By Judith Sibanda
A 21-year-old former Stellenbosch University student has 44.5 kilometres marathon to help raise funds to purchase a solar-powered water pump for the water stricken Jimbwe community under chief Mvuthu in Hwange.
Calo Cranswick, born in Zimbabwe and currently based in the United Kingdom conducted on Saturday ran from Victoria Falls to Jimbwe in Hwange, supported by Greenline Africa Trust.
The trust director Veronica Chapman said, Cranswick’s rural communities run was driven by the state of women and young girls in rural communities who have to walk many kilometres in search of the precious liquid.
“Water has always been a challenge in areas under chief Shana and chief Mvuthu, it is very dry and people struggle to get clean and safe water,” she said.
“Women and girls wake up earliest between 2.30 am and 3 am in the morning to walk and collect water which is quite a distance from them. Also we have drought which is also another challenge because some of the boreholes are already drying up since May.”
Chapman said they have been working in schools, clinics and homesteads between the two jurisdictions and their main goal was to provide more water.
“We are looking at sustainable livelihoods and water which is a very big and critical need in the areas such as Chidobe, Nemanhanga,Chikandakubi, Imbizha, Kachechete, and Jambezi and it was one of the reasons for Calo to run because we are also the beneficiaries of Vic Falls Econet marathon for the work that we are doing.
Calo is not going to be here for the marathon, so she said, she will do her own run now. We have just drilled the borehole at Jimbwe so what is only left is installation of solar pumps which we hope will be done beginning of July at an average cost of US$10 000.
Cranswick was joined by community members and children along the way.
