Stitching to help stop strife in Zimbabwe

Between studying biochemistry and economics and researching tuberculosis and enzymes in a lab on campus, College junior Tariro Mupombwa managed to find a way to give back to her home country of Zimbabwe.

Mupombwa is in the process of starting a nonprofit to collect sewing machines in the United States and send them to the Salvation Army-affiliated Bumhudzo Old People's Home in Zimbabwe. There, residents will sew uniforms for children attending the many Salvation Army schools in the country.

"There's a market for certain uniforms in the schools," Mupombwa, whose brother attended one of the Salvation Army schools, said. "People in the Old [People's] Home would be trained to sew and make clothes and then be able to generate income from that."

The idea for this project stemmed from her trip to Zimbabwe over winter break.

"Before going back home, I knew things were bad, but I didn't expect it to be as bad." Mupombwa said.

After seeing her country grappling with the cholera outbreak that began last summer and the political turmoil surrounding their embattled leader Robert Mugabe, Mupombwa explained, she wanted to do something to help.

"I started talking to my mom, and we were trying to come up with ideas for projects in Zimbabwe," she said. "That's when the sewing machine thing came up."

She enlisted the help of her close friends and advisers after returning to Penn in January, and the project took off.

According to Mupombwa, Harvey Rubin, who runs the lab where she works, got her in contact with The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Mupombwa said since the Inquirer first wrote about her project on Feb. 17, she has received more than 100 offers from people looking to help.

"People are willing to donate sewing machines, fabric, thread [and] needles, and some people want to make cash donations," she said.

She received offers from someone willing to train people at the Old People's Home to sew, from nonprofit organizations reaching out to give advice and from someone who offered to help her obtain a grant for funding the project. Mupombwa said one person even offered to store the sewing machines in the U.S. before they are sent to Zimbabwe.

With this outpouring of support, Mupombwa is now expanding her vision.

"Because of the number of machines I think we'll receive, I think they can be distributed to other places besides the Old People's Home," she said.

Since the huge amount of support upped the project's ante, Mupombwa has reached out to her friends for more help.

"They're helping me call all of these people back," she said.

But, with all this attention, Mupombwa said she has to remember that she is still a student.

"I have two midterms this week," she said, "so I was trying to balance the two."

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