She woke up in the middle of the night and sleepwalked about three houses away from her home in Kambuzuma section 5 in Harare to knock on the door of some orphaned children. She was no stranger to them – so they opened the door to her. The next morning she was amazed to wake up in their home.

Letty Mhizha had for some time ignored the voice in her sleep that asked her to take care of local orphans. But that day she realised she was truly meant to serve God by looking after orphans in her area.

“Both their parents died in 2009. As we attended the same [Methodist] church as them, we went to the funeral. Both parents were of Mozambican origin so the children had no relatives who could look after them,” she explained.

“When we went to church to seek for donations for them, the pastor requested me to stand before the crowd to be introduced. But to his and my surprise the number of the kids had increased to nine. We did not know where they had come from.

“They explained that they had been instructed to follow me by their grandfather in the event that he dies. He was the only one looking after them as both their parents were deceased. The number had increased and so more help was needed.”

Since that day, looking after orphans became something that chose her, and more children keep coming for help. Mhizha provides them with food before and after school.

She named her residence Trust Lord Orphan Care after visualising the name and its design in her dreams. She has since faced a number of challenges in trying to do “what God asked her to.”

“The church helped with cash and we managed to pay our rent. At that time [in 2009], I also contributed with the little that I got from selling goods as a cross-border trader. But the problem was that when I came back, people would have looted the few things that had been donated to the kids. I would find them with nothing,” she said.

“Companies like ZCC and Neria Milling gave us 15 bags of maize a month. The kids had now risen to almost 200 and the demand for food kept increasing as well.”

Over 200 kids between the age of five and 20 now regularly flock to her house for food prepared by her and other volunteers from the church. Local residents have found Mhizha’s generosity and love for children to be so amazing and have described her as Kambuzuma’s “Mother Theresa.”

“She is very kind. It is not easy taking care of another woman’s children and managing to treat them like your own, but Gogo Mhizha has done that. People really appreciate what she does and we pray that one day she can find a big place and a donor who can help her provide the kids with everything they deserve,” said Sharon Mashave, a next-door neighbour.

“My wish is to get more and more people who can provide us with food, blankets and anything they can help us with to see that these children have a better life. We want them to be able to look forward to life and have a better future,” Mhizha explained.