Dr Alfred Chidembo Leads Communities Away From a Cycle of Poverty

Impact, defined by Dr. Alfred Chidembo…

“My heart is full when I hear of kids being able to read and having access to books.

Success therefore can simply be one child learning how to read, a young girl passing their primary school leaving exams and going to secondary school avoiding early marriage.

It could be a school leaver in the community getting access to books and being able to go further with their education taking them away from drugs and crime.

It could be a mother having access to books that she can read out loud to her unborn child.

A father being able to learn a new farming method from a book in the library and implementing the knowledge to have a better harvest.

It could be a retired grandfather or grandmother going into the library and reading his/her favourite stories.

This is my vision of what having an impact looks like.

It is about changing lives and giving hope to communities that are marginalised” – Dr. Alfred Chidembo.

Dr Alfred Chidembo is the Founder and Director of Aussie Books for Zim, a Wollongong-run initiative designed to provide education and reading materials to communities in rural Zimbabwe. As two Wollongong-based start-ups we collaborated to refurbish the Chisuma library. We continue to follow Alfred and his journey of impact as he teaches us the immeasurable value of education.

When we asked Alfred what having an impact meant to him, this is what he shared.

Raw, Beautiful Stories of Impact

Once Upon a Time

Alfred’s own journey to found ABZ is nothing short of inspiring. We were very thankful to get a glimpse into the beginnings of this initiative.

“The idea [to found ABZ] came at a time when I had completed my PhD at the University of Wollongong.

“I looked back on my life journey and thought of where I started off as a six year old walking barefoot to school. My school, Mavhurazi Primary School did not have enough books for kids to read.

“We relied on the teacher to read out loud to us.

“I realised that this was still the case not only at Mavhurazi Primary School but at many rural schools in Zimbabwe.

“This prompted me to start collecting books for my former school. Our goal was to collect 2000 books but we ended up shipping over 30,000 books in our first shipment. My wife and I then decided to form a charity to help more children in rural Zimbabwe to get access to reading books,” says Chidembo.

Exceptional people, making Impact.

Follow his journey here.