We are Martin Karombe from Mutare in Zimbabwe and Nicole Karombe-Rott from Polling in Tirol (Austria). We are married since January 2015 and we have got two sons. In July 2017 we moved to Polling in Tirol. In the end of 2017 we founded the trust „Kurima – New life for Zimbabwe”. With this trust, we want to enable orphan and vulnerable children of Zimbabwe to a better life through farming. That’s why we chose the name “Kurima”, which means farming in shona.

For about five years, we lived and worked in a children’s home in the bush of Zimbabwe. Martin was employed as the administrator of the home. When I first got there, I helped as a volunteer and later on I was employed as communication and marketing assistant. In this children’s home, where we took care of 50 children, we learned and experienced a lot. After working closely with the children, we realized, what is crucial for these children to have success, or at least a chance in a developing country like Zimbabwe. They don’t only need to be educated. They also need to learn life skills.

Since the political situation seems to be changing positively, this the best time and a great opportunity to invest in this fertile country. Even though we live in Austria at the moment, we can’t just forget the situation and the poor children in Zimbabwe. We want to help them!

Countless Zimbabwean children live on the streets or they live in their parents’ huts who have passed away. They have to look after their siblings and take care of everything else as much as they can. These kids survive through begging, prostitution and stealing. Hence, they live with crime, sexual abuse and violence. Moreover, many of these children are HIV positive.

In Zimbabwe, 1.3 Million Aids-orphans have been estimated in 2009. All these children have lost their parents due to HIV and AIDS. Orphans who have lost their parents because of other reasons have not been included in this number. The poverty and extreme hopelessness forces many mothers to abandon their children and to leave the country.

We started the trust “Kurima” because of our heartbreaking experiences in Zimbabwe and our love for the children. We want to give vulnerable children the opportunity for a better life by educating them and by teaching them farming skills in order to grow up to self-sufficient adults.

With this trust we are raising money through different kind of events, like charity concerts, Christmas fairs, church services, presentations etc. We are always looking for sponsors and companies who would like to support our projects.

Our goal is to establish a farm with vegetable, cattle, goats and chicken. On the same property we are going to build a home for about 20 to 30 children. The home will sustain itself as much as possible through farming and will use the income of meat and vegetables for the children’s needs.

By teaching them life skills and farming skills, we will give these children the chance for a better future. Because they will be able to take care of themselves and their families when they leave the children’s home. For this project, we have established a detailed business plan, that is available for our sponsors. You can find out more about this project in “Faith Farm Children’s Home”.