Hardships come into people’s lives in different forms and different ways. Some face hardships in achieving just one goal but in the case of this elderly widow, surviving for a day became a hardship that she had to endure for the sake of her children – from having enough to eat and cover her body to having a place she can call her own.
Gogo Sekai Elizabeth Nyuchi was born in 1949 in Zaka District, Masvingo Province. She got married to her husband who was originally from Malawi.
After they got married, Gogo Nyuchi and her husband moved from town to town because of the types of jobs the husband would get in different places. Just like most couples, Gogo Nyuchi and her husband were looking forward to growing old together with their huge family – 16 children in total.
But everything took a worse in 1991 when Gogo Nyuchi’s husband passed on.
“…At the time when my husband passed, 7 of our children had already passed away so I was left with 9 children.”
Gogo Nyuchi was left alone with 9 children to take care of. With no other option left, Gogo Nyuchi had to go back to her maiden home in Zaka with her children.
“After my husband passed away, I was left with 9 children so then I relocated to my maiden home in Zaka with my children,” narrated Gogo Nyuchi.
Life became very difficult for her as the only breadwinner for her and her kids was no longer around to fend for them.
With all her nine children looking up to her for everything, Gogo Nyuchi had to find ways to sustain and feed her family. She took menial jobs and working in other people’s fields. Although she tried, by all means, to make ends meet, the little money that she would get was not enough to feed her whole family.
But her situation worsened more when more of her children died, one after the other.
“Whilst I was in Zaka, two of my children passed on. I was then left with 7 children. I was deeply hurt by the way my children were dying.”
After going through this difficult period in her life, Gogo Nyuchi relocated to Norton where one of her sons was fishmongering. At this point in time, Gogo Nyuchi was left with seven children and nine grandchildren.
“I was deeply pained by the passing of my children in Zaka, so I then relocated to Norton to stay with one of my sons who was in the business of selling fish.”
Whilst she was in Norton, Gogo Nyuchi depended on her son for rentals and money for food. Things remained difficult because the son didn’t earn much to support his mother; Gogo Nyuchi and his other siblings.
“I then realised that for me and my children and my grandchildren to continue living in town with the financial challenges we were having, it was going to be a heavy burden for us,” added Gogo Nyuchi.
The situation worsened day after day for the family. The little support that she was getting from her son was not sufficient to sustain her and the young ones that looked up to her and she had no one else to turn to.
She then relocated to Mhondoro when one of her sons got a piece of land for her. Without enough money to build a decent home, Gogo and her family had no option but to build wooden cabins from logs so they could find somewhere to sleep.
The wooden cabins that they had built could not last for long as they could not withstand bad weather, so Gogo Nyuchi and her children worked so hard to alleviate the situation. But the menial jobs they were getting didn’t yield many returns, so they only built a one-rounded hut with a thatched roof.
“We all slept in that one hut; me and my grandchildren. The girls and I would sleep on one side and the boys would sleep on the other side. We would set the fire in the middle and during the night, we would turn it out to prevent the blankets from catching fire,” she said.
That one rounded hut was everything that they had; it was their lounge, their kitchen and their bedroom. It was also the storage place for the few belongings they had.
Since their hut was thatched, Gogo Nyuchi and her grandchildren were prone to bad weather, especially rain. Sometimes they had to spend the whole night awake because their blankets would have been drenched in rainwater that would have leaked through the roof.
One of the village leaders; Mrs Mudhambu in the Chingwere area where Gogo Nyuchi stays in also bore witness to the sad predicament that Gogo and her family were in.
“I am the one who welcomed Sekai Nyuchi when she relocated to this village. I could see that her and her family were suffering a lot,” Mrs Mudhambu said.
With no place to run to and no one to comfort her, Gogo Nyuchi realised that the best place for her to find refuge was in the house of the Lord, and in the midst of her troubles, God answered her cry through Ruth Makandiwa and in no time, gogo and family traded their pain and suffering for peace, joy and comfort.
In 2012, Ruth Makandiwa identified Gogo Nyuchi, amongst hundreds of other elderly women and her story changed for the better.
The first lady of UFIC allowed the love of God to flow in Gogo Nyuchi’s family as she became the source of hope and peace that comforted Gogo Nyuchi’s family.
“When I started receiving help from Ruth Makandiwa, I was given food groceries on a monthly basis. my children and my grandchildren also began to receive school fees, uniforms, books, satchels and clothes. Our lives were transformed,” said Gogo.
This was only the beginning of the great transformation.
When the Agape Family Care team visited Gogo Nyuchi’s home in Chingwere village, Mhondoro and saw the dire situation she was in, Ruth Makandiwa took it upon herself to transform the living conditions of her family. Over and above the monthly groceries, school fees, clothes and blankets that she had been providing for Gogo since 2012, she took it upon herself to address her biggest challenge.
In late 2018, Ruth, through the Agape Family Care sent a construction team to Gogo Nyuchi’s home in Mhondoro to construct a 3-bedroomed house for Gogo Nyuchi. They completed the construction of the house in February 2019.
The prophetess also took a further step and fully furnished the new house. She bought new beds, blankets and bed linen, curtains, a 4-piece lounge suite, a 2-piece kitchen unit, plates, cups, pots and a huge grocery for Gogo Nyuchi and family.
On the 13th of March 2019, the day of the official hand-over, Gogo Nyuchi could not hold back her tears of joy.
Today, Gogo Nyuchi is a proud owner of a fully furnished 3-bedroomed house. She no longer has to worry about bad weather; even if a heavy rain descends on their home, she will sleep comfortably because she now has a properly-built home that can protect her and her family from bad weather.
“I am thankful to God for what Ruth Makandiwa has done for me. I used to sleep on the floor covering my body with rags but now I have a home, I have furniture. To me, this is a miracle,” Gogo Nyuchi expressed her gratitude.
Unconditionally, Ruth Makandiwa transformed Gogo Nyuchi’s life amazingly. Out of pure love, she gave Gogo Nyuchi and her family a home to call their own. Now Gogo Nyuchi is a proud owner of a house through Ruth Makandiwa’s God-inspired works of love.
This article was developed from three pieces published on the UFIC Ministries official website. Visit the site here.
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