Kutlwano Magazine

Of Zen and Ten Hirschfeld’s Ten Good Deeds

Source : Kutlwano

Author : Pako Lebanna

Location : Gaborone

Event : Profile

For Zenzele Hirschfeld, the young entrepreneur of Zen Promotions, she could not thank her host of supporters enough. So she embarked on a journey. In that journey she would pursue 10 good deeds. Each deed would represent every year that the nation supported her over the last 10 years, as she plodded through the terrain called entertainment industry.

So as the nation celebrated Christmas, declared good tidings and shared gifts, Zenzele had opportunity to proudly look back at a year in which she became a community builder, and touched the lives of the less privileged.

The significance of the number 10 cannot be more profound as Zen explains her endeavours at changing others` lives for the better. We are lounging in the Kutlwano visitors` room as she strings out the tens.

“I was born on the tenth month of the year; it has been ten years since my father passed away; I am a Christian who believes in the Ten Commandments, it has been ten years since I founded Zen Promotions,” she says, as she reclines on the sofa, “So I decided to pursue ten good deeds to help the needy.”

Deed one:

In the first deed, Zen Promotions built a house for folk musician, Taka Baponi, popularly known as Kotaeshele, one of the pioneers of post-independence popular musical expression.

A total of P28 000 was raised through a fundraising dinner and a sponsored walk towards the project. More pledges came, and Kweneng District Council (KDC) offered logistical support towards the project.

Deed two:

•Zen Promotions sponsored a table for 10 destitute elderly persons during the Kotaeshele fundraising dinner, and each of the destitute received grocery hampers worth P300.

Deed three

•Hosting a celebrity fundraising charity cup/fun day in Gaborone with BENO (a society for orphans, people with disabilities and the elderly) as the beneficiary.

Deed four

•A dinner by Zen Promotions on August 2, and the proceeds going towards a group of six visually-impaired young musicians called Lentswe La Batlhoka-pono;

Deed Five

•Attending to the needs of visually impaired musicians, including Anafiki Ditau, Solomon “Solly Oupar” Obert, Benjamin Moari, and Ontiretse “Screamer” Maidi, plus visit to Kgalagadi-based legendary folk artist, Andries Bok, spending a day with him, with grocery hampers delivered.

Deed six

• Along with sponsors, Car World, Motovac, Colour in the Desert and Sounds Unlimited on September 8, 2012 visted Maipitlhwane Primary School in Pitsane and assisted 21 children from Maphitlhwane, 10 elders with disabilities from Pitsane and Semphethe Day Care Centre in Good Hope.

Deed seven

•On September 22, 2012, Zen Promotions donated sports hampers to Zenzele`s former school, Marang Junior Secondary in Gaborone, and then donated toiletries to an orphanage in Gaborone.

Deed eight

•On October 25, 2012, Zenzele`s birthday at Botswana Craft, she spent the day with children.

And Zen`s last two acts of kindness which will happen this year:

Deed nine

Zen Promotions will host a gala dinner with 10 per cent of each ticket sale going towards the Poverty Eradication Fund,

Deed 10

Zen Promotions plans a huge gala dinner with the proposed guest being SA jazz legend Hugh Masekela. Zen will announce the beneficiary in due course.

You want to know what drives a young woman to such acts of kindness and she responds, “I am a Christian, I may no longer be active in church but I pray regularly, and my relationship with God has led me to assisting others,” Zenzele says, as if trying to make sense of her own magnanimity.

A pause, then, “This is a tough industry believe me! This has been about me taking a journey with God, and what better way to thank Him than by being there for people, the visually impaired, the elderly, the children, the people who make up the broader society that has been of assistance to me.”

Her work has been noted internationally. Hibiscus Women`s Group, a group of 10 women involved in community service in Tanzania, invited her to Dar es Salaam for the final week of November 2012 (26-30th), for networking and exchange of ideas. “In my initial interactions with them by phone they expressed pleasure at the work I do, and said they were happy that we have an African country where there was a government which was synchronising poverty eradication efforts,” she says.

Your typical woman about town, Zenzele takes seriously the country`s national vision, and wants to live the ideal of a compassionate, caring nation. You want to believe her bubbly personality has something to do with it. It is not every day that sponsors buy into an idea. She especially is thankful to Car World, for giving thrust to her 10 acts of kindness with a P20 000 sponsorship early in the year. ENDS