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Tsitsi Ndabambi
Business woman Veronica Gwatiringa has a knack for giving to the poor.

And this month when women are being made aware of the precious bits that life can be, with drives like breast cancer awareness amongst other things, she has stepped into the limelight as a leading woman.

In May this year she visited her roots — Chirimhanzu where she left a smile on children and elderly people’s faces by donating school equipment, fees, household goods and groceries.

After assessing each elderly lady’s special needs and a promise that she would return in a programme she ran alongside Saturday Lifestyle in the philanthropic drive, she indeed fulfilled her promise.

Upon returning from China where she had gone to receive the International Women Entrepreneurial Challenge Award, she expressed her gratitude for her accomplishment and making Zimbabwe proud by going back to Chirimhanzu.

Gogo Gino Chipere who stays alone at her homestead will always smile every time she opens her eyes to the sound of singing birds from her new blue house that Veronica built for her; a dream for every aged person who cannot afford a nursing home or a family to look after them.

“I have spent half of my life wishing for and admiring other people’s achievements and benefits from their immediate families. Now a stranger has helped me; God bless her,” said an emotional Gogo Gino.

Apart from building the house, Veronica and her staff members from Zimbabwe Garden Seeds also brought her a brand new bed and more provisions to last her until Christmas.

The three-time business award-winner went on to visit six more ladies where she also distributed essential goodies to them.

During the visit she was introduced to four orphaned high school teenagers who were in critical need of educational assistance. She then lent them a hand with their tuition fees obligations.

“This is not the end of our assisting the Chirimhanzu community, my team and I will be frequenting this area helping people as much as we can,” assured Veronica; “there is a certain feeling of joy and fulfilment and self-satisfaction when you help another person who may be in need.”

“I encourage other businesspeople out there to take time and revisit their roots, and assist the needy people in their villages who do not have families or any source of income to sustain themselves,” she added.