Our story
The story of Dzikwa began in 1992 when Seppo Ainamo, a Finnish man who moved to Zimbabwe in Harare after a business consultancy, promised to pay school fees for an 8-year-old boy, as his single mother could not afford it. Slowly the project started to grow and in 1995 Seppo supported eight underprivileged Zimbabweans. Oili Wuolle, who worked in Bank of Finland, found herself in Zimbabwe working for an educational organization for the Southern Africa in September 1996. In 1996 Seppo and Oili became a team as they shared the same desire to do good. The number of children supported increased to 36 in the same year.
With encouraging support from friends and relatives, Seppoand Oili were able to increase the number of children each year. In 2002, the project was properly registered as a foundation in Zimbabwe: the Dzikwa Trust Fund, which today acts as a local partner for all operations. Zimbabwe’s Aids-Orphans Society was established in Finland 2003 to increase the credibility of operations. Society cooperates with the Dzikwa Trust Fund so that Dzikwa owns our activity center for children in Dzivarasekwa, which was started in 2007. In 2021 Zimbabwe Aids-Orphan Society was renamed, and continues as The Children of Zimbabwe Society.
Now, after 25 years, the association has about 500 members and supports the education and well-being of about 400 children age between 6-23 with 63% of them girls. Children have access to education with the generous help of their sponsors. Nowadays, children also have a safe environment in our activity center, where their well-being is supported in many ways. The founders Seppo and Oili are the father and mother of all the children according to the Zimbabwean extended family concept. Together with all the members of Children of Zimbabwe Society, they want children’s rights to be upheld and do their utmost to ensure that children have the best possible circumstances to grow into healthy adults who can contribute to the future of their own country.
Read ”AIDS orvot ovat meidän lapsiamme” -article (in Finnish) in Oma Aika -magazine (2017)
”Those who have are always responsible for those who have less. Everyone in this planet are more and more connected and depended on each other, and western countries are historically responsible of the divide between us and African countries. We cannot merely close our eyes for the fact that at least fifth of the world’s population live in extreme poverty. It is for our common good that we support the access to education in the developing countries. Access to education is clearly linked to equality and helps to eradicate poverty. We firmly believe that our operations support development that is just.”
– Oili Wuolle
