A U.S. citizen, DENNIS GABOURY, 58, has been living and working with orphans in Bulawayo since 2006. From 2005 to the present he developed and ran the city-wide toy competition that would later evolve into the Zimkids Orphan Trust. During the same period he was the architect of another orphan project centered in Nketa, Bulawayo, 2007 – 2009.  A sculptor, he nonetheless holds an undergraduate degree in Special Education and a Masters in Business Administration. 

PROSPER MHODI, 17, lives in a two-bedroom house with his grandmother and grandfather, uncle, two sisters and one brother. An aspiring artist, he fixes shoes to help his family survive. One of the first children to benefit from ZimKids, he now volunteers his time to the group. Prosper teaches drawing, comics and coaches our boys soccer team.

SIPHO NYONI, 41, was born and raised in Pumula North, where she still lives. Her involvement with ZimKids grew out of her work with Bambanani Orphan Group, which she founded and ran on her own with no compensation. The mother of two, Sipho lost her son in 2002 and her husband to AIDS in 2005. Herself HIV positive, Sipho has four years of education and was pulled out of school because her mother, a single parent, could no longer afford to pay her fees.

TINASHE BASA, 20, grew up hard, dumped at the age of two by his mother with relatives in a rural area, sick for a full year when he was five with malnutrition, and pulled out of school at the age of 15 and sent to work in the tobacco fields. Nonetheless, he managed to put himself through the rest of secondary school by his own efforts and reached out to volunteer at the orphan project Dennis developed in Nketa in 2007.

ADRIAN SUSKIN, 52, born and raised in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, currently resides in Baltimore, Maryland. He is a senior pilot (B757/767 captain) with UPS (United Parcel Service). Although Adrian left Africa many years ago, Africa never left him. During numerous trips to Zimbabwe, Adrian has brought clothes and food to the needy. He has recently turned to fundraising for Zimkids.