A small boxing academy helping street children in Victoria Falls has inspired an award-winning short featuring Hollywood actor Tongayi Chirisa
T
obias Mupfuti was eight years old when he found himself homeless and living on the streets of Victoria Falls after his father had rejected him and his mother was too poor to feed or clothe him or send him to school. He survived on food handouts from tourists shopping in the Zimbabwean resort town.
Four years later, sick of being bullied and threatened, he asked a boxing coach to teach him the sport for self-defence – a decision that changed his life for ever.
Today, Mupfuti is running the Victoria Falls Boxing Academy, training underprivileged children and sending them to school in a story that inspired the first Zimbabwean film to be considered for an Oscar.
