FHU Students Collect Clothes for Zimbabwe Churches

A group of Freed-Hardeman Students known as “A Helping Hand” have concluded a weeklong clothing drive in collaboration with Christian organization “Partners4Africa.” The clothing drive will benefit congregations in Zimbabwe in southern Africa.

A Helping Hand is composed of eight FHU students: Nkosilathi Mpofu from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe; Savannah Sword from Kiev, Ukraine; Sarah Thornsberry from Cape Girardeau, Mo.; Benjamin Sterchi from Harrisburg, Ill.; Calin Temple from Jackson, Tenn.; Jessie Carter from Little Rock, Ark.; Rachel Geiser from Conneaut, Ohio; and Cody Jackson from Anchorage, Alaska. The group was started last semester, and the “Clothing Drive for Zimbabwe” was their first large-scale project.

Mpofu contacted Dorian Flynn, founder of Partners4Africa, to initiate the project. “I know that it is very hard to get clothes because they are expensive. The donated clothes come in handy, especially for people in the rural area who sometimes only have one dress their whole lives,” said Mpofu.

Both new and used clothes were accepted. Members of A Helping Hand packed the donated clothes into banana boxes Feb. 18 and 25 in one of the dormitory lobbies. Nearly 130 boxes of clothes will be shipped to Partners4Africa’s headquarters in Alabama and subsequently sent to Zimbabwe.