This story was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center.
MUTARE, ZIMBABWE — The expecting mothers ushered their roommate Tinashe Mawondo to the hospital at Old Mutare Mission center, mere paces from a ward where the pregnant women live.
The group of 10 women surrounded Mawondo to pray for her and then picked up her belongings and sent her off to new beginnings.
“It’s a very friendly environment,” Charity Chimanimani, an expecting mother, said in an interview in Shona, a local language spoken in many parts of Zimbabwe. “We have taught each other unity and to give each other kind words.”
The women cook for one another and help teach each other sewing. They don’t pay a cent for lodging or food.
