AFTER NEARLY A DECADE IN THE UNITED STATES, ELIZABETH MHANGAMI (BA ’07) RETURNED TO ZIMBABWE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE


By ANASTASIA BUSIEK


C OF THE CHILDREN


SOIL THE 10 YEARS I LIVED HERE WERE SPENT


Elizabeth Mhangami (BA ‘07) founded Vanavevhu, an organization dedicated to helping children orphaned by the AIDS pandemic in her home country of Zimbabwe.


figuring out how to get back home,” says Elizabeth Mhangami (BA ’07). Mhangami moved from her hometown of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, to the United States in 1999, a year after her high school graduation. She moved back to Bulawayo in 2009, where she now works as the founder and executive director of Vanavevhu, an organization that assists children orphaned by the AIDS pandemic. Vanavevhu, which means “children of the soil,” is based


in Chicago, although it operates in Bulawayo. The seed of the idea that became Vanavevhu had started to grow in Mhangami’s mind in 2003. That year, through the Rotary club in Chicago, Mhangami organized an effort to send medical supplies to Zimbabwe in light of the country’s mounting political and economic troubles. “It was important to me to be involved in what was going


on at home,” says Mhangami. “I was a citizen in the diaspora with access to resources.”


CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE 12 LOYOLA UNIVERSIT Y CHICAGO


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