Trucaf Zimbabwe was formed by a group of students from the University of  Zimbabwe's faculty of social studies.The students carried out a research survey on the development and treatment of  the ARC diseases.Unfortunately , at the end of the research project one of the group members was diagnosed as having had been infected by the HIV virus. His name was Israel Desmond Kudya, and he died a little over ten years later after having become a full-blown Aids condition.

 

The death of a colleague and the daily experiences of having to witness the escalating losses of friends , families, and acquaintances motivated the group to do more for the children affected and or infected by the Aids virus. To begin with ,the death of a dear colleague , was both devastating as well as it was sobering to all of us. However, it became the stimulus we needed in order to do more for the disadvantaged children who were affected or infected by HIV/AIDS in our country. Therefore , The Rural Child Aids Foundation of Zimbabwe( Trucaf Zimbabwe) was formed , primarily to do the following:

 

-1.Assist the young rural folk affected directly or indirectly by HIV/Aids with food, shelter, clothing,and medicines.

-2.Carry out massive educatonal campaigns in the fight against AIDS and social behavior associated with or likely to lead to infection with the HIV virus.

-3.Provide educational, training and recreational facilities to victims of the pandemic.

-4. Set up rural community centers for the rehabilitation of Aids orphans and patients as well as providing the affected youths with survival skills to start and manage income-generating projects. 

 

This was our little effort because we were desperate to the save lives of our fellow country people. Although Trucaf Zimbabwe recieved and continues to get increasing requests to provide in needy situations, the resources of the organization have dwindled and the few donors that were making grants and donations available to the foundation relocated to other countries owing to the unstable political environment in Zimbabwe over the past seven years. To this date Zimbabwe's political climate remains a sow talking point in the corridors of international human rights organizations. There is no end in sight to the problems bedevilling that once-economically- powerful African country. 

 

Notwithstanding the above situations , the founders of Trucaf  Zimbabwe decided to broaden the scope of the organization inorder to reach out to the world community. We started creating  linkages and associations with other NGOs in the Southern African region. In Mozambique , for example , we merged with the Manica People's Society, a group whose mission and goals were fairly similar to those of Trucaf Zimbabwe, and we christened the charity entity, Trucaf Mozamabique in July 1999. In Malawi, in following November , we established a working partnership with the Zomba Umoja  Organization (Z.O.U). Our association with ZOU meant that we had to recruit and  train management to lead a modern non-profit organization to deal with the Aids pandemic in the southern districts of Malawi.The focus and goals of the organization were immediately changed from what was basically a burial society to becoming a properly managed anti-AIDS non-governmental organization. The name of the organization was ,subsequently, changed to reflect the new thrust in leadership and perspective and it became Trucaf Malawi led by Dr Julius Banda, a well-known paediatrician in Malawi. Similar developments are underway in Kenya, Swaziland and Uganda . As is expected , Trucaf will continue to expand into all of the African continent.

 

As a chosen strategy to reach out to the whole world, we decided to bring all the national branches under one continental grouping, The Rural Child Aids Foundation of  Africa, (TRUCAF AFRICA). 

 

We are convinced this vehicle will be better able to harness some of the few worldly resources available and put them to maximum use. Besides, we decided we had to brand our organization and its affiliates differently so that our efforts are clearly discernible to enable to anyone across the globe to see that Africans can harness,control and manage the process of social change without the long-documented historical pitfalls of inefficiency, impropriety, and corruption. To this end , TRUCAF AFRICA, will not meddle in the politics of the different geographicl polities we will be operating in.  Our efforts must be construed only in the context of helping our neighbours on the continent to live and make their choices as we all fight the spread of Aids.Trucaf Africa's helping hand stops at the point when someone can live independent of our assistance, and we do not meddle in local , state or  national politics by aiding or abetting their decision-making processes when it comes to political issues.

 

Whenever possible we attempt to work with the co-operation of local governments and we will always respect and abide by the laws of the different countries within which we operate.After all, ours is an organization led , operated and benefitting the African youths, in particular, and the African people in general.