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Tendai Rupapa Senior Reporter

THE 21-day lockdown has failed to dampen the motherly instincts of First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa, who spent the better part of yesterday morning drying vegetables to meet the dietary needs of the vulnerable and elderly.

The First Lady has long been drying vegetables and supplying beneficiaries. Yesterday, she had stacks of supplies ready for delivery.

First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa cuts and packs dried vegetables she intends to distribute to the vulnerable countrywide during the Covid-19 lockdown at Zimbabwe House yesterday. — Pictures: John Manzongo

Government announced the lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus, urging people to stay at home, but some families mainly the vulnerable groups, are finding it hard to get food since they did not stock enough to last the duration of the lockdown.

Amai Mnangagwa said her aim was to provide these families with food.

Some of the dried vegetables will be distributed to Cyclone Idai survivors when the lockdown is over.

The First Lady, who is largely a hands-on person, has a thriving garden at the back of her office where she grows a variety of vegetables.

The First Lady continues with her philanthropic work

Yesterday, she could be seen cutting the vegetables before boiling and drying them.

Wearing her face mask in compliance with health regulations, the First Lady could be seen effortlessly cutting the vegetables with the help of her Angel of Hope Foundation team.

Through her foundation, the First Lady has been a light of hope for the poor whom she constantly supplies with foodstuffs to meet their nutritional needs and other basic needs.

Before the lockdown, she had been traversing the length and breadth of the country ensuring that the poor, orphans and the elderly were catered for.

Since her backyard garden cannot yield enough to cover the needs of the whole nation, the First Lady buys some of the vegetables from the elderly and some vulnerable groups on farms across the country as a way of supporting their projects.

The country has endured successive droughts, resulting in a food deficit which leaves the poor and vulnerable groups exposed.

“I do this regularly to assist those in need. People must always have food to meet their nutritional requirements and whenever I get to them, as a mother, I always have something to give them,” she said.

“I am taking the vegetables to the affected. You know the affected are coming in various forms.

“We have this disease, Covid-19. We also have Cyclone Idai we also have the elderly who are too old to fend for themselves and those looking after their orphaned grandchildren that I take to.

“I have started this feeding programme in schools where they are having a meal or two meals a day at the school. I will take some of these vegetables with me whenever I go to these schools to help them mitigate the hunger,” she said.

The First Lady said the communities she was working with were grateful that the vegetable initiative was assisting them immensely.

Her efforts, she said, were also a great lesson to the newly married and the entire womenfolk to learn to use their hands for the benefit of their communities and families.