Former footballer and now one of the country’s top sports presenters, Alois Bunjira, received the shock of his life last week when his heartfelt attempt to assist a girl who passed Grade 7 with 4 units but could not proceed to high school as her parents had no money came back and hit him in the face.
The girl, we’ll call her DN to protect her identity, and her mother approached Bunjira at his academy at David Livingstone Primary School in Harare. The mother explained to Bunjira that her daughter would not be able to proceed to secondary school unless the family got some assistance.
Bunjira, touched by the story, took to social media to see if any of his friends could assist. He says he was inundated by posts and messages from people who wanted to help. “Hundreds of my friends came forward on my wall and some to my inbox, offering different kinds of help. Some directed me to organisations, some offered to send money, some offered to buy uniforms, some offered to just pay for this term, some suggested I create a GoFundMe platform, some suggested musenga musenga and many others asked for the mother’s details.”
Going a step further, Bunjira decided he would make sure that DN got the help she needed. “Soooo, I looked at all that, myself feeling like the captain of this ship, and through extensive consultation, I decided that, in the best interest of this child, I should hook the family up with someone who would guarantee that they’d pay the fees and look after this child all the way to form 6.
“So I surfed around those that had offered something to that effect and I shortlisted three families…”
Bunjira then says he identified one high school and then another for the girl, organised to meet with the parents who didn’t show up on several occasions.
Apparently, after receiving advice from a cleric, the young girl’s family started avoiding Bunjira who, aware of the situation, was still trying to mobilise as much help as he could for the minor.
The news later got to Bunjira that the family’s pastor had told them to turn down the help as it was “linked to satanism.”
A shocked and bewildered Bunjira posted, “I would like to say please God help this little girl. I tried. I hope the pastor from that Church who stopped the parents from getting such help, calling it satanic finds it in his heart to help this little girl through school, otherwise he would have destroyed this little girl’s dreams and destroyed what could have been a breakthrough for the family.”
Many sympathisers have flooded Bunjira’s Facebook page with comments with most questioning the authenticity of the pastor and, in extension, the behaviour of many religious leaders these days.
“Yaa that pastor ndiye Satan for refusing that child an opportunity, God will make a way though, he always does,” commented one Judith Gangata”.
Some were even questioning the commitment of the parents in respecting the child’s right to education.
“Is there no law that these parents or Pastors are breaching,” asked Laston Mavesa.
In recent years there has been a boom of churches mushrooming all over Zimbabwe – and the continent. The worse things get economically, it seems, the more churches we have. The pastors of many of the churches are all powerful and can make their congregants do some pretty bizarre things.
