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Intellectually challenged man overcomes incredible odds
National Association of Societies for the Care of the Handicapped (NASCOH)
Extracted from Disability Update, Sept 29 - Oct 06, 2006
October 02, 2006

Wilson Mapere is living proof of Zimcare’s ability to turn children with intellectual abilities, who society would have written off as ‘basket cases’ and ‘good for nothing’, into responsible and productive citizens who can hold demanding jobs and perform even better than their able-bodied colleagues who would have grown up used to the care and attention and all the niceties and trappings provided in conventional family settings.

Anyone coming to the Eskbank Daisy Fresh vegetable shop at the Zimcare Trust head Office in Milton Park Harare will be suitably impressed by Wilson’s pleasant personality, his facility with the English language, his willingness to help customers do their shopping in a hassle-free manner, his handy knowledge of the different vegetables that customers may require and his boundless energy. Even the most discerning customer would have a very hard time detecting that this very engaging and helpful shop assistant who has superlative customer relations skills is intellectually challenged.

Daisy Fresh supervisor, Willard Kadumba, had nothing but praise for his subordinate, who has become the toast of every customer visiting the shop. ‘We have an excellent working relationship. As long as I am still at Eskbank, I don’t want to work with anyone else. He is very polite, energetic and likeable. Customers like him very much and if he goes on leave, sales go down. He has very good customer relations’.

Wilson has been working at the shop as shop assistant for 12 years now and his duties include helping customers, general cleaning and taking care of his own shelf all by himself – duties which he has performed with commendable expertise for over a decade. It is a measure of his persevering and indomitable spirit that although he can converse intelligently in English when serving the predominantly white clientele, Wilson has no formal education, and cannot even read the English that he speaks passably well.

Wilson Mapere was born on 5 December, 1974 in a family of three boys and one girl and grew up in Mabvuku. He and his brother were so intellectually challenged, however, that the community erroneously believed that they had downs syndrome. Due to this intellectual challenge, Wilson was denied the opportunity to go to school. The only school that he went to was David Livingstone Primary School and this was only for exercises to rectify the locomotive problems that he had with his arms. He and his brother were subsequently carted off to the rural areas where they stayed with their aunt for a long time.

When Wilson eventually came back to town, he was sent to Tinokureva Zimcare School in Mabvuku where he learnt to do gardening and vegetable growing. From there, Wilson was sent to Zambuko Workshop near Harare Hospital where he learnt to do welding and where he also learnt to make stoves, hoes, shovels and gardening implements for sale. From Zambuko, he moved on to Zimcare Trust Head office where he started off by cutting down trees along with his colleagues Pondai and Mutandwa, before he was subsequently invited to come and work at the shop. He started off on a welfare basis but the owner of the shop was impressed by his passion for work and decided to pay him a competitive wage. Wilson has never looked back ever since and has endeared himself to his clients through sheer hard work and good customer relations. Although he used to take drugs to calm down his condition, his bosses say there is no longer need for him to take tablets because his condition has improved remarkably.

The management of Daisy Fresh Shop rent the shop from Zimcare Trust. In addition to giving a certain percentage of their profits every month to Zimcare Trust, the shop also makes donations to various homes run by Zimcare Trust every Tuesday.

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