The Matthew Rusike Organisation (MRO) cares for up to 100 residential children in Epworth and has Childcare Resource Centres (CRCs) in Districts across the country, staffed by volunteers and trained by MRCH staff. These centres support almost 7000 vulnerable children in the local communities.
The Friends have had to reduce the monthly remittance of £6,000 and now send £4,500 every 2 months.
Any support you can provide will directly benefit the children at the Home and the childcare support projects in the communities. For example in 2022:
- USD$ 3.00 will take care for a child per day
- USD $5.00 will provide medical care for a generally ill child for a month
- USD $30.00 will provide medical care for a chronically ill child
- USD $30.00 will buy a child’s complete school uniform
- USD $ 252.00 will feed a family group per week. A family group has an average of 12 children excluding the care giver
- USD $42.00 will keep a young person in vocational training per month
- USD $ 60.00 will pay school fees for Primary school child and USD$150.00 will pay fees for a secondary school child
- USD$ 270.00 will pay one staff member’s salary for a month
Funds sent to the Home by FoMRCH cover particular needs:
- Food: the children live on a limited diet. Your donations could help add protein, fruit and vegetables
- Clothing: in particular school uniforms. Children are not allowed to attend school without them
- Medical care: even basic medicines are out of their reach, 5 children now receive free anti retroviral treatment for HIV/Aids. However the Home also caters for costs relating to chronic illnesses like Epilepsy and Diabetes
- Staffing: There are now 30 staff working for the MRCH Organisation, some covering the Community Childcare programmes in Harare, Gweru and Bulawayo
The MRCH Home is eligible for a USD$ 20.00 support per child per month from the Government (paid equivalent in local currency – Zim$6440.00). This is only for those children who have valid court orders. It is the Department of Social Welfare’s duty to ensure these children have valid court orders. At the moment only 9 out of 94 children have valid court orders. Hence the Home only receives ££180 each month from the Government to support those 9.
The most effective way for you to help is by giving foMRCH regular or one-off donations to support the daily care and education of the children