Couple with 4 mentally challenged children appealing for assistance

MASVINGO – An elderly and unemployed couple from Masvingo Central with four mentally challenged children is appealing for assistance to erect a perimeter fence at their homestead, foodstuffs, blankets, clothes and diapers for their children.
Sekuru David Mutekede (63) and his wife Shylet Mutekede (54) survive on handouts, piece jobs and subsistence farming.
Their children, Sakina (40), Ngonidzashe (38), Locadia (35) and Edwin (27) wear diapers, have speech impairments, cannot feed themselves and require around the clock attention.
The family stays in Village 15, Ward 34, Gwamanjoma area, Masvingo Central.
Sekuru Mutekede told The Mirror that Edwin is tied to a tree every day because he strays from the homestead to play with small children in the area. Edwin doesn’t remember his way back home and he gets lost. His parents spend their days doing piece jobs and cannot look after him.
Recently, Edwin was found on the verge of drowning in a weir dam a few kilometres from the homestead. His left leg has a deep and ghastly wound after he was scalded with boiling water by a villager who found him eating some green mealies that she had left outside her kitchen hut. The Mutekede family cannot afford to raise US$2 transport money to get to the clinic, let alone U$5 clinic consultation fees.
Sekuru Mutekede said that he has no meaningful source of income and is appealing for assistance to look after his four children. He said they can’t afford to buy diapers for the children and they urinate and mess their blankets.
Mbuya Mutekede said they struggle to get water and the children can go for days without bathing or changing clothes and this exposes them to diseases. She said villagers get two buckets of water per day from a community borehole and they have to walk long distances to get the water.
“My son is tied to a tree because he leaves the homestead and cannot find his way back home. My children wear old and tattered clothes and their blankets are torn. We cannot afford to buy them what they need.
“I am appealing to well-wishers for a perimeter fence for my homestead, food stuffs, diapers, clothes and blankets. We have old and tattered blankets and the clothes that we have are given to us by well-wishers,” said Sekuru Mutekede.
Locadia is wheelchair bound and she recently received a new wheelchair from CCC 2023 Masvingo Central parliamentary candidate Moses Mavhaire.

Well-wishers can contact Mbuya Shylet Mutekede on 0776837255 or Mirror Helpline on 0716895703/ 0775691380.

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