Give Freely

I guess as a starting point I should tell you about the little girl that didn’t have.

I was born and raised in Zimbabwe. My parents left me and my older brother with my aunt and grandma when I was only a few months old to go and try to find a better life in South Africa. Whilst my childhood was happy in the sense that, well, I was a child who didn’t know any better. That meant that I saw no problem with going to school hungry, sleeping outside even when it was pouring down rain and going for days with just one meal. I grew up very poor. I know exactly what it feels like to go hungry. I knew from a very young age what it’s like to be homeless, to be riddled with malnutrition and just have absolutely nothing. While I was a happy child who played outside and just enjoyed childhood, it wasn’t long until I caught on and realised that I didn’t have anything that my friends had. Even food.

But eventually life got better when my mum built a house. Then we didn’t know homelessness anymore. But we still didn’t have food. But it was okay because once we settled into the new house in the new city my grandma found land for farming. But of course there was other issues like drought.

Anyway, eventually my parents found their way to the UK and me and my brother joined them and my two younger siblings a few years later. Being in the UK, I feel that I have known so much privilege. Life changed in an instant. When I look back at that little girl that dug out leftovers from the neighbours bins, I can’t help but feel motivated to do something good.

Because I know what it’s like to not have, I am doing anything I can to do my part in making sure no child ever has that feeling. MY PART. I know I won’t single handedly change the world but I sure as heck will try. I give because I know what it’s like to not have. Even the littlest that I have, I choose to give. Charities online, platforms like share the meal and just countless more, I give to. When I worked in the big city, every Friday my friend and I would buy meals and hand them out to as many homeless people as we could. No one had to know what we were doing and we didn’t need a reason to do it because we made the choice to give freely. Not expect anything back not even recognition.

For 2021, I have made the decision to do better, starting from the very beginning of the year I will continue to feed the homeless, give what I can to charities and most of all, I‘m going to start a fund for a massive winter mission to help less fortunate children. I haven’t worked out the full details yet but some of the things planned are things like providing Christmas boxes filled with food and toys just to make a child smile. Eventually I want to recruit people to help me and go global with it. The end goal is to house and feed homeless children and these are the small steps I’m choosing to start with. I will get there someday. I don’t need a reason and absolutely do not expect anything in return. I choose to give freely.

I know my story is sort of all over the place but it made me so happy writing about all this. I can’t wait for my dream to be realised.