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George Mbwando (right) takes centre stage during a function for one of his German clubs when he was still a player before he decided to become a coach

Petros Kausiyo Deputy Sports Editor
EXACTLY a month after the death of former Zimbabwe international Edzai Kasinauyo his ex-Warriors teammate and friend George Mbwando wants to honour him by completing one of the philanthropic projects which the late administrator was involved in.

Mbwando, who is based in Germany, was jointly involved with Kasinauyo in looking after children orphaned by HIV/Aids in Hwange. The Football Against HIV/ Aids programme caters for children who are under the watch of three volunteer women dubbed the Good Hope Mothers.

Kasinauyo, who died in South Africa last month and was buried in Harare, had agreed to build a bigger home for the orphans together with Mbwando before he passed on.

Mbwando revealed he was now looking to complete the project in fulfilment of his late friend’s wish. After Kasinauyo’s funeral, Mbwando took to Facebook to make a passionate appeal to individuals and companies to help him complete the project.

The former FC Ingolstadt and Blackpool defender, writing on Facebook, also chronicled how they had come together with the project to assist the Good Hope Mothers — Rugare Mpofu, Ella Mpala and Duduzile Ncube — and play a part in affording the orphans a chance to live their dreams.

“In 2008 I had an idea of starting something different, something totally different from what people expect from former footballers. If we could use our influence in our society to help improve other people’s lives . . . why not?

“I told my late friend Edzai Kasinauyo about the idea and he said that he had been having the same idea for a long time and he said let’s do it tsano (as the duo would often address each other).

“We identified the Good Hope mothers of Hwange who were taking care of Aids orphans. The three women sacrificed their own lives to take care of more than 100 Aids orphans although they have their own families to take care of and they do everything for free which breaks my heart everyday,” Mbwando said.

In 2010, Mbwando roped in Bayern Munich board of directors member Johann Hans Benz to try and help in sourcing more resources for them using his business contacts in Germany.

The German was touched by his visit to the orphanage. “When I met the kids I was touched with how grateful they are even for little things, the little presents we gave them . . . it lit up their eyes and this touched me really,” Benz said.

Mbwando also paid tribute to the Good Hope Mothers for their “selfless dedication to ensuring the success of this project”. “We have been working together since 10 years (ago) because of the transparency and accountability of these women when it comes to handling the little money we raise.

“May God bless these women abundantly. We met the kids at the Good Hope Centre which is just a small room on a very dusty place in Cinderella in Hwange. We heard a lot of heart-breaking stories from the children and we were indeed heartbroken at the end of the day.

“We had no choice, but to do something and I said to Edzai, ‘Tsano let’s build the kids a place to stay, because most of the kids were abused, forced into prostitution by the circumstances, some were forced into marrying older people,’ so by building them a place to stay we could avoid such problems.

“In Germany with my friend Hans Benz, we started raising money for food and clothes and we managed to send some children to school and one went on to be a, doctor but the numbers kept growing at the Centre,” Mbwando said.

Mbwando also spoke of how they received support from the Deputy Minister of Mines and Mining Development Fred Moyo who was the managing director at Hwange Colliery at the time the land was acquired.

“We then spoke to Mr Fred Moyo who was the MD at the Colliery and he donated 26 hectares of land to us and we say thank you again today. We managed to buy building materials for the orphanage and we were still looking for funds to start building in the near future.

“But God decided to take Edzai before he saw the results of our work. I can’t give up now, we now have more than 600 orphans who are still looking at us for help and if anyone is willing to assist in the last part of our project I would be very grateful.

“Any help in any form would be greatly appreciated. Please help me to give these kids a small chance in life, help me please to build a place for them to stay.

“Anyone can be part of this, if there is anyone willing to help with money just use the Ecocash account (07757 63355 Rugare Mpofu). It doesn’t matter how much it is, every cent will go where it is supposed to go. Thank you in advance,” Mbwando said.