate anything so that we can be able to do our work effectively,” said MaNcube.

Through the Nkiwane foundation, many villagers from Huwana and its surroundings have benefited in different forms. Some have received grocery hampers, with the disabled also receiving wheelchairs.

All these benefits come if there is funding.