BBR donates personalised lightweight blankets to Jairos Jiri children

Beitbridge - Bulawayo Railway (BBR), which built and operates the railway between Beitbridge and Bulawayo, on Friday presented personalised lightweight blankets to 139 children at the Jairos Jiri Centre in Southerton, Harare.

Each child's blanket has his or her name embroidered on it.

Presenting the blankets to the children, BBR director Thembi Moyo explained that the blankets were a personal gift to each child, which the child could easily carry around.

She demonstrated how, in addition to using it on one's bed, it could be wrapped around the body or used to cover one's knees in class. The children could take it with them when they went home for school holidays.

"Each blanket has embroidered on it the name of the child to whom it is being given. It is a personal gift to that child. It is yours.

"You can take it home with you when you go home for school holidays and bring it back with you when you come back to school. When you leave the centre you can take it with you. It is yours from BBR," she said.

She said she would be travelling to Bulawayo this week to make a similar donation to children at the Jairos Jiri Centre there.

BBR has a long association with Jairos Jiri, going back to 2001. It pays the schooling and boarding expenses of five children at the centre in Harare and three at the Bulawayo centre.

It has also in the past donated wheelchairs, walking frames and crutches to the centre. In 2006 it gave the children at the Harare centre a treat by taking them on a specially arranged train ride, just to  give them an experience they had never had before.

Mrs Moyo paid tribute to the Jairos Jiri Association for the work it does for those who are physically challenged and to the children at the centre for the way in which they overcome the challenges they face.

"I always enjoy coming to this centre and spending time with you. The cheerfulness with which you children go about everything you do, the way you overcome the challenges you face and the help you gladly give to one another is something I always find inspiring," she said.  

The Jairos Jiri Association, which was founded in 1950 by the late Mr Jairos Jiri, is probably the largest of its kind in Africa and its needs today are greater than ever before, the Jairos Jiri Association human resources executive, Mrs Mary Muchingamidza told Mrs Moyo and the children and staff at the centre.

She said the association provided services to more than 6 500 people every year through outreach and follow-up integration programmes.

"In addition the association runs 16 centres where 1 200 children and adults get treatment, care and education," she said.

Ms Margaret Mukwe, the head of the centre, which provides schooling for 171 primary school children, said the centre now had a secondary school, which it began this year with 14 Form One pupils.

Thanking BBR for its donation, the Jairos Jiri Southerton branch treasurer, Mr Gilbert Gandashanga, pointed out to the children the significance of BBR having donated blankets to them as individuals rather than to the centre as a whole.

"What belongs to everybody belongs to nobody," he said.