Indian charity organisations, businesses praise First Lady’s works . . . keen to partner her Foundation
LEADERS of charity organisations and business executives across India who invited First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa here, yesterday came out in droves to express their willingness to partner her Angel of Hope Foundation as her hard work and all-encompassing empowerment projects continue to touch many hearts across the globe.
They said they were particularly touched by the First Lady’s hands-on approach, energy, humbleness and hard work.
The level of interest shown by the Indian business community speaks volumes of the philanthropic works being done by Amai Mnangagwa.
Widows, orphans, the elderly, ladies of the night, children and people with disabilities are among the major beneficiaries of the First Lady’s empowerment initiatives, which are open to everyone despite race, political affiliation and gender.
This charmed the Indian business community and charity organisations, thus prompting them to invite her to India and find possible ways to assist in her philanthropic works.
The First Lady gave an elaborate overview of her Foundation’s focus and operations.
Players in education, health and tourism were well represented at the colourful event as the mother of the nation spearheads efforts of improved children’s education, especially the girl child.
Amai Mnangagwa’s Angel of Hope Foundation works with various stakeholders to pay fees for children in vulnerable communities and run a school feeding scheme to ensure no child pulls out of school because of hunger.
“Allow me to call you esteemed friends after the glamorous welcome of yesterday,” she said.
“Your presence here is ample testimony of your commitment to Zimbabwe as articulated to me by the Ambassador.
“Indeed, it is an honour to welcome you to this briefing session on activities of the Angel of Hope Foundation, of which I am Patron. It has been a long road since its inception in 2018. It has not been an easy road ,but worth the while. With committed friends I am certain we will achieve more.”
To hammer her points home, the First Lady played well- packaged video clips highlighting some of the projects that she is undertaking through her foundation since inception in 2018.
In the video clips were projects and programmes on cancer screening outreach programmes, environmental protection, Covid-19 awareness, the school feeding programmes, child protection, empowerment programmes and working with the marginalised communities.
Also featured were programmes targeting people living with disabilities, tourism and education among many other Angel of Hope programmes.
Most of the organisations and individuals that met the First Lady were represented at the highest level.
Among those in attendance were Mr Vivek Agarwala, chairman for International Affair Committee for Africa PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Col Saurabh Sanyal, the secretary general, Shailendra Jain the trade commissioner for Zimbabwe India Trade Council, Founder chairperson of Human Achievers Foundation Dr Senorita Isaac, Professor (Dr P Tabrez Ahmad the vice chancellor of G D Goenka University, Dr Ajeet Kumar Nedungadi, the director international admission and marketing for GD Goenka University, Mohit Srivastava the director for International Cooperation for Indian Economic Trade Organisation, Hema Agnihotri, a director at Zimbabwe India Trade Council and Jyoti Sawhney, the founder of Bharat Business Connect among other organisations.
Dr Senoritah Isaac said she was awestruck by the amount of work the First Lady was carrying out across the length and breadth of Zimbabwe.
“We are very grateful to her for coming here and after watching the videos of the amount of work that she is doing, we are very excited to work with her,” she said.
“Definitely we want to extend our gratitude to her and I have rarely seen people doing the amount of work she is doing in many areas. Definitely we want to collaborate on cancer and her women empowerment schemes. It is an honour to come to be her to communicate and meet her.”
Dr Isaac later held a closed-door meeting with the First Lady from which they emerged talking about the need for the two foundations – Angel of Hope and Human Achievers Foundation to strengthen ties in terms of health and women empowerment with Dr Isaac expressing her willingness to visit Zimbabwe for the first time.
Full story on www.herald.co.zw