GoFundMe for Mhofu pitch walk Sunday Chidzambwa

Grace Chingoma Senior Sports Reporter
IN A BID to raise more funds and awareness, a GoFundMe will be established for Sunday Chidzambwa’s Covid-19 pitch walk on June 17 at Raylton Sports Club in Harare.

Chidzambwa will walk 50 times the length of the pitch in order to raise funds for frontline workers involved in the fight against coronavirus in the country.

The event is gathering momentum with a number of people and organisations rallying behind the noble cause.

Some Zimbabweans, in the diaspora, have joined the movement.

Zimbabwe Team UK chief executive Marshal Gore, who has since been roped in to be diaspora co-ordinator working with event co-ordinator Martin Changachirere, said they were in the process of setting up the fundraising initiative.

“We are supporting the initiative. Our plan is to set up a GoFundMe account for the purposes of the fundraising,’’ said Gore.

“We will promote the fundraising in the diaspora community and also make contributions, ourselves, as Team Zimbabwe UK.

“Our goal and main objective is to initiate community development from within, therefore, this pledge from Mhofu, resonates with our ethos.

“We will do our best to help.”

Gore, a patriotic Zimbabwean who is always involved in many events which cast his country in a positive light, said former players who are now based abroad were fully supportive of the initiative.

Many of them have previous links with Chidzambwa either at local or national team levels.

“There is a huge interest to support from former players and many football lovers,’’ Gore said.

“It has been received well.’’

The event was moved to next Wednesday to allow more people, wishing to donate towards the cause, to come on board.

And the former Warriors coach, who appraised his fellow legends Gibson Homela and Ndumiso Gumede about the initiative, got a solidarity message from the duo yesterday.

There is a social media blitz to raise awareness of the pitch walk and legends  David “Yogi” Mandigora and George “Mastermind” Shaya will be the “curtain raisers”.

Yesterday, the veteran coach held interviews with the media at Raylton to increase awareness on the event.

Chidzambwa wants to raise money to purchase protective clothing for marginalised frontline workers in clinics and hospitals in the remote areas.

He was inspired by a British World War II veteran, Tom Moore, who raised more than US$30 million by walking, aided by a walking frame, some laps in his backyard for the country’s National Health Services.

The coach’s gesture is very significant as he has been walking with a limp since he sustained a career-ending leg fracture playing for his beloved Dynamos in a league match against Rio Tinto in Kadoma in 1983.

A heavy clash with the goldminers’ talisman, Joseph Zulu, left Chidzambwa with a broken leg and a stellar career, which saw him captain his country at Independence, was brought to a premature end at the age of 30.

Former players, such as Mandigora, Stewart Murisa and David Maketo Sengu, are some of the people involved in organising the event together with Aces Academy director, Nigel Munyati, and Solomon Chingono.

Individuals and corporates have been urged to support the legendary coach’s initiative.

Chidzambwa said a team of chartered accountants will handle the funds.

“Football is my life and I believe that I can make a difference,’’ he said.

“The whole idea is to raise money and, if I had lots of money, I would have donated to the cause.

“But, the reality is that I don’t have such kind of money and I can only appeal to those who want to help to come on board.’’

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