The Story of Grace & Nelly

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Stories are an integral part of Zimbabwean culture. They are how we educate our children about, how we communicate, and how we comfort and entertain each other. Very few Zimbabweans have never heard of Tsuro naGudo who have taught many Zimbabwean children the dangers of avarice and ignorance. Therefore, the story of the women that represent us as an organization is very important to share.

The name Grace & Nelly comes from the two women who embody what we as an organization aim to achieve. Born almost half a century before Zimbabwe achieved its independence both Grace & Nelly were second-class citizens in the country of their forefathers, a country that not only saw them as lesser because they were black but because they were also women. Despite the unfairness of the world they lived in, these two women worked hard to achieve independence for themselves and their children.

These two women could not be any more different but it is their differences that are the basis from which Grace & Nelly was formed.

Grace like many Zimbabwean women was strong and compassionate not because she had to be, but because she wanted to be. She had ten children who she taught that there was nothing more important in life than family. Even after her passing, her children have remained close and have helped each other through the most difficult of life’s challenges. After two of her children passed away, she took in their four children and raised them as her own. Not as a burden, not as the children of other women but as though they had always been her children.

She was a staunch Catholic in a country where men in high positions used religion and tradition to literally keep women in the kitchen, she managed to empower her female children and grandchildren.

Nelly is one of the fiercest women in Zimbabwe. At the age of 86, she still runs the shop that she and her husband opened when they got married. She believes that financial freedom brings with it the emancipation of women and children in the community. No matter what you accomplish in life, she encourages all women to be able to stand on their own two feet.

What We Do

OUR MISSION: Grace

  • GIVE girls a head start in achieving their goals

  • REDUCE poverty in the community by empowering children, particularly girls

  • ADVANCE girls' and women’s issues in the community

  • CULTIVATE an environment that allows for women and girls to be self-sufficient

  • EQUIP children with the tools they need to attain an education. 

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