Youth come to the rescue to volunteer with Equine Assisted Activities and Therapies for vulnerable children at Healing with Horses Therapeutic Centre, a PATH Intl. Centre in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

Millenials? Generation Y? Whichever title you want to give them, I think the youth of today are something extra special. I may be slightly biased as my children are part of this generation, as well as some pretty special nieces and nephews, but the more of the youth I meet these days, the more respect I have for them. As I get older, I have been waiting for the ‘In our days…’ mentality to come to me, but it hasn’t. Everywhere in the world, the youth seem to be stepping up to the plate, and showing more courage and spunk than any other generation I have come in contact with, they seem to care for the world and the human race as a whole, to see the bigger picture more than our generation ever did. (Won’t tell anyone which generation that is!) This week we experienced that caring at first hand. Last Saturday a delegation from Zim Youth SDG’s visited us, together with Emmanuel from Lovedale Foundation, for a tour and an orientation around our centre to see who we are and what we do. These young people represent children and youths with disabilities in Zimbabwe, and all sorts of other areas of life. It was amazing to see these young children addressing these issues so confidently and with so much confidence and respect. We were happy to see that our program touched their hearts, and that they took the orientation seriously, and came up with all sorts of thought provoking questions for us here at Healing with Horses Zimbabwe.

However we have had many groups visit and undergo orientations, never to be seen again. So we were most touched to see these young people attend two of our weekly sessions this last week. They thoroughly enjoyed their time with the extraordinary children we serve here at Healing with Horses Therapeutic Centre, and it took a load off our shoulders, and those of our ever faithful volunteers, staff and ponies, to have these young and enthusiastic muscles at our disposal. We also had a couple of new faces from the Bulawayo community, as well as some new KGVI staff joining our sessions, and it was a welcome relief from the one to four, sometimes zero, volunteers we had last year. We are so grateful to all the volunteers who give their time to us so freely, especially in the difficult times of finding fuel, time and transport, and the same people stretch themselves across our board of sessions, but it is impossible to dedicate every day to Healing with Horses, and so we are so grateful to these young people who have jumped in to volunteer time and energy to Healing with Horses, it will be a welcome relief for our ever faithfuls. We are so grateful to you all and hope that you continue to bless us with your support.